The Games Project

The Games Project refers to a pedagogical approach I have cultivated through which students “translate” complicated academic arguments into playable board games. Through constructing games, students develop critical tools and frameworks for discussing contemporary social issues, hone their written and oral communication skills, and foster their collaborative capacities. Although analog games may seem antiquated in the digital age, game studies scholars have found that they are actually more conducive to relaying complex material than are their digital counterparts. 

Foundational to using games as pedagogy is a belief that academic work, particularly within Feminist and Queer Studies, has great potential to inform activism, policy, and social justice—and, therefore, we have a responsibility to invite people to engage with these ways of thinking. Playing games is a great way for doing so! As part of the process of creating their games, students pilot their games with each other as well as their friends who are not in our class. Then, at the end of the semester, my students and I host popular game nights, which are attended by 50-100 people who play, quite literally, with academic feminist and queer thought in a fun and lively environment. 

Creating games, then, is both a way to encourage deep learning as well as broad sharing of this learning.