In this seminar we will spend class time studying games played in South Asia (like Ludo or Pachisi, Snakes and Ladders, Talimi Tash, Chess) to think together about what we learn through play even across contentious sets of differences – based on nationality, ethnicity, language, caste, class, gender. How does play help forge common bonds and when does it amplify those differences? How do we talk about the meaning of play across South Asian languages?

Students will be asked to read short scholarly work on South Asian culture, game design, meaningful play and translation to understand the stakes of game localization in the South Asian context. Each week students will be asked to complete short individual or group assignments (graded pass/fail) to become increasingly confident in writing compellingly and thoughtfully about gameplay from a range of perspectives. They will choose one of these weekly assignments to expand into a term project (a short video, podcast, scholarly paper or game prototype on an example introduced in class) that will be graded qualitatively according to the criteria introduced over the course of the semester.

Many of our class sessions will be devoted to playing actual games and investigating scholarly approaches to analyzing gaming experiences.

Class Format:

Two 90-minute meetings weekly