School of Communication doctoral student Gabrielle Lamura received her first paper acceptance from the National Communication Association (NCA). The 2025 NCA Annual Convention, scheduled for November, will focus on commitments to professional support and dedication to communication scholarship, highlighting research, innovation, and collaboration as a service to the field of communication.

“I’m so honored and humbled that I’m going to meet so many scholars and that my work gets to be next to theirs,” Lamura said.

Lamura’s paper, “Moral Dilemmas: Horror Video Games Narrative Mechanics,” is the first paper Lamura has submitted to the NCA, which explores horror video games through a coding analysis of in-game characters and how game designers develop narrative frameworks for characters and their decision-making. For her upcoming presentation, Lamura hopes that her audience will recognize the plausibility of researching video games and understand how video game research, especially within the horror genre, is often overlooked.

“I want people to see that there is a depth in horror video games, and there’s more going on than just a game being scary with a good plot, and we can research that and help the greater good of the video game community,” Lamura said.

Looking forward, Lamura is involved in a variety of research projects, ranging from narrative immersion in AI-mediated ‘choose your own adventure’ games to the elaboration likelihood model in the horror video game Soma. Lamura is also researching morality in gaming, building a pipeline for her PhD dissertation topic.

“I love this niche and focused research that I do, and I’m really lucky and fortunate to be in an environment where the faculty, students, and staff all support each other in that regard,” Lamura said.