People

About me

I’m a professor of game culture studies and serve as a co-leader of the Tampere University Game Research Lab. My publications cover e.g. local game development cultures, creative labor, user-generated content, and player cultures. My latest book Game Production Studies (Amsterdam University Press, 2021) edited with Jan Švelch is the first anthology dedicated solely to critical analysis of video game production.

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’m Taina Myöhänen, researching diversity in the Finnish game industry as part of the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University. Prior to the research, I worked in the game industry, starting there first time in 2006. During my years in the industry, I was involved in initiatives making the game industry more inclusive, like a co-founder and the first chair of DEI organisation We in Games Finland, and a member of the Finnish Game Industry Task Force preventing sexual harassment. I’ve been nominated for GI’s Game Changers 100 list in 2020, and received the Power Player of the Year award for the work on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Finnish game industry.

About me

I am a PhD researcher at Tampere University affiliated with Game Research Lab and the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies. I have a Master’s Degree in Social Services and am currently learning more about being a researcher in academia through the PEGASUS-project. Over the years I have worked in child protective services, schools, municipal youth work and DEI-related projects. In my day-to-day work, I’ve specialized in digital youth work and game education, with the goal of building sustainable and safer game communities for young people. I have extensive experience with esports, working with neurodivergent and disabled gamers, creating safer spaces for LGBTQIA+ gamers, service counseling, content creation and game/media education.

About me

I am a PhD researcher at Tampere University affiliated with Game Research Lab and the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies. My PhD work aims to understand how streaming culture has affected game culture participation of children and especially girls’ gaming.

About me

I am a co-leader of the Tampere University Game Research Lab with its over 50 externally funded game research projects, and acts as the Director of Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies.