Conference chairs: Yannick Rochat (Université de Lausanne) and Carl Therrien (Université de Montréal)
The history of games international conference series is a global initiative that seeks to act as a catalyst for academic research on gaming history. Biennial events bring together historians, curators, social scientists and archivists from academic or fan communities to develop networks and disseminate research and preservation initiatives.
Following the last conference held virtually in 2020, the next event will feature three main activities: keynote addresses by Wendi Sierra, Alexis Blanchet and Véronique Dasen; workshops focussing on emerging research; and a general meeting to elect members from all over the globe. All events will be completely free, hosted on Zoom and Discord towards the end of October 2022.
Since the pandemic has prevented many emerging scholars from travelling to conferences and getting feedback from their peers, this coming event will focus on providing discussion opportunities. We invite any researcher with an interest in the history of games to send short proposals (80-120 words) presenting their current research interests or an idea they would like to explore. We will assemble workshops by regrouping similar proposals and asking relevant experts from our network to join the conversation. These workshops will be held privately on Zoom, adjusting to each group’s preferences and time zones. We seek to accept as many short proposals as possible and assemble the program from there. We also accept applications to act as respondent.
In this context, we invite YOU to define the relevant topics that will help develop our understanding of game histories, including material and cultural inspections of sports, tabletop games and videogames. The steering committee of the conference series gives a good sense of the scope of experts we seek to bring into these conversations: https://www.history-of-games.com/steering-commitee/
The event will also feature keynote addresses by:
Wendi Sierra, author of Todd Howard. Worldbuilding in Tamriel and Beyond. Prof. Sierra will address the legacy of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, released 20 years ago.
Alexis Blanchet, author of Une histoire du jeu vidéo en France: 1960 – 1991. Dr. Blanchet will revisit the first occurrences of games in France, in universities, in arcades, and how an industry developed from there.
Véronique Dasen, author of several books and project lead of the ERC-funded project Locus ludi. Prof. Dasen will discuss this project, aimed at studying « the cultural fabric of play and games in Classical Antiquity ».
Please send your short proposals to yannick.rochat@unil.ch and carl.therrien@gmail.com by July 31st, 2022. Notifications of acceptance and workshop program will be communicated in September 2022.