Tampere University
Johan Kalmanlehto (PhD) is a researcher focusing on the intersections of philosophical theories, aesthetics and game studies. In his work, he has investigated subjectivity, self-formation, and aesthetics of rhythm, agency and playstyle. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5311-6096
Johanna Koljonen (MA) is a doctoral researcher at the Tampere University Game Research Lab, studying the design of experiences, human encounters, and games within Nordic Larp design discourse within the Horizon EU project Larpocracy. Her professional background is most recently in media analysis and consulting focused on the transformations of the audiovisual media industries. She is a also a theorist of Nordic larp, and the co-founder of a boutique consulting agency advising cultural institutions and producing participatory events. Her latest book is Larp Design: Creating Role-Play Experiences (2019), for which she was lead editor. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5108-887X
University of Jyväskylä
Raine Koskimaa, PhD, is a Professor of Contemporary Culture Studies at the University of Jyväskylä. He conducts research in the fields of game studies, digital literature, transmedia storytelling and digital culture. Koskimaa has published widely, especially on digital culture and digital literature, and his writings have been translated to several languages. He is a long time member of the ELO Literary Advisory Board and the Board of Reviewers for Game Studies. His current research interests are eSports, games and transmedia, and time and temporality in digital fiction.
Dr. Marko Siitonen is a Professor of Intercultural and Digital Communication at the Department of Language and Communication Studies, University of Jyväskylä. His research interests focus on understanding the dynamics of players of games – their experiences and perceptions, and the way they construct a shared reality within the sphere of game cultures. Over the years, he has also done research on a variety of other topics, such as newsgames and the use of games and simulations in intercultural education. He has been the chair of the Finnish Society for Game Research, as well as the ECREA section for Digital Games Research.
Ville Malinen is a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä. He is currently finishing his dissertation that concentrates on the interaction and future between motor sports and simulated racing as a form of competitive gaming in the field of media sports. Malinen is specialized in the media relationship of motorsports. He is currently interested in the cultural significance of driving games and involved in different game research and media studies projects. Malinen's interests in his works include for example simulation theory, critical cultural theory and critical discourse analysis as well the concepts of identity, representation, spectacle, consumerism, and the synergy between different forms of capital and societal power.
Veli-Matti Karhulahti works in the Centre of Excellence as a Senior Researcher, primary contributing to the Meaning and Form in Games unit in University of Jyväskylä. At the same time, he also works as an Adjunct Professor of Play and Games in University of Turku. As to research areas and interests, Karhulahti’s work fluctuates both methodologically and thematically, constantly charting unmapped avenues of practice and substance. His present projects center around Addictions, Asian play(fulness), Cognitive Theory, Esports, Psycholudic development, Puzzles/riddles, and Romantic/sexual play. Methods-wise, he is currently solving the problems of qualitative epistemology.
Tanja Välisalo is a University Teacher and Doctoral Candidate at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research is focused on audience reception of fiction, fan cultures and transmedia phenomena, and she is conducting her doctoral research on the reception and use of fictional characters in games and media fandom. She is a member of the editorial board or the Finnish Yearbook of Game Studies.
PhD Jonne Arjoranta holds a doctoral degree in digital culture from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and the title of docent from Tampere University. He is specialised in philosophical hermeneutics, game studies and internet cultures and is interested in playful politics, game hermeneutics and geek culture. His dissertation Real-Time Hermeneutics: Meaning-Making in Ludonarrative Digital Games deals with the structures of meaning in digital games. He has published, for example, in Game Studies, Games and Culture and International Journal of Role-Playing. He is the editor-in-chief for the Finnish Yearbook of Game Studies.
Evgenia Amey is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä. She also works at the University of Eastern Finland, in the project ‘Kieliviha/Språkhat/Language tensions’, funded by the Kone Foundation. Her research combines cultural and media studies, tourism studies and cultural geography, and explores interconnections between media, culture, language and place. Her research topics include media tourism, mediatization and narrativization of space, sense of place and environmental storytelling in video games, (in)game books and game-based fan fiction.
Tero Kerttula earned his PhD at University of Jyväskylä in 2022. His fields of specialization are in research of online streaming and YouTube, as well as other video game media. Kerttula has also researched the history of video game media, more specifically old television shows and video game magazines. Currently Kerttula works in the field of competitive gaming from historical and educational perspective.
