Ryan Banfi

Dissertation

Title: Pinball: A Social History of an American Amusement

Supervisor: Dana Polan

Drawing on ludology, gambling theory, narratology, and reception studies, my dissertation investigates pinball’s past by tracking and analyzing the game’s stages in the context of U.S. history.

Bio

Ryan Banfi is a PhD Candidate in The Martin Scorsese Cinema Studies at New York University Tisch School of the Arts. He is a Corrigan Fellow at NYU, and he is a Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar. Ryan has been published in Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (forthcoming) Critical Inquiry, Jump Cut (forthcoming), Contexts (forthcoming), Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Television & New Media, New Review of Film and Television Studies (forthcoming), The International Journal of James Bond Studies, Games and Culture, Game Studies, Mediapolis, Flow Online Journal, Studies in European Cinema, and In Media Res. Ryan is on the editorial board of Games and Culture.

Publications:

Edited Journal Special Issues

• “Teaching Game Studies.” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies (JCMS), Teaching Media. Edited and introduced by Ryan Banfi (forthcoming 2025).

Refereed Articles

• “Public Pinball: A Photo Essay.” (2024). Contexts. Forthcoming. 
• “Chris Ware’s New Yorker Covers: Reading the School Shootings Triptych.” (2024). Critical Inquiry.
• “‘Is this where the Jew butchered that poor woman?’: Antisemitism in Alan Moore’s From Hell.” (2024). Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics.
• “Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem as Metacommentary: Direct Address in Video Games.” Jump Cut. (forthcoming 2025). 
• “Disco Pinball: Declining Games and Depression in Disco Elysium.” (2024). Games and Culture. Reprinted in Kineticist. 
• “Unplayable: Why Video Games Can’t and Won’t be Played.” (2024). Television & New Media.
  
• “Becoming Bond: The Player’s Perspective in 007 Electronic Games.” (2024). The International Journal of James Bond Studies.
  
• “Guilty of Being a Dwarf: Peter Dinklage and American Fantasy Television.” New Review of Film and Television Studies. (forthcoming, Winter 2024). 
• “Gaming I, II, and III: Arcades, Video Game Systems, and Modern Game Streaming Services.” (2023). Games and Culture.
  
• “‘Authentic’ Cityscapes and Violence in The Last of Us Part II.” (2022). Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture 7(3).
  
• “Ellie’s Journal: Para-Narratives in The Last of Us Part II.” (2022). Game Studies, 22(3).
  
• “Toward a Study of Pinball.” (2022). Games and Culture, vol. 17, no. 7-8, 931–953.
  
• “Unplayable: Why Games Can’t and Won’t be Played.” (2022). Making Sense of Games.
  

Book Chapters

• “Pinball Playfields: Mapping Heavy Metal” in Mark J.P. Wolf’s book Navigating Imaginary Worlds: Wayfinding and Subcreation. (Routledge, Spring 2025). 
• “Genesis in Lincoln, MA: The Creation of Bill and Frank in ‘Long, Long Time’” in Theology and The Last of Us: Violence, Ethics, Redemption? (Rowman & Littlefield Press, June 2024).