[Commlist] Women in historical and archaeological video games CFP

Submissions are invited for an edited volume on Women in Historical and 
Archaeological Video Games

Women make up half of all gamers and female participation in gaming 
increases with age. Yet the role of women in historical or 
archaeological video games has been significantly understudied. The 
proposed volume will address this gap in the field and provide a more 
comprehensive and more nuanced treatment of women in historical and 
archaeological video games than has so far been available.

Abstracts for proposed submissions are invited on topics such as:

•    How are women portrayed in historical and/or archaeological video 
games?
•    Why are they portrayed in these ways?
•    Are these portrayals authentic and/or accurate? Does this 
authenticity/accuracy matter?
•    What do female characters allow a video game to do that male ones 
don’t?
•    What types of stories do historical or archaeological video games 
tell using their female characters?

Abstracts and any questions should be sent to Dr Jane Draycott by Friday 
29th May 2020 <x-apple-data-detectors://0>. For more detail on the 
volume’s aims and principles, and for a full timeline for submissions 
see below.

Call for Papers:

Women in Historical and Archaeological Video Games Edited Volume

Edited by Jane Draycott and Kate Cook

In 2018, Creative Assembly’s Total War: Rome II was updated to include 
playable female characters, and this update triggered a huge backlash 
and wave of review-bombing. Some players objected to the update on the 
grounds of historical inaccuracy, an objection that Creative Assembly. 
When challenged about what a certain section of the gaming community 
perceived to be ‘historical inaccuracy’, the company argued that the 
game was intended to be historically authentic, not historically 
accurate, and that, in any case, female generals would only spawn under 
certain very specific circumstances. Yet, as a number of ancient 
historians pointed out on social media, and a number of games 
journalists picked up and included in their coverage of the fracas, this 
in itself was historically inaccurate because there are numerous 
examples from ancient Graeco-Roman history of female involvement in 
martial activity, ranging all the way from the individual combatant to 
the general and/or admiral, examples which are not confined to mythology 
(e.g. the Amazons, the goddess Athena/Minerva etc.).

Women make up half of all gamers and female participation in gaming 
increases with age.  With the notable exception of Christian Rollinger’s 
recently published Classical Antiquity in Video Games: Playing with the 
Ancient World (2020), to date video games have been understudied in 
Classics, Ancient History, and Archaeology, and the role of women in 
these video games even more so. Consequently, the subject of women in 
historical and archaeological video games is an untapped resource, and 
the aim of this edited volume is to contribute both to Reception 
Studies, and to Video Game Studies, and provide a more comprehensive and 
more nuanced treatment of women in historical and archaeological video 
games than has so far been available. The volume will examine the 
following issues: How are women portrayed in historical and/or 
archaeological video games? Why are they portrayed in these ways? Are 
these portrayals authentic and/or accurate? Does this 
authenticity/accuracy matter? What do female characters allow a video 
game to do that male ones don’t? What types of stories do these video 
games tell using their female characters? The volume’s scope includes 
video games set in historical periods (e.g. the Assassin’s Creed 
franchise), video games that are not set in the past but incorporate 
aspects of historical or archaeological activity (e.g. the Tomb Raider 
franchise), and video games with fantasy or science fiction settings 
that include some aspect of classical reception. Additionally, the 
volume will contain case studies focused on individual female characters 
of all kinds, both playable and non-playable. Bloomsbury has already 
expressed an interest in publishing the volume as part of the Imagines: 
Classical Receptions in the Visual and Performing Arts series.

People interested in contributing to the volume are asked to submit a 
500-word abstract and selective bibliography. If your abstract is 
accepted, you will be invited to submit a first draft which will be 
subjected to collective peer review by other contributors, with chapters 
disseminated between contributors for both individual and group 
discussion, and you will then revise it based on their recommendations. 
We are exploring the possibility of organising a workshop to discuss 
submissions that takes place entirely online. All initial communication 
will take place online over email and/or via Skype, Zoom or an 
equivalent platform.

While the scope of the edited volume will be focused primarily upon 
Graeco-Roman antiquity, there are no firm chronological or geographical 
parameters in place, and diverse approaches to the material (e.g. 
interdisciplinary approaches; multidisciplinary approaches; the 
incorporation of gender studies, queer studies, disability studies etc.) 
are welcome and encouraged. Early career researchers (including PhD 
students) are particularly encouraged to apply.

Timetable:

Given the current circumstances, requests for alternative deadlines or 
schedules during the writing period will be considered very sympathetically.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: Friday 29th May 2020 
<x-apple-data-detectors://1>.

Applicants informed of outcome: Friday 19th June 2020 
<x-apple-data-detectors://2>.

Deadline for submission of first draft chapters: Friday 28th August 2020 
<x-apple-data-detectors://3>.

Peer reviewed chapters returned to contributors with feedback and 
recommendations for revisions: Autumn/Winter 2020.

Deadline for submission of revised chapters: Spring/Summer 2021.

The volume will then be submitted to Bloomsbury.

Contact:

For more information, or to submit an abstract, please email Dr Jane 
Draycott at the University of Glasgow at (Jane.Draycott /at/ Glasgow.ac.uk) 
<mailto:(Jane.Draycott /at/ Glasgow.ac.uk)>

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