Mr César Albarrán Torres

PhD Candidate, University of Sydney (Thesis: Encoding Chance: a technocultural analysis of digital poker practices), awarded the IPRS/APA scholarship
Master of Digital Communications and Culture with Merit, University of Sydney
Bachelor of Communication Sciences, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.

César Albarrán Torres is a PhD Candidate and Teaching Fellow at the Digital Cultures Program, University of Sydney, where he is a tutor and guest lecturer in Cyberworlds and Technocultures.

César was born in Mexico City, where he completed a BA in Communication Sciences at the Tec de Monterrey (2001). Once he completed his studies, Dr Octavio Islas, head of the Internet Project at the Tec de Monterrey, invited him to co-author two books, Reality shows: un instante de fama (2003) and Internet: columna vertebral de la sociedad de la información (2005).

César worked in the FX industry before moving to Toulouse as part of a cultural exchange program between the governments of France and Mexico (2002-03). Upon his return to Mexico City, he worked in the publishing industry in diverse academic and non-academic projects; among them, he was the subeditor (2008-2011) of Istor, a history journal published by the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica, one of Latin America’s leading research institutions. From 2003 to 2009, he was the Editor of Cine PREMIERE, one ofLatin America’s best-selling magazines. In 2007, as online Editor-in-Chief, he developed and launched its website, www.cinepremiere.com.mx, which currently has over 400,000 followers in its social media sites. He is still one of the magazine’s film critics.

In 2010 he completed the Master of Digital Communication and Culture at the University of Sydney with a dissertation on the social media personae created for Barack Obama by the White House communication office and Organizing for America during the Healthcare Reform Debate. In 2011 he started his PhD under the supervision of Dr Chris Chesher. His research delves into the digitisation of poker in online casinos and Electronic Gaming Machines, and the nomadic cultures andmeaning-creating processes that revolve around this media shift.

Research Interests

• His current research delves into the cultures that form around the digitisation of poker in online casinos and Electronic Gaming Machines.
• Other research interests include cross-platform television narratives, download culture and the construction of political personae in online realms.