I am currently a PhD student at the School of Communication Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University, just finishing my second year. My goal is to research how people interact with one another in video game communities. I’m particularly interested in how women fit into video game spaces, and in exploring toxicity as an aspect of the largely white, heteromasculine, ableist culture surrounding video games in the U.S.
My background is in human computer interaction (HCI) and user experience. I got my Masters in HCI from the School of Information at the University of Michigan in 2013. For several years after, I worked as a user experience designer on a variety of web-related projects. Most recently, I worked at Deque Systems as a user experience designer and researcher.
I also enjoy playing video games. My favorites are the Civilization series, Katamari Damacy, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and the Legend of Zelda series. I also spend lots of time reading, knitting, and doing puzzles of various kinds.
And I have two extremely photogenic cats.