Professor at the School of Information and Communication Studies with research and teaching interests in the political economy of the cultural industries (esp. digital games), the ethics, social shaping and governance of AI, and digital policy more generally. I joined the School of Information and Communication Studies in August, 2024. I have a PhD in Communication Studies (2000, DCU).

My current research focuses on the design, governance and social impacts of AI across media and everyday technologies especially as it impacts upon digital inequalities, privacy and diversity for workers and users. I am also interested in emerging forms of governance on communication and media platforms. I am a co-PI, science lead and challenge lead within the Transparent Digital Governance strand at the Science Foundation Ireland funded ADAPT Centre for AI and Digital Content Technology, a multi-institution and multidisciplinary national research centre (2021-2026). As part of my ADAPT research I am PI on two collaborative projects with Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin (2022-2024) which focus on the ethics of novel applications of digital technologies, including digital twins, in the public sector and for civic engagement. In addition, I am co-PI on the YouGamSI project (2022-2024) which examines the exposure of young people on the island of Ireland to mediated gambling marketing around live sport. Conducted jointly with the University of Ulster Belfast, the project is funded by the HEA North South research programme. I am also PI on a Creative Europe funded project called Algowatch (2023-2025) which is using games to promote algorithmic and AI literacy in four European countries. Finally, I am on the Ireland management committee for the COST funded network Grassroots of Digital Europe: from Historic to Contemporary Cultures of Creative Computing (GRADE) (2022-2026).

I am the author of two monographs on digital games, most recently: Global Games: Production, Circulation and Policy, Routledge, 2017. I was associate editor of The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015, and co-editor with James D. Ivory of the 35 games entries. I have published in Big Data & Society, Critical Studies in Communication,  New Media & Society and Media Culture and Society and co-edited two special issues of Information, Communication & Society (2021 and 2022) and one of Internet Policy Review (2019).

Previous affiliations include Professor of Sociology at Maynooth University, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ulster (UK), and Postdoctoral Fellow and Assistant Lecturer at Dublin City University. I have held visiting positions at the University of Edinburgh (UK, 2019), the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania (USA, 2011) and UNU/INTECH (Netherlands, 1996).

In 2021 I was elected into the Academy of Europe on the Film, Media and Visual Studies panel.  In 2016 I received a Distinguished Scholar award from the international Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA).

Aphra has taught theoretical and methodological courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels as well as continuous professional education. Recent modules at Maynooth University have included Media and Society, Culture and Technology, Understanding Digital Technologies, Culture and Everyday life, and special topic courses on digital games. She has also taught fieldwork research methods and digital research methods.