Emma Vossen, PhD
Dr. Emma Vossen is a writer, editor, educator, and award-winning public speaker with a PhD from the University of Waterloo. She is the co-author and co-editor of the books Feminism in Play (2018) and Historiographies of Game Studies: What It Has Been, What It Could Be (2025).
Much of Dr. Vossen’s work focuses on the intersections of politics, identity, and technology, mainly in and around games and games culture. Her recent article, “Tom Nook, Capitalist or Comrade?” discusses the potential for the Animal Crossing games to function as anti-capitalist texts in the context of the contemporary housing crisis.
Her most recent article, co-authored with Dr. Sarah Stang, is "Playing as the Princess: Nintendo, Gender Roles, and Echoes of Wisdom" in Just Tech, a Social Science Research Council publication.
Many publications, such as Wired, Macleans Magazine, The Washington Post, and Electronic Gaming Monthly, have interviewed Dr. Vossen about her work. In 2016, CBC Ideas produced a 40-minute radio documentary about her research that was broadcast nationally.
Dr. Vossen recently completed two Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at York University and the University of British Columbia and is currently the Knowledge Mobilization and Research Impact Officer at the University of Waterloo Games Institute.
Academic Appointments (Research and Administrative)
Knowledge Mobilization and Research Impact Officer, The Games Institute, University of Waterloo, 2021-2025.
Post Doctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia, Refiguring Innovation in Games (ReFiG), 2019-2020
Post Doctoral Fellow, York University, Refiguring Innovation in Games (ReFiG), 2018 - 2019
Education
PhD, English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo, 2018
Dissertation: “On the Cultural Inaccessibility of Gaming: Invading, Creating, and Reclaiming the Cultural Clubhouse”
MA, English Language and Literature, Highest Honors, Carleton University, 2010
BA, English Language and Literature, Highest Honors, Carleton University, 2009
Certification
Certificate in Knowledge Mobilization. University of Guelph. Community Engaged Scholarship Institute. 2024-2025
“Inform: Processes of Knowledge Translation and Dissemination.” 2025.
“Act: Transforming Knowledge into Action.” 2025.
“Inform: Process of Knowledge Translation and Dissemination.” 2024.
“MobilizeU” Knowledge Mobilization Certification. A collaboration between Research Impact Canada, York University and Simon Fraser University. 2024.