Office Hours
Fall 2023:
10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Tues/Thurs
Streaming online once a week (usually Friday mornings) at twitch.tv/mwknutson
Curriculum Vitae
Websites
Biography
Dr. Matt Knutson (he/him) researches and teaches classes on esports, or competitive gaming. As director of UND's academic program in Esports, Dr. Knutson ("Dr. K" for short) manages the Esports curriculum and helps facilitate internship opportunities while coordinating with UND's competitive and intramural esports efforts.
Originally from the Twin Cities, Dr. Knutson taught high school English for three years before going back to school to pursue his doctorate. He studied competitive gaming at UC Irvine in the Visual Studies program, writing his dissertation on the temporality of esports. Prior to coming to UND, Dr. Knutson taught at the University of Central Oklahoma for three years in their Department of Mass Communication.
Dr. Knutson's most recent research projects focus on overlooked aspects in the history (and pre-history) of esports, such as the short-lived Magic Pro League for Magic: The Gathering. This work was published in 2023 in the collection of essays Beyond the Deck from McFarland Press. He has presented work at the Game Developers Conference and at the Annual Conference for the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and his work has been published in the journal Game Studies.
Dr. Knutson's personal favorite esports to play are Super Smash Bros. Melee and Rocket League, and he plays Magic both on tabletop and on MTG Arena. Outside of the classroom, Dr. Knutson is a father of two, and much of his gaming day-to-day is with them as they play games such as Pokemon, Hogwarts Legacy, and Untitled Goose Game. He also plays Ultimate and is an amateur musician.
Esports and Healthy Gaming
Introduction to Game Studies
Intro to Esports
Esports Ethics
Smash Bros. (Esports participation class)
Game studies, gender and sexuality in digital spaces, media temporality, media studies, and esport studies.
Esports Production (Forthcoming chapter in The Routledge Handbook of Esports, Taylor & Francis)
“Shout-Outed: Pronoun Hazards in Live-Streamed Esports Events (A Conversation with Sasha ‘Magi’ Sullivan)” Life in Real Time: Live Streaming Culture, MIT Press
“Wasn’t in the Cards: The Proto-Esport of Professional Magic” Beyond the Deck: Critical Essays on Magic: The Gathering and Its Influences, McFarland
"Imagery use in esports: future research directions and unique considerations" in Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity 18(s1) (with Sandra Moritz)
“Living By the Code: Drafting and Enacting Community Guidelines for a More Inclusive Esports Environment” (proceedings to UC Irvine Esports Conference 2019)
"Backtrack, Pause, Rewind, Reset: Queering Chrononormativity in Gaming" in Game Studies. https://gamestudies.org/1803/articles/knutson
PhD in Visual Studies (2020) UC Irvine
MA in English (2014) Boston College
MEd in Secondary Language Arts (2009) UMN Twin Cities
BA in English (2007) UW Madison