Rate My Professor Susannah Emery

Dr. Susannah Emery is a Lecturer of Game Design and Digital Media in the School of Communication, Media and Journalism within the College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities at Adelaide University. She earned her PhD from Curtin University in 2022, receiving the Chancellor's Commendation, a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the same institution in 2015, a Graduate Diploma in Education from Queensland University of Technology in 2012, and a Bachelor of Media Arts from the University of South Australia between 2004 and 2010. Currently, she is completing a Graduate Certificate in Steiner Education at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Emery's career includes serving as Lecturer in Games and Digital Media at the University of South Australia from 2020 to 2025, Online Course Facilitator there from 2018 to 2020, and Academic at Curtin University from 2015 to 2020. As a game, narrative, and environment designer, she has contributed to several award-winning and nominated games across PC, console, and mobile platforms.

Emery's research explores the potential of games and digital media to foster social change, bridge cultural and social divides, and enhance learning, with a focus on equity, diversity, inclusion, neurodivergence, disability, gender, and socio-economic inequality. Her notable publications include "Play, watch, create: unpacking community views on esports, game-related content creation, & gameplay careers" in Entertainment Computing (2025, with Trudgett-Klose et al.), "Cultural Play at a Distance: post-COVID Serious Heritage Games" in Heritage (2025, with Champion), "Subversive tech and paper prototyping: using radical co-design with formerly incarcerated women to create 'LindaBot'" in CoDesign (2025), "The language of women's prisons: reflecting on violence and desistance" in TEXT (2024), and "Video games and Indigenous education: let's bridge the 'epistemology gap'" in Ergo (2017). She has also authored book chapters such as "Augmenting Alice: an augmented comic about a Mparntwe road trip" (2025) and produced creative works like the 3D immersive game "Life (Re)Sounding" (2024). Emery has garnered significant recognition, including the Women in Games Global Awards for Games or Esports Educator (2022), UniSA Unstoppable Awards for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Mid-Career Teaching (2023), and the South Australian Screen Awards for her game Henosis (2021). Appointed an International Women in Games Ambassador in 2021, she actively promotes diversity in the games industry.