[Commlist] CfP - DiGRA2023 workshop: Re-Playing with History: Revisiting Historical Games Studies

Please find below details of our workshop at DiGRA2023, entitled 
‘Re-Playing with History: Revisiting Historical Games Studies’. It will 
take place on 19 June 2023. Abstracts up to 500 words, with biogs up to 
150 words, for 15-minute papers to (historicalgamesnetwork /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(historicalgamesnetwork /at/ gmail.com)>. Deadline 20 April 2023. Main 
conference info at https://digra2023.org <https://digra2023.org> if 
you’re not familiar with it.

Workshop organisers: Adam Chapman, Esther Wright, Iain Donald, Nick Webber.

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In 2016, the Playing with History workshop at the DiGRA/FDG conference 
saw game scholars and developers present 16 papers on broad themes 
encompassing historical games. Since then, Historical Game Studies (HGS) 
has continued to flourish as a field of intellectual inquiry.

This workshop aims to revisit several of the questions raised in 2016, 
bringing together a range of theories, perspectives and techniques to 
better understand how games and history interact, and how games can 
influence players’ perceptions and understanding of historical 
narratives. HGS scholarship often identifies the field’s antecedents in 
William Uricchio’s (2005) chapter in Raessens and Goldstein’s Handbook 
of Computer Game Studies, which identified several significant issues 
that continue to be important to the field today: the deconstructionist 
(Cruz Martinez 2020) nature of the history in historical video games; 
questions of simulation and virtual history; and the role of the 
academic historian in respect of such games. Over a decade later, 
Chapman, Foka and Westin’s (2017: 358-9) introduction to the HGS special 
section in Rethinking History opened by re-engaging with Uricchio’s 
work, echoing, Kapell and Elliott’s (2013: 2) Playing with the Past from 
a few years earlier.

This particular history of HGS reminds us that the field did not emerge 
from either Historical Studies or Game Studies alone, and owes a 
significant debt to Media and Film Studies, where video game research 
has often been situated. In 2023, HGS is a truly interdisciplinary 
field, with many understandings of the past and of games, which offers a 
series of interventions into Historical Studies and Game Studies. It is 
not exclusively concerned with games that include history, any more than 
it is with history as it appears in games. It is subject to a range of 
disciplinary tensions about how both the past and games ‘should’ be 
approached, and even what they are. At its best, work in HGS engages 
with literature and debates in Historical, Game, Media and Film Studies, 
and other disciplines too. We hope to address a range of questions 
expanding on those asked in 2016, along with some which have become 
apparent since:

  * What exactly constitutes the ‘object’ of Historical Game Studies?
  * How do (video)games represent particular pasts?
  * What are legitimate modes of historical knowledge in and around
    games and how are they legitimated?
  * How do researchers, developers, players and the media (including the
    gaming press) respond to and understand historical content within 
games?
  * How do historical games shape historical narratives more broadly?
  * How do they subvert dominant narratives and to what effect?
  * How far should historical games encourage us to play with historical
    outcomes? Does playfulness challenge the boundaries of how we teach
    and study history?
  * Which interdisciplinary methodological, conceptual, and/or
    theoretical approaches might historical game studies need to attend
    to in future?

We seek submissions that:

  * Explore the nature of games as a form for historical representation
    and reception.
  * Explore how interdisciplinary approaches can enhance historical game
    design and research.
  * Analyse (emergent) practices and technologies in historical research
    and game design for enhancing historical narratives.
  * Identify games, design techniques and technologies that can
    stimulate audiences and encourage wider discussion of historical
    narratives.
  * Discuss the development of games that encourage interaction and
    playfulness with historical narratives.
  * Demonstrate how game design approaches can be applied to improve and
    challenge historical research and established narratives.

**Workshop Outcome**

Selected participants will be invited to contribute chapters to a 
proposal for a game-focused edited collection in Bloomsbury’s ‘Writing 
History’ series, which will offer accessible methodological, theoretical 
and conceptual approaches to the study of games and history.

**Submission Details**

Please prepare a 500-word abstract (excluding references) for a 
15-minute presentation at the workshop related to the questions and 
topics listed above. Please also submit a 150-word biographical 
statement. The official language of the workshop is English, but we 
welcome contributions from outside the Anglosphere. Participation from 
colleagues with research or development experience from the games 
industry is very welcome. As this workshop seeks to explore new 
directions in historical games scholarship and game making, submission 
of in-progress results is encouraged.

Please send submissions to (historicalgamesnetwork /at/ gmail.com). All 
submissions will be evaluated by the workshop organisers, who will make 
the final selection.

**Important Dates**

The workshop will take place on 19 June 2023.

Abstract submission: 20 April 2023

Notification to authors: 30 April 2023

**Workshop Organisation**

The workshop will comprise 4 paper sessions, each of 3 papers and 
followed by Q&A. We will end the day with a plenary debate, 
consolidating the outcomes from the workshop. We would hope for around 
30 attendees overall.

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