Mona is a Reader in Games and Experience Design at Abertay University where, until 2024 she co-led the BA (Hons) Game Design and Production Programme. She completed her Applied Research Collaborative Studentship PhD: "Playing with Performance/Performing Play. Creating hybrid experiences at the fringes of video games and performance" at Abertay in 2019. Her Research Project was a collaboration between Abertay University, The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and The National Theatre of Scotland, funded by RLINCS and The Scottish Funding Council through the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities.

Mona is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).

She has published in MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture, Games and Culture (SAGE), Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds (Intellect), The Scottish Journal of Performance and presented work at numerous national and international conferences and events: DiGRA, CHI, ELO, ResFest, BBC Click Live, Future Play at the Edinburgh Fringe, Games Are For Everyone, Arcadia.

She has co-edited The Art of Care, a special issue of the Scottish Journal of Performance. 

Her research is practice-based and focuses on the convergence of contemporary performance practices and video games, particularly designing hybrid forms of storytelling, performative games, mixed-reality and immersive experiences and games for public spaces and heritage sites. Mona is currently working on a series of projects that investigate the potential of games for capturing, preserving and sharing lived experience. 

For more information about the past projects Inchcolm Project and Generation ZX(X) please consult the documentation on the doctoral companion website: https://www.performingplay.co.uk/

Mona teaches and supervises work across a variety of modules and programmes (2024-25):

DES101 - Developing Game Concepts (Module Lead)

DES402 - Critical Design Practice

DES404 - Honours Project

She was a Module Lead on

DES305 - Critical and Contextual Studies

ART308 - Critical Studies

And has previously contributed to 

DES311 - Game Design Practice

DES313 - Player Experience Design

DES310 - Professional Project

ART405 - Honours Project Proposal and Development

MPP001 - Game Development Preparation Module

Mona's research is practice-based and focuses on the convergence of contemporary performance practices and video games, particularly designing hybrid forms of storytelling, performative games, mixed-reality and immersive experiences and games for public spaces and heritage sites.

Applied Research Collaborative Studentship (ARCS) Connecting Performance & Play. Establishing Interdisciplinary Design Methods for the Development of Games & Performance. Abertay University, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the National Theatre of Scotland. Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities, the Scottish Funding Council, R-LINCS.

In 2017 she recieved an IGDA Foundation Women in Games Ambassador Studentship.