Justin.wigard

Justin Wigard (pronounced “Why-Guard”) is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Distant Viewing Lab at University of RIchmond, where he works and teaches in the areas of popular culture, game studies, comic studies, children’s literature, and digital humanities.

He is co-editor of Attack of the New B Movies: Essays on SYFY Original Films (McFarland Press, 2022), the first academic treatment of SYFY Channel’s original films, including Sharknado (2013), 2 Lava 2 Lantula (2016), Frankenfish (2004), and more.

Justin's current wikidata work involves creating new items for marginalized comics creators and cartoonists, as well as enriching existing items for such creators to be as rich as canonical creators.

His article on visual parody and pulp signifiers in Calvin and Hobbes was awarded a 2021 Honorable Mention for Best Article from the Comics Studies Society. He has further published on popular representations of race, representation, gender, and sexuality in visual forms, including the Hallmark Channel’s Garage Sale Mystery film series; professional wrestling and Street Fighter; chronotopal representations of feminism in Marvel’s Jessica Jones; monstrous motherhood in Neil Gaiman’s Coraline; and the transmission of ludemes across video games in the Jurassic Park and X-Men: The Animated Series properties.

Justin’s dissertation, Level 101: A Video Game About Video Games, is a video game that he has developed which explores, explains, and interrogates the medium through a methodology of play.