"Gaming the Past" and other guided studies of history

Regardless of your relationship to a syllabus—excited, hostile, or indifferent—"Gaming the Past" is a guide to "explore several arenas of global interaction and conflict through different history-based games," This syllabus is for consummate nerds.

Playing these history-based games, according to the syllabus, "will examine issues of representation, public memory, and the pedagogical value of interactive play. Each immersive game will be paired with readings from scholars of history, education, and memory to provoke class-wide discussions, the identification with a range of global historical actors, and reflections on the ways games present, and sometimes misrepresent, the past."

Twilight Struggle and Imperialism II: The Age of Exploration are the two games highlighted.

This, and other syllabi, are created by Clio and the Contemporary, "historians who care about bringing historical context to contemporary issues, teaching history in ways that account for and help explain recent developments, and producing scholarship that speaks to the present day." This is their Twitter feed.

Yes, this post is about a syllabus with readings, goals, and assignments – no one is grading anyone! The point is to offer additional readings that contextualize the games' conditions, decisions, and options. Other topics include "History Through Graphic Novels," Extremism in the US: From the KKK to Jan. 6," and "The History of Your Life since 2000."