We are very pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Sonia Fizek has joined our team at Cologne Game Lab as a professor for Media and Game Studies with specialization in Player Research.

She is a digital games, design and media scholar. She was senior lecturer in the School of Informatics and Design at Abertay University in Dundee. Before joining Abertay, she was a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Digital Cultures at Leuphana University Lüneburg. Fizek is an active member of the research community as an associate editor of the Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, and a board member for multiple initiatives and journals, such as: Digital Culture and Society Journal, Digital Games Research Association (British DiGRA), Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies, and Journal of the Philosophy of Games, amongst many others. Her current research focuses on the relationship between digital games and automation. She looks at self-playing games, automated gameplay, and algorithmic players to understand the essence of and the fascination with self-acting playful systems.

Picture: Lorenzo Pilia / Berlin Game Scene