DiGRA Australia (DiGRAA) was founded in late 2013 as a local chapter of DiGRA. The board is comprised of a four-person executive (President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer) and, currently, six board members.
2025–2027 Executive Members
| President – Lawrence May | |
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Dr Lawrence (Larry) May is a Senior Lecturer at Waipapa Taumata Rau the University of Auckland, in Aotearoa New Zealand. His research explores meaning-making in player communities, the entanglement between videogames and the climate crisis, and the role of undead monstrosity within games. He is the author of Digital Zombies, Undead Stories: Narrative Emergence and Videogames (Bloomsbury, 2021).
Contact: l.may@auckland.ac.nz |
| Vice-President – Erin Maclean | |
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Dr Erin Maclean is an early career researcher in the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University. With a background in journalism, she is interested in the intersections between popular media, journalism and social issues. Her recent work has focused on the tensions that arise in news as shooter videogames evolve in the way they represent gender. Erin is also a Technical Editor for the Journal of Games Criticism and was previously the Senior Vice Editor of Press Start, an international games studies journal for students and early career researchers. |
| Treasurer – Jacqueline Burgess | |
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Dr Jacqueline Burgess is an award-winning educator and researcher who is a Lecturer in International Business and the program coordinator of the Bachelor of Business at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Her research investigates narrative brands, with a focus on video games, their marketing and how consumers and audiences become emotionally connected to the stories these brands tell. Her research often involves collaboration with industry practitioners and has been published in multiple peer-review journals including the European Journal of Marketing, the International Journal on Media Management, Game Studies, Games and Culture and the Creative Industries Journal, presented at various academic conferences and been covered by local and international news outlets. |
| Secretary – Stephanie Harkin | |
| Dr Stephanie Harkin is a Lecturer and early career researcher at RMIT University in the School of Design, Games Program. Her research is interested in girls’ digital cultures and feminine gaming histories. Her doctoral dissertation, completed in 2022 at Swinburne University of Technology, was titled “Girlhood Games: Gender, Identity, and Coming of Age in Videogames” and explored representations and invisible histories of girlhood in videogames. She is now expanding this project to explore overlooked feminine gaming cultures more broadly. She has previously published on gender and games in the journals Game Studies (2020), Girlhood Studies (2022), and Games and Culture (2020). | |
2025–2026 Board Members
| Seat 1 – Cass Barkman | |
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Dr Cassandra (Cass) Barkman is a lecturer in Media & Communications at the University of Melbourne. Her research explores narrative complexity, textual analysis and the teaching of videogames. She is also deputy director of the MAGPIE (Melbourne Academic Games, Play and Interactive Entertainment) research initiative, is co-vice editor of journal Press Start and writer at Checkpoint Gaming. |
| Seat 2 – Tom Byers | |
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Tom Byers is a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Engineering & IT at the University of Melbourne, researching time and temporality in user experience and design of digital play. His published work explores content creation, post-gaming perspectives, and Australian representation on Wikipedia. He’s worked with the Centre for Wellbeing Science to embed positive learning outcomes in large-scale games and is currently examining experiences of racism via a video game probe with the Faculty of Arts. He tutors video game and technology-focused subjects at the University of Melbourne and has worked as a community manager for indie game studios and as a video game content creator.
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| Seat 3 – Taylor Hardwick | |
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Dr Taylor Hardwick (she/her) is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Sydney researching how children experience monetisation in digital games. Her research also focuses on games events and games production, communities and cultures, and safety and accessibility in digital spaces. Taylor is Secretary of the board of Freeplay, a Melbourne-based independent games festival. She also plays an embarrassing amount of Minecraft. |
| Seat 4 – Xavier Ho | |
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Dr Xavier Ho is an award-winning designer focusing on the queer independent games community. He is a Lecturer in Interaction Design at Monash University, Visiting Fellow in Sexuality Studies at the University of Sydney, and alumni of the ABC TOP 5 Arts. He initiated and led the curation of Pride at Play, a public queer exhibition that celebrates thoughtful LGBTQIA+ games in Oceania and the Asia Pacific. The exhibition won the Good Design Award in Social Impact in 2023. |
| Seat 5 – Alexander Muscat | |
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Dr Alexander Muscat is a Lecturer and coordinator of Games at University of the Sunshine Coast. His research investigates game-making practices, production processes, design theory, and player experience, and includes an experimental, practice-based focus. His work has been disseminated at scholarly, arts, and industry venues including CHI Play, DiGRA, A MAZE, Play Now Melbourne, and Games Connect Asia Pacific. |
| Seat 6 – Nellie Seale | |
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Nellie Seale (she/her) is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. Her research examines expressions of games in Australian museums, including the documentation, display, and design of new games. Her academic background is in museum studies and world heritage, and she is also the director and co-founder of Melbourne Megagames, a not-for-profit games group that runs large scale roleplaying events. |
2024–2025 Board
President – Mahli-Ann Butt (elected), Brendan Keogh (interim)
Vice-President – Erin Maclean
Treasurer – Jacqueline Burgess
Secretary – Stephanie Harkin
Board members – Madeleine Antonellos, Cass Barkman, Marcus Carter, Xavier Ho, Lawrence May, Kayson Whitehouse
2023–2024 Board
President – Mahli-Ann Butt
Vice-President – Erin Maclean
Treasurer – Madeleine Antonellos
Secretary – Stephanie Harkin
Board members – Brendan Keogh, Marcus Carter, Jacqueline Burgess, Kyle Moore, Cameron Edmond, Kayson Whitehouse, Malcolm Ryan
2022–2023 Board
President – Brendan Keogh
Vice-President – April Tyack (elected), Erin Maclean (interim)
Treasurer – Madeleine Antonellos
Secretary – Benjamin Nicoll
Board members – Malcolm Ryan, Jane Mavoa, Ben Egliston, Premeet Sidhu, Gawain Lucian Lax, Mahli-Ann Butt
2021–2022 Board
President – Brendan Keogh
Vice-President – April Tyack
Treasurer – Jane Mavoa
Secretary – Benjamin Nicoll
Board members – Fraser Allison, Malcolm Ryan, Ben Egliston, Erin Maclean, Premeet Sidhu, Gawain Lucian Lax, Madeleine Antonellos
2018–2021 Board
President – Brendan Keogh
Vice-President – April Tyack
Treasurer – Jane Mavoa
Secretary – Benjamin Nicoll
Board members – Jane Cocks, Laura M Crawford, Marcus Carter, Fraser Allison, Malcolm Ryan
2015–2018 Board
President – Marcus Carter
Vice-President – Laura Crawford
Treasurer – Bjorn Nansen
Secretary – Melissa Rogers
Board members – Thomas Apperley, Martin Gibbs, Brendan Keogh
Student representatives – Mahli-Ann Butt, Benjamin Nicoll
2012–2015 Board
President – Martin Gibbs
Vice-President – Thomas Apperley
Secretary – Laura Crawford
Treasurer – Marcus Carter
Board Members – Bjorn Nansen, Melanie Swalwell, Stewart Woods, Angela Ndalianis