Nicholas Taylor

Nicholas (Nick) Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Media Studies at York University, part of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. Previously, he served as Director of the PhD program in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media at North Carolina State University (2008–2018), where he earned tenure in 2018. His research focuses on gendered politics in gaming/esports, media practices of creative industries (e.g., building-block artists), and the intersections of masculinity with digital play. Key contributions include Masculinities in Play (2018) and LEGOfied: Building Blocks as Media (2020).

Recent work explores spectatorship in esports, embodied gendered practices in gaming communities, and the cultural labor of convention organizers. In 2022–23, he held a Högskolestiftelsen Research Fellowship at Åbo Akademi University in Finland, studying media ecologies of game industry events. His interdisciplinary approach combines critical theory with ethnographic methods to analyze professionalized leisure cultures.

Publications span New Media & Society, Critical Studies in Media Communication, and special journal issues on esports equity. Current projects investigate queer gaming experiences and materiality in creative media practices. Teaching and advising emphasize digital ethnography and media industry studies.