HIS2325 – Playing with the past: History and Historical Reception in Digital Gaming
Course description
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
This course examines the relationship between current historiographical debates and the public dissemination of and engagement with the past. How well are up-to-date scholarly interpretations of history communicated to wider audiences? What tools can best foster a sense of critical historical inquiry? To approach these questions, this course will focus on digital games as an increasingly important source through which people interpret the past, but whose distinctive immersive and dynamic format can inform other contexts in which many history graduates find employment, from museums to classrooms to the media.
In this course, we will critically evaluate the way digital gaming content and mechanics try to communicate important issues in current historiography such as gender, environment, imperialism, and conflict. In seminars, we will assess how these themes are understood by historians in a range of concrete social contexts, in relation to scholarly case studies of their virtual representation. Students will also use theoretical approaches grounded in reception history to independently conduct a sustained analytical playthrough of a chosen historical game. The aim is to go beyond treating games simply as a source of ‘accurate’ or ‘inaccurate’ historical knowledge to consider their complex relationship with both more traditional forms of historiographical analysis on one hand, and the cultural value of history on the other.
Learning outcome
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to
- identify and explain examples of historical reception in digital games through an appropriate theoretical lens
- Perform and document purposeful gameplay to enable historical analysis on this kind of digital source
- Apply historiographical perspectives to constructively analyse modern creative approaches to past societies
- Critically reflect on the relative aims and effectiveness of different strategies for communicating historical knowledge in the public sphere
Admission to the course
Students who are admitted to study programmes at UiO must each semester register which courses and exams they wish to sign up for?in Studentweb.
If you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about?admission requirements and procedures.
Recommended previous knowledge
No prior experience with digital games is necessary.
Overlapping courses
- 10 credits overlap with HIS4325 – Playing with the Past: History and Historical Reception in Digital Gaming.
Teaching
This course will consist of eleven 2-hour seminars.
Compulsory activities consist of:
- Class attendance (minimum 60%)
- Purposeful play journal (based on min. 1 hour gameplay per week).?Each student will select one historical game to analyze in-depth over the course of the semester, from a short list provided by the teachers. They will be responsible for responsible for making tangible weekly progress through their chosen game using purposeful play, and documenting their observations and questions in their journal prior to class.
Examination
Portfolio (mappe) consisting of the student’s game journal with additional reflective components:?1. a contextual reflection to situate their game’s historical content and its production (who made it, when/where, aims, approaches, etc.); 2. thematic reflections on how the historiographical issues discussed in class manifest in their game; 3. a summative reflection that constructively assesses the game’s effectiveness as a lens through which players can approach a historical period, and builds on potential implications for disseminating historical knowledge more widely. Details of the different components will be given in class.?
Language of examination
The portfolio may be submitted in English or a Scandinavian language.
Grading scale
Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about?the grading system.
More about examinations at UiO
- Use of sources and citations
- How to use AI as a student
- Special exam arrangements due to individual needs
- Withdrawal from an exam
- Illness at exams / postponed exams
- Explanation of grades and appeals
- Resitting an exam
- Cheating/attempted cheating
You will find further guides and resources at the web page on examinations at UiO.