People

About me

I am a game and esports culture researcher currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Game Research Lab and the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland.

I defended my doctoral dissertation (monograph) titled Gender and game cultural agency in the post-gamer era: Finnish women players’ gaming practices, game cultural participation, and rejected gamer identity for the University of Turku in June 2022. I have also published 14 peer-reviewed research articles in edited collections from Palgrave Macmillan and Routledge and in journals such as Games and Culture and Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports. I am the first editor of the peer-reviewed research collection Pelit kulttuurina (Games as culture) published by Vastapaino in 2022.

My research is focused on topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as cultural participation and agency in digital gaming and esports. I explore these topics as experienced by people participating in these cultures – especially as women and representatives of other marginalised participant groups – but also from structural and organisational perspectives. My aim is to create new, research-based knowledge and practices in close collaboration with stakeholders in the field to initiate positive change.

I serve as the President of The Finnish Society for Game Research (the Finnish DiGRA chapter) and a diversity board member for the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA).

About me

I am a game and esports culture researcher currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Game Research Lab and the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland.

I defended my doctoral dissertation in education titled Community, Diversity and Visuality –an ethno-case study on constructing identities and becoming legitimate participants in online/offline communities for Åbo Akademi University, Finland, in December 2021. I have also published fifteen peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters in journals such as Game Studies and Journal of Electronic Gaming and Esports and edited volumes such as Esports Research and Its Integration in Education and Ethics, Ethnography and Education.

My research is focused on game communities, how the participants interact within these and how norms are shaped in and by these communities. These norms in turn impact who is included and excluded within the communities, which connects to the work on diversity, equity, and inclusion in esports I do together with Dr Usva Friman. I primarily employ ethnographic methods in my research and therefore find it important to participate in academic methodological discussions as well, especially regarding doing ethnography online.