Robbie completed his PhD, Radical Platforms, at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 2019. His thesis engaged in a critique of autonomist Marxist theories of imperialism. This included a wide engagement with the work of post-fordist and autonomist scholars, as well as platform studies, theories of globalisation and imperialism, and media theory. The thesis involved an investigation into activist and disruptive technologies; this included 3D-printing, blockchain services, wikileaks, interactive entertainment, social media, and pirate networks. 

Robbie's research continues and advances these interests, expanding into research areas such as digital ethics, smart cities, infrastructure, automation, surveillance, and fabrication. 

Robbie's areas of research interest include

Games, play, and interactive entertainment:

• esports, games cultures, games fandom
• the avatar, subjectivity, identity, and identification
• game politics and economies, both in-game and in community
• play, narratives, meta-play, meta-narratives

Media infrastructures and technologies:

• platform studies, infrastructure studies
• e-governance, platforming of government systems
• smart city projects, surveillance, online/offline tracking
• study of networks and networked cultures
• digital economies, digital fabrication
• questions of data value, digital ethics, 

Media theory

• politically conscious media theories (feminism, post-colonial, anti-racist, queer approaches)
• theories for new technologies, new subjectivities
• digital economic theories and/or 4th industrial revolution
• Marxist media theory and changing systems of labour
• theories of the post-digital
• theories of globalisation, imperialism, and the role of automation in these

Innovative methods projects

• mixed-methods approaches
• social network analyses, platform analysis via API or scraped datasets
• critical engagement with epistemologies of digital research