Maria Ruotsalainen (PhD) is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the representations gender and nationality in Overwatch esports and the sportification of esports. Her current research interests and topics include (but are not limited to), esports cultures, Deleuzian approaches to self, play and games, neurodiversity and videogames, gaming and gender, and hostile behavior in video games.
Adriana Delgado is a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research investigates how Freirean principles of critical pedagogy can be translated into an analogue game format. She is interested in the interconnection between cognition and play.
Minna Kallinen-Kuisma, MSc (Econ and Bus Admin) is a University Teacher and Doctoral candidate at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research on esports leadership focuses on ethical leadership, responsible leadership and shared leadership in esports teams and organisations. Kallinen-Kuisma’s research interests also include esports management and business, esports organisations and esports ecosystem.
Doctoral Researcher Valtteri Kauraoja is writing his dissertation on game design within the project “Ontological Reconstruction of Gaming Disorder” at the University of Jyväskylä.
Oskari Koskela is a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä. Having a master's degree in the field of musicology, his research interests relate to philosophical, psychological and aesthetic issues of videogame music with a particular focus on the 4E perspectives. He is currently working on a PhD dissertation concerning the application of an enactive approach in understanding the aesthetic experience of game music.
Henri Nerg is a researcher and doctoral candidate at the University of Jyväskylä. His research is focused on Japanese popular culture and character affectivity especially in visual novels.
Jasmine Poikela is a doctoral researcher at the University of Jyväskylä under the study of contemporary culture. Her PhD research delves into the praxis of game writing and narrative design. She has also gained experience in teaching creative writing, especially focused on multimodality.
Emilia Turtiainen (M.A.) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Jyväskylä. Her research focuses on gender visibility and gendered practices of video game live streaming.
University of Turku
Jaakko Suominen received his PhD in cultural history and is a professor of Digital Culture at University of Turku, Finland. With a focus on cultural history of media and information technologies, he has studied computers and popular media, Internet, social media, digital games, and theoretical and methodological aspects of the study of digital culture. He has lead several multidisciplinary research projects and has over 100 scholarly publications.
Dr. Juho Hamari is a Professor of Gamification (Associate & tenure-track) and leads the Gamification Group that has spread itself to three universities in Finland: Tampere University of Technology, University of Turku and University of Tampere. Prior to current engagements, Dr. Hamari has been a researcher at Aalto University School of Business, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology HIIT as well as a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley School of Information (2015-2016).
Maria B. Garda has been researching video games and digital media from the perspectives of genre, nostalgia and local history. She is an expert of media history, and her current work focuses on video game cultures and contemporary forms of hacking. Maria’s recent publications have dealt with indie games, role-playing games, and roguelikes, and she was previously involved with several research projects, including: "Alternative Usage of New Media Technology During The Decline of People’s Republic of Poland" (University of Lodz, 2013-17) and "Creative Micro-computing in Australia, 1976-1992" (Flinders University, 2017-18). She is a co-founder of Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies and the vice-president of Games Research Association of Poland.
Doctor of Arts (Visual culture), PhD (Digital culture), Katriina “Kati” Heljakka is a researcher of toys, play, and playful learning. Heljakka defended her doctoral thesis on adult toy play and cultures for Aalto University in 2013. From 2014 to 2020, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Academy of Finland-funded Ludification and the Emergence of Playful Culture and in the Hybrid Social Play jointly funded by the Academy of Finland and Business Finland. During 2021-2022, she acted as the play expert of the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare. In 2024, Heljakka defended her second doctoral dissertation at the University of Turku, focusing on digital play from the perspective of HCI, “play machines,” and how play moves us physically, emotionally, and cognitively through the joint use of toys and evolving technology including various digital devices, and extant and speculated types of toy robotics.
In addition to publishing widely in edited book volumes, international academic journals, and conference proceedings, Heljakka has also worked as a game designer, art critic, visual artist, and curator of the Peak Experience Artist Collective. Currently, she studies play cultures and the ongoing toyification of various phenomena through design, life-wide, and connected play, as well as play and playfulness in education and working life. Katriina is an ambassador in the U.S.-based Genius of Play program.
