Wednesday 18 June 2025, 3.30pm - 5pm
Seminar Room, Radcliffe Humanities Building
All welcome
Why are board game designers often drawn to Eastern European settings, and how are these historical and geographical contexts represented? How have queer histories been incorporated into board game themes and mechanics? What challenges does gamifying queer research present?
Led by Rowan Dowling, designer of the game Theurgy (2022) and former Game Guru at Thirsty Meeples, this workshop introduces participants to recent developments in depictions of Eastern Europe and of queerness in board games. Through group discussion, we will consider how these separate avenues of design could be challenged and brought together. Participants will have the opportunity to use their research and/or lived experiences of queerness in Eastern Europe to begin outlining the prototype of a game.
Alongside the discussion and a classic PowerPoint presentation, there will be a small selection of board games for you to peruse and reflect on during the session. Most excitingly, we are going to consider the brand new Molly House (2025) and its simultaneous depiction of queer joy and coercion in 1720s London - the perfect case study for questions of ethics in gamifying marginalised histories.
You are very welcome to attend even if you are not familiar with either tabletop gaming or Eastern European research specifically - the workshop will introduce you to both and will be useful if you are just interested in queer history and its use in other media for entertainment.
Please get in touch at queercamp@torch.ox.ac.uk for more info!
QUEERCAMP Network is part of TORCH Student Networks
