About me

I am a game culture researcher who studies digital games and gaming as a part of culture and society. I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and Main Research Coordinator at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University, Finland. I am part of the Tampere University Game Research Lab (Gamelab) research team.

I defended my doctoral dissertation Gender and game cultural agency in the post-gamer era: Finnish women players’ gaming practices, game cultural participation, and rejected gamer identity (University of Turku, Finland) in June 2022.

My research is primarily focused on the themes of equity, cultural participation, and cultural agency in digital gaming and esports, particularly from the perspective of women players.

My newest research project ‘Equity in Esports’ concerns cultural and social sustainability of esports, looking into questions of equity, inclusivity, and accessibility in this area. This project is a collaboration with Dr. Maria Ruotsalainen (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) and Dr. Matilda Ståhl (Åbo Akademi University, Finland).

I serve as the Chairperson of The Finnish Association for Game Research (2023), a board member and Diversity & Equality Committee member of the international Esports Research Network (2023), and an editorial board member for The Finnish Yearbook of Game Studies (since 2015). I am the first editor of peer-reviewed research collection Pelit kulttuurina (‘Games as culture’, Vastapaino 2022).