CTVA Professor Leads CSUF into the World of Gaming
Professor Shelley Murray, the CSUF professor who finally brought video games to the CTVA department.
Written by Gregory FerraroPhotographed by Gregory Ferraro for ProComm Magazine
As it ran in print
Cal State Fullerton is expanding its Cinema and Television Arts curriculum into gaming, turning what was once a single elective into a developing academic track that reflects the scale and influence of the industry. The shift comes as video games continue to outpace film and music combined. The expansion is being led by lecturer Shelley Murray, who has taught in the department for more than three decades. When the program’s only gaming course was nearly cut after its original creator retired, she stepped in to keep it alive.
“The faculty talked about possibly just dropping the course altogether, and I spoke up and said, ‘I think it’s more important than ever that we actually pursue this, not let it die,’”
Murray then inherited Video Games and Storytelling, a class that worked to cover history, technology, narrative analysis and game mechanics all at once. She quickly realized the department needed more than a single catch-all course which led to the creation of Evolution of Video Games, which she is teaching for the second time this semester, as well as a new course launching in fall 2026, The Video Game Industry. “We’re going to be looking at how the industry is structured, who answers to whom, how things get made, everything from the research and development process through distribution and marketing through all development phases of the game,” she said.
Game storytelling now crosses into film and television, highlighting the need to understand how games themselves are produced. Through her work, Murray has unintentionally battled the gender divide that has long shaped gaming culture. She traces many of the issues to early marketing decisions and decades of messaging that framed games as a male space, but rejects that framing entirely.
“The idea that the technology, the gameplay itself, or that being involved in a game or having interest in video games is just for one group of people makes no sense at all,”
Murray has been a gamer for years, beginning with the first home console, the Magnavox Odyssey. She now brings those vintage systems to class so students can see the hardware that shaped the industry.
“I brought in an old VCS and the Atari 2600 with a bunch of games just so they could look at the cartridges. Some of them were like, ‘Can I take pictures?’” she said. What began as a single course on the brink of disappearing is now the foundation of a growing academic pathway. With Murray driving the expansion, CTVA is diving into a space that’s redefining how stories are built, shared and experienced.
The feature, as ProComm posted it
