International Conference, University of Oldenburg

12.–14.09.2024, Bibliothekssaal
Lucas Haasis and Tobias Winnerling

Funded as part of the PRO*Niedersachsen funding programme of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) With the kind support of the Graduate School 3GO, the Universitätsgesellschaft Oldenburg e.V. (UGO) and the Institute of History at the University of Oldenburg. In co-operation with the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, the Working Group Humanities and Digital Games and the project Boardgame Historian.

Games are no longer just a leisure activity, they are an important cultural asset. Games with a historical background are very popular with players. Games shape the way we remember, what we remember and how we imagine the past. They are therefore an essential part of our culture of history and remembrance.

One of the most popular eras in games is the early modern period (1500-1800) - and not without reason. The early modern period (1500-1800) was a time of change and upheaval, of crises and ambivalence, of violence and oppression. The era was also a time of religious, political and cultural change, of attitudes, world views, lifestyles, languages, social practices and the material world, a time of science and flourishing art. Events of global relevance such as the Reformation movements, but also colonialism, wars such as the Thirty Years' War, revolutions in France, Haiti or today's USA, conflicts in Europe or even in Asia, have changed the world and its foundations and continue to shape it today. All of these historical developments have inspired games and are thematised in games.

This makes it all the more important to examine these games in research and education; these include games such as the computer game series "Assassin's Creed" or "Anno" through to "Nobunaga's Ambition" or "Pentiment". In the field of analogue games, games such as "Pizarro & Co.", "Thurn & Taxis", "The Settlers of Catan" or "Puerto Rico" are well-known.

However, in striking contrast to this presence of the early modern period in games is the considerable gap and the prevailing pent-up demand in research and mediation on the early modern period in games, which has hardly been investigated. The conference makes an important contribution here.

The central research questions of the conference are: What do we learn about past eras such as the early modern period through games and how we interact with them? How can games be analysed in relation to topics such as gender, religion, nature or nation? Which methods of analysis can be chosen? How can games be used in universities and schools? How can the dialogue between research, education and development be strengthened - and set the course for historically-inspired games of the future?

At this conference, we want to offer international research on games an important joint forum for dialogue on the potential of researching games as a new historical form and as an important object of learning and research at universities and schools. Last but not least, this is also intended to send a signal that more space should be given to games in educational institutions, in research and education.

With speakers from the USA, Canada, Turkey, Great Britain, France, Austria and Switzerland, the conference has an international line-up. The potential of engaging with games for research and history education will also be demonstrated at the conference through interdisciplinary exchange. The conference will bring together representatives from the fields of history, history didactics, literature, communication, religious studies and art history, as well as teachers, those involved in civic education and developers from renowned games studios.

The conference will take place at the University of Oldenburg. It will also be streamed live and can therefore be followed online. Registration is requested to:

Conference programme

Thursday, 12 September 2024

12:30-13:00 Arrival of the participants

13:00-13:30 Welcome and introduction

Lucas Haasis (Oldenburg) & Tobias Winnerling (Düsseldorf): The Early Modern Period in Games

13:30-15:00 Panel I Gender Chair: Lucas Haasis (Oldenburg)

Alan Lena van Beek (Salzburg, Austria): It's fine poetry. For men. - A feminist reading of Pentiment

Aurelia Brandenburg (Bern, Switzerland): "Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts": Female Rulers as a Phenomenon of Crisis in the Dragon Age-Series

15:00-15:30 Break

15:30-17:30 Panel II Ideas Chair: Tobias Winnerling (Düsseldorf)

Saim Anil Karzek (Ankara, Turkey/Bonn): Unveiling the Ottoman Empire: Exploring Historical Accuracy and Game Design in Video Game Portrayals

Aska Mayer (Tampere, Finland) & Peter Färberböck (Salzburg, Austria): Death in the Streets. Idea-historical Perspectives on Representation, Reception, and Affect of Plagues and Pandemics in Digital Games

Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall [hybrid] (San Marcos, USA): "Back to the Future: Old Regime France, Silicon Valley and Historians-as-Game-Designers in Carolyn Lougee's The Would-Be Gentleman (1985)"

17:30-18:00 Break

18:00-20:00 Keynote with roundtable BIS-Saal (public evening lecture) moderated by Lucas Haasis

Maxime Durand (Ubisoft Montreal, Canada): Setting Sail for Early Modernity in Assassin's Creed

Followed by a roundtable with Maxime Durand (Montreal), Nicole Immig (Gießen), Kate Cook (London) and Lucas Haasis (Oldenburg) moderated by Tobias Winnerling, sponsored by 3GO

- Conference dinner at the Rice Guys restaurant - sponsored by the UGO

Friday, 13 September

09:00 - 10:30 Panel III Board Games Chair: Jan-Lukas Bohlen (Oldenburg)

Dorothee Goetze (Sundsvall, Sweden): Early modern board games and if so, how many - an attempt to take stock

Philip Knäble (Göttingen): Court intrigues, voyages of discovery and a turn of the century. The early modern period in board games

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-13:00 Panel IV Religion Chair: Carolin Puckhaber (Oldenburg)

Jan Martin Engelhardt (Wittenberg): "The master wants to play" - Serious games in the museum

Philipp Wehage (Heidelberg): "No man dies of labour" - On the relationship between nature, labour and death in the "Witcher" and Martin Luther's Reformation theology

Birgit Klein, Jessica Hösel and Christian Kabitz (Heidelberg): Exploring the Jewish world of the 18th century and confronting anti-Semitism with Joseph Süß Oppenheimer. Approaches to a game project for middle school pupils

13:00-14:00 Lunch break

14:00-16:00 Panel V (Post-) Colonialism Chair: Mina Weidner (Dresden)

Mathias Herrmann/Martin Reimer (Dresden): Jeanne's journey - a postcolonial gaming project on the topic of Haiti

Mario Donick (Magdeburg): "The discovery of a new world" - computer games as a medium and interface for accessing historical phenomena using the example of Europa Universalis IV

Simon Hagemann (Lorraine, France): (Post-)colonialism and cultural heritage in digital games about the Aztecs and the Spanish conquest of Mexico

16:00-16:30 Break

16:30-18:00 Panel VI School Chair: Tabea Tadtke (Oldenburg)

Jule Sommersberg (IGS Flötenteich), Patrick Heike (Artland-Gymnasium Quakenbrück), Lucas Haasis (Oldenburg): The early modern period in games at school

Jan Siefert (Duisburg): Revolution and Imperialism in Rise of the Ronin. Analysing digital games from the perspective of historical learning

18:00-18:30 Break

18:30-20:00 Keynote with anthology presentation BIS-Saal (public evening lecture)

Josh Sawyer (Obsidian Entertainment, Irvine, USA): Illuminating Those Who Illuminated Me: Micro- and Macro-Historical Sources for Pentiment

Presentation of the new anthology Zeitenwende: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Play Pentiment, ed. by Alan van Beek, Aurelia Brandenburg and Lucas Haasis (Mittelalter. Interdisciplinary Research and History of Reception, Supplement 4).

- Dinner together -

Saturday, 14 September

09:00-10:30 Panel VII Art Chair: Janna-Katharina Nyul (Oldenburg)

Stephan Friedrich Mai (Vienna, Austria): "Art must also make money": The French Revolution from the perspective of the developers of "Assassin's Creed: Unity"

Sabine Görner (Anklam): Realism in computer games: The art historical quote

10:30-11:00 Break

11:00-13:00 Panel VIII Facticity and Fictionality Chair: Jennifer Schild (Stuttgart)

Stefan Köhler (Schule im Innerstetal/University of Hildesheim): "Here I stand, I can't help it"? - Telling stories in spaces of possibility: "On the trail of Martin Luther" (2017)

Manuel Stübecke (Leipzig): Representations of vampires in digital games

13:00-13:15 Conclusion (Tobias Winnerling / Lucas Haasis)