Teresa de la Hera is Assistant Professor of Persuasive Gaming at Erasmus University. Her expertise is particularly related to understanding how digital games and new media technologies can be used as media for communication and tools for engagement, motivation, and persuasion. She conducts research at the Erasmus Research Centre for Media, Communication and Culture where she is member of the [Research Cluster Gaming Matters][]. She teaches in IBCoM, the International Bachelor's programme in Communication and Media as well as in the international MA Media and Bussiness.

De la Hera is author of the book Digital Gaming and the Advertising Landscape (2019) and editor of the volume Persuasive Gaming in Context (2021), both published by Amsterdam University Press. She is also PI of the funded research projects “Digital Literacy Games: Digital games designed to support digital literacy skills acquisition” and “Ice-skating game to foster intercultural interaction”

Before joining the Department in September 2017, she was a Post-doctoral Researcher and Lecturer at the Department of Media and Culture Studies at Utrecht University. As a Post-doctoral researcher, she was a member of the NWO funded research project "Persuasive Gaming in Context" ([www.persuasivegaming.nl][]) in which she explored the potential of digital games as media for persuasion. 

Teresa started her academic career at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain in 2006 where she conducted research in the fields of new media and serious games. In 2010 she was a visiting PhD Candidate at the University of Amsterdam, where she spent four months under the supervision of Professor Jan Simons. Later on, in 2011, she moved to the Netherlands where she obtained an International PhD Fellowship to finish her PhD “Persuasive Structures in Advergames” at Utrecht University. Her thesis has been awarded as the Best Academic Work in the Field of Media Studies by the Consell de l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (Spain) in 2013.  She holds a BA in Journalism (track: Digital Journalism), a BA in Audiovisual Communication (track: Direction and Screenplay), and an MA in Communication and Advertising.  [Research Cluster Gaming Matters]: https://www.eur.nl/en/eshcc/research/ermecc/research/clusters/gaming-matters [Digital Gaming and the Advertising Landscape]: https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789048538676/digital-gaming-and-the-advertising-landscape [www.teresadelahera.org]: http://www.teresadelahera.org [www.persuasivegaming.nl]: http://www.persuasivegaming.nl