3rd Collaborative Game Histories

Keynote: Souvik Mukherjee, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta/Tampere University

April 7th, 2022

Hybrid seminar: Zoom/Finnish Museum of Games, Tampere, Finland

About

It is our great pleasure to invite you to take part in the 3rd Collaborative Game Histories seminar at the Finnish Museum of Games in Tampere, an event co-organized by the Centre of Excellence in Game Culture Studies and the University of Turku. Details regarding previous events can be found here.

We would like to provide a forum for a focused discussion on issues related to game history research and preservation. In the third installment, we are focusing on board games and engaging with various research perspectives, from cultural and historical studies oriented to archeological and computational approaches.

Program

Please note, all times in Eastern European Time (EET), UTC+2 (Helsinki)

13:00 Keynote: Souvik Mukherjee, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences Calcutta/Tampere University

Indian Boardgames, Colonial Avatars: Transculturation, Colonialism and Boardgames

How did an Indian game meant to teach the process of rebirth change into the children’s race-game, Snakes and Ladders? Why does the Bengali language use Dutch loan-words for the suits of cards? How do the rules of Chess change in India and Europe? The answers to these and other related questions can be obtained after examining in depth the relationship of colonialism to boardgames. Focusing on Indian boardgames and their European versions, this talk explores how the Empire’s games has had a signal effect on identity and culture in the formerly colonized countries of the Global South.

14-14:45 Panel One

Chair: Maria B. Garda (University of Turku)

Walter Crist (Maastricht University), The Digital Ludeme Project: Documenting Traditional Board Game Knowledge

Riccardo Fassone and Giaime Alonge (University of Torino), Corteo: a political board game in 1970s Italy

15-15:45 Panel Two

Chair: Niklas Nylund (The Finnish Museum of Games)

Lilli Sihvonen (University of Turku), The case of Kimble – The history and development of the mass-market board game

Tero Pasanen (University of Turku), The Lapua Game – Mild Political Propaganda and Multi-Layered Nationalism

Registration

The event is free of charge and open to the general public, but prior registration is required: https://forms.gle/EcH3gSk3w9CbLZPJ6. The registration for the in-person event ends on Monday, April 4th and for the online attendance on Wednesday, April 6th. If you want to stay up to date, you can also join our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/709010783459647.

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