Esther is a Research Fellow for the Digital Cultures Research Centre.

Her work examines the role of players within gaming communities, as well as gender, sex and sexuality in videogames, and she has published widely on these subjects.  She currently has two books in press: Players vs. Games – Online Communities, Virtual Narratives, investigates how online communities have developed beyond games into arenas like indie gaming and webcasting, and Playing With Affection: The Game Love Reader (with Dr. Jessica Enevold, University of Lund) examines the ways in which love can be represented in and around gaming. She is currently editing a collection of papers on Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Science Fiction and Fantasy (with Dr. Jude Roberts, University of Birkbeck), and beginning a project which aims to compile an interactive history of the UK Live Action Role-Playing scene with Dr Ashley Brown (University of Manchester). In the past few years she has written on the role of webcasting in online gaming, gendered representation in games, Minecraft communities, and social rulemaking within games and online groups. More information here.