Elina Roinioti is a sociologist and a postdoctoral researcher in Panteion University with a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY) (2020-2022). She holds a PhD in sociology of games from the department of Communication, Media and Culture and her current research interests include the study of the structural relationship between game production, culture and contemporary national and international cultural policies. Her work focuses also on game design, as a creative process, as a research methodology and a means of social inclusion, as a professional and educational tool.
As a game designer and in collaboration with various creative and research teams, she has participated in national and international game festivals (Playpublik Festival- Krakow, Athens Plaython), she has worked with cultural institutions for the design and development of digital and hybrid educational games (Onassis Stegi, Eugenides Foundation) and hands-on workshops (Hellenic Foundation of Culture-Alexandria, Innovathens, Michael Cacoyannis Foundation etc). As a scientific collaborator for the Ministry of Digital Policy, Telecommunications and Media in game and animation, she was head of the business games festival "Athens Games Festival" (2017 & 2018).
From 2016 to 2021, she was a scientific collaborator at the Department of Communication, Media and Culture (course: "Games and Communication") and since 2020, she is an accredited lecturer at Vakalo Art &Design college (course: "Game Design Elements"). She has been delivering seminar and university courses on Digital Culture, Game Studies, Sociology and media, Narrative Design and Games, Community Development in Games, Game Design and Creativity, Creative Industries and Cultural Policies and has worked in various national and international research programs. Recently she became Business Developer and Narrative Designer for Pixel Reign, a Greek game development studio, and since 2020, she has been working as an independent Games and Community Consultant for Kickstarter. She is co-editor of the collective volume “Digital games: Philosophical, social and cultural landscapes” (2019, Oasis).