Joseph Macey is a Project Researcher at the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture studies at the University of Turku, and a member of the Gamification Group, Faculty of Communication Sciences, Tampere University; his current work investigates the consumption of digital media, digital economies and virtual items. Recent work has focused on relationships between consumption motivations and behavioural intentions in online services. Associated research interests include the consumption of contemporary digital games and newly-emergent gambling activities, problematic and potentially problematic media consumption, and cognitive biases in media users. In addition to publishing in highly-respected international academic journals and conference proceeding, he has advised the Gambling Administration of Finland and been an invited speaker at several conferences and seminars.
Dr Rami Mähkä is a University Lecturer at Digital Culture, University of Turku, and the Vice-Leader of the Degree Programme in Digital Culture, Landscape and Cultural Heritage. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Media Culture at the University of Turku, with research interests ranging from film to video games, digitalization of Finnish society to social media. His specific research interests regarding games include ice hockey and other sport simulation games, and historical war games, especially of wars of the 20th century. A cultural historian by background, Mähkä’s other research topics include television, popular music and history culture and historical theory.
Markku Reunanen, PhD, is a senior university lecturer at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture, Department of Media. In 2020 University of Turku awarded him the title of docent in digital culture. His research interests range from videogames to digital (sub)culture. His PhD thesis from 2017 deals with the relationship of the demoscene and technology. Markku worked as a 50% postdoc in the CoE in 2018–2019 and now continues as an affiliated researcher.
Jukka Vahlo is a senior researcher at the School of Economics/Centre for Collaborative Research CCR at the University of Turku. His PhD focused on combining player research and folkloristics. In his research Vahlo integrates enactive cognitive approach and phenomenological argumentation with empirical statistical studies on player experience - encompassing e.g. motives, preferences, and player behavior. Vahlo holds a docentship in media psychology and has published extensively in the fields of human-computer interaction, game studies, and media psychology. He has worked on numerous interdisciplinary research projects funded by organizations such as Business Finland, the Kone Foundation, and the Academy of Finland.
ORCID:
I am a doctoral researcher at the University of Turku in the Media Studies Department interested in playing, players, and much more. My doctoral and main research project is an online ethnography within an online multiplayer sex/porn game, and I have been interested in exploring sexual play and sexualities that unfolds in this location and its connection to broader sociocultural sex consumption and work related to technology.
As a person born and raised in Brazil, I am also interested in sharing about Brazilian playing and gaming cultures. My publications have covered gender, race, class, consumption, accessibility to technology, esports, and communities.
[I also go by Maya; the pronouns I use are she/her]
I’m the coordinator for our Turku team, helping to organize and support our local activities. If you have anything on your mind, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Onerva Puhakka is a doctoral researcher at the University of Turku. She is currently writing her PhD on retrogame fan art. Her research examines fan activities, productions and communities. In addition to fan activities and art, her interests include retro games from 90s, nostalgia, and gaming experiences. She is interested in examining gaming experiences from a holistic perspective on humans. So far, her research has addressed early video game memories, immersion and flow, escapism and nostalgic gaming experiences.
Affiliated researchers
Souvik Mukherjee is assistant professor in Cultural Studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta, India and a pioneering games studies researcher from the Indian Subcontinent. His research looks at a diversity of topics such as videogames and storytelling, videogames as colonial and postcolonial media, gaming cultures in the Indian Subcontinent and currently, Indian boardgames and their colonial avatars. Souvik is the author of three monographs, Videogames and Storytelling: Reading Games and Playing Books (Palgrave Macmillan 2015), Videogames and Postcolonialism: Empire Plays Back (Springer UK 2017) and Videogames in the Indian Subcontinent: Development, Culture(s) and Representations (Bloomsbury India 2022) and is currently working on a book project on Indian board games and colonialism. He was named a ‘DiGRA Distinguished Scholar’ in 2019 by the Digital Games Research Association and a Higher Education Video Game Alliance (HEVGA) fellow in 2022. He is also an affiliated senior research fellow at the Centre of Excellence, Game Studies at the University of Tampere. His other interests are (the) Digital Humanities and Early Modern Literature. He has also set up a boardgame museum in his home in Kolkata, India.
Casey is an Associate Professor from Michigan State University in the Department of Media & Information. Casey is a game maker and game researcher who studies game work and the culture of game makers. Casey’s Fulbright Finland Scholar award is a research project titled “Making Games Differently,” in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies at Tampere University. The research is focused on the work of game making in Finland and elsewhere “post” pandemic and in the context of late stage capitalism.