Dr Xavier Ho

Xavier is an award-winning queer researcher, artist, designer, and curator focusing on the queer independent games community. He is a first-generation Taiwanese migrant living in Bunurong Country, southeast of Naarm–Melbourne, Australia. His research investigates LGBTQIA+ narratives in videogames and tabletop games through designs, archives, interviews, and exhibitions. He is a Lecturer in Interaction Design at Monash Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) and a Visiting Fellow to the inaugural Hunt-Simes Institute in Sexuality Studies at the Sydney Social Sciences and Humanities Advanced Research Centre. He serves on the Board of Digital Games Research Association of Australia (DiGRA Australia) as an Elected Member. He runs an independent creative videography studio, Jump to Glide.

His professional accolades include leading the curation of the Good Design Award in Social Impact winner, Pride at Play, designing and implementing the front-end of Early Algal Warning System, Finalist of Victoria Premier's Design Award, and creating the generative projection Infinite Colours, Finalist of Midsumma Art Prize. Xavier received the inaugural CSIRO Medal for Diversity and Inclusion for raising awareness of LGBTQIA+ communities in the organisation. In 2023, the Australian Broadcast Corporation selected him as part of the ABC TOP 5 Arts media residency program.

He has exhibited at the Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney Footbridge Gallery, Queen Victoria Market, Carlisle Street Arts Space, Victorian Pride Centre, and Tin Sheds Gallery. He has published in Public Books titled "Queer Lives Are Not Side Quests" with Dr Cody Mejeur, The Conversation, and Bloomsbury Handbook on Games and Sex/Sexuality (forthcoming). Media coverage includes ABC Arts, ABC Radio National, Kotaku Australia, GamesHub, Checkpoint Gaming, Triple J Hack, Triple R, What Happens Next, Monash Lens, and Concrete Playground.

The wide-range gamut of public art, games research, and written essays in the portfolio and researcher profile demonstrates an ongoing desire for making queer games visible and accessible to the public. Xavier is specifically interested in examining how videogames and tabletop games are vital means of queer expression in the Asia Pacific region. In his free time, he trains with a musical theatre vocalist, bakes delicious sourdoughs, and attends furry conventions with his boyfriend.

Image: photography by Cherine Fahd and Pamela Pirovic.

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