HIST 3909C – History, historians and games

HIST 3909C – History, historians and games
Winter 2026

Instructor: Professor Marc Saurette

From Hollywood blockbusters like Napoleon to the Assassin’s Creed video-game franchises, from Renaissance fairs (faires?) to Victorian bodice-rippers, modern cultural industries saturate the popular imagination with diverse representations of the past. Though meant to entertain and not to educate, these depictions nonetheless contain historical interpretations and shape how people view the past. With a focus on analog games (boardgames, cardgames and rpg’s) and, to a lesser extent, videogames, this course introduces students to how the discipline of History and the work of contemporary historians take games seriously.

This class will consider how games can be a focus of Public History. By analyzing, playing and designing games about the past, students will learn to think critically like a historian and ludically, like a game designer. You will learn the terminology, methods and tools to understand what games are, how games help understand the past and how current games help construct present day ideas of History. You will learn to develop games of your own, individually or in groups, that are able to describe the past from a historian’s perspective.

N.B. Please note, this course is not a history of games/ videogames, even though certainly this is part of what the course will cover.

Over the course of the term, students will complete smaller exercises which lead to a formal mid-term game pitch and a game design project as a final assignment. Students are encouraged to complete the game pitch and game design project in small teams (but this is not necessary).