April Salchert is a PhD student at the University of Otago in the Department of English and Linguistics. She has received an M.A. in English Literature from Uppsala University and B.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her current project, Encounters with the Other in Digital Fiction, examines how authors of digital fiction express Otherness, and how digital fiction may provoke or prevent empathy for the marginalized Other. This project also critically examines the ethical limits and dangers of designating digital media as a tool to generate empathy for marginalized Others. Interests include digital fiction, game studies, postcolonial studies, gender studies, and the digital humanities. Free time is spent learning Javascript, going to ballet class, or watching Netflix (currently watching the original Star Trek series).