Dr. Jack Denham is an Associate Professor of Social Sciences at York St John University.
His research interests focus on the consumption of crime; on video games, digital culture, and education.
His PhD, at University of York, considered ‘murderabilia’, studying how objects associated with famous crimes and criminals are valued by their collectors, producers and exhibitors. After that, focus shifted to memorials – where his book, Death, Memorialization and Deviant Spaces introduced the term ‘difficult dead’, used to consider the problematic preservation of dead criminals, from dark tourism, to memorial, to community identity. Most recently, this interest has turned towards video games – exploring how violence is consumed in play.
In the past few years his work has focused on the sociology of video games, how social interaction is lived in virtual spaces, and how social inequalities are reproduced or addressed in virtual media. He is co-leader of the investigate.games research group, and Associate Dean for Social Sciences at York St John University.
Jack Denham 