History Commons^™

Lost & Found (Game Series) [Book Chapter], Owen Gottlieb

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Description of game series for use in the classroom with best practices.

Une Histoire Pragmatique Du Politique, William J. Novak, Stephen W. Sawyer

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Comme le montre ce numero, nous ne sommes guere en manque de tentatives recentes de repenser l'histoire du politique. En effet, deux generations d'historiens ont deja produit un grand nombre de nouvelles approches et de perspectives a partir desquelles il est maintenant possible d'etudier l'histoire politique a nouveaux frais. Dans le contexte historiographique americain, nous avons ete temoins d'une serie de nouvelles approches allant de ce que l'on a appele la « nouvelle histoire sociale politique » des annees 1970 a l'effort des sciences sociales pour « repenser l'Etat » (Bringing the State Back In) dans les annees 1980 et …

Review: Mary Kenny, The Way We Were: Catholic Ireland Since 1922, Eamon Maher

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Book review: Mary Kenny, The Way We Were: Catholic Ireland Since 1922 (Dublin: Columba Books, 2022), 450 pages.

Caddo Nation Chemistry: Art, Commerce, Pottery, And Tools, Joe Jeffers

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The Caddo Nation grew out of the Mississippian culture, the mound builders found throughout what is now the American Southeast and into the Midwest. By 2000 BC, the Caddo or their progenitors had moved up the Mississippi River tributaries as moisture drew them westward. They stopped short of the Great Plains and remained in forested areas. They were primarily hunter-gatherers until 500 BC when Mesoamerican horticultural practices allowed them to establish permanent villages. They raised corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, watermelons, sunflowers, and tobacco. They gathered nuts, berries, roots, and seeds. They continued to fish and hunt deer, bear buffalo, and …

Understanding An American Paradox: An Overview Of The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, Spearit

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In The Racial Muslim: When Racism Quashes Religious Freedom, Sahar Aziz unveils a mechanism that perpetuates the persecution of religion. While the book’s title suggests a problem that engulfs Muslims, it is not a new problem, but instead a recurring theme in American history. Aziz constructs a model that demonstrates how racialization of a religious group imposes racial characteristics on that group, imbuing it with racial stereotypes that effectively treat the group as a racial rather than religious group deserving of religious liberty.

In identifying a racialization process that effectively veils religious discrimination, Aziz’s book points to several important …

Collaborative Constructions: Designing High School History Curriculum With The Lost & Found Game Series, Owen Gottlieb, Shawn Clybor

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This chapter addresses design research and iterative curriculum design for the Lost & Found games series. The Lost & Found card-to-mobile series is set in Fustat (Old Cairo) in the twelfth century and focuses on religious laws of the period. The first two games focus on Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah, a key Jewish law code. A new expansion module which was in development at the time of the fieldwork described in this article that introduces Islamic laws of the period, and a mobile prototype of the initial strategy game has been developed with support National Endowment for the Humanities. The …

Minding The Gap: Computing Ethics And The Political Economy Of Big Tech, Ioannis Stavrakakis, Damian Gordon, Paul John Gibson, Dympna O'Sullivan, Anna Becevel

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In 1988 Michael Mahoney wrote that “[w]hat is truly revolutionary about the computer will become clear only when computing acquires a proper history, one that ties it to other technologies and thus uncovers the precedents that make its innovations significant” (Mahoney, 1988). Today, over thirty years after this quote was written, we are living right in the middle of the information age and computing technology is constantly transforming modern living in revolutionary ways and in such a high degree that is giving rise to many ethical considerations, dilemmas, and social disruption. To explore the myriad of issues associated with the …

“800 Years We Have Been Down”: Rebel Songs And The Retrospective Reach Of The Irish Republican Narrative, Seán Ó Cadhla

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From the glamorous, cross-dressing “Rebel, Rebel” of David Bowie, to the righteous Trenchtown “Soul Rebel” of Bob Marley and The Wailers, both varied and various musical articulations of cultural and socio-political rebellion have long enjoyed a ubiquitous presence across multiple soundscapes. As a musicological delineator in Ireland, however, ‘rebel’ conveys a specifically political dynamic due to its consistent deployment as an all-encompassing descriptor for songs detailing events and personalities from the Irish national struggle. This paper sets out to examine the specific musical delineator of “rebel song” from both musicological and politico-ideological perspectives with a view to interrogating its appropriateness …

History Of The Pruet School Of Christian Studies/Department Of Religion At Ouachita Baptist University/Ouachita Baptist College (1886-2021), J. Daniel Hayes

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This is a short history of the Religion Department/School of Christian Studies at Ouachita Baptist University. This document includes a historical overview, faculty publications, the theological and educational philosophy of the school, history of Bible-related CORE courses, curriculum, and lists of faculty/staff with some biographical information.

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

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This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …

Designing Analog Learning Games: Genre Affordances, Limitations And Multi-Game Approaches, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

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This chapter explores what the authors discovered about analog games and game design during the many iterative processes that have led to the Lost & Found series, and how they found certain constraints and affordances (that which an artifact assists, promotes or allows) provided by the boardgame genre. Some findings were counter-intuitive. What choices would allow for the modeling of complex systems, such as legal and economic systems? What choices would allow for gameplay within the time of a class-period? What mechanics could promote discussions of tradeoff decisions? If players are expending too much cognition on arithmetic strategizing, could that …

Why Women Also Know History, Emily Prifogle, Karin Wulf

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"Women Also Know Stuff. Does that sound obvious? It's not, alas." In early 2016 a group of women political scientists announced in The Washington Post their reasons for forming a group called Women Also Know Stuff. The US presidential election dramatically exposed the ongoing imbalance in the consultation and citation of women experts in political discussion.1 The new group was responding directly to media bias, but it has long been clear that bias—not only against women but against people of color, LGBTQ scholars, and other groups—is persistent in academia. The historical profession is no exception.

Creating North Carolina Populism, 1900–1960: Part 2: The Progressive Era Legacy, 1930–1960, James L. Hunt

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Between 1900 and 1930, North Carolina’s first generation of professional historians constructed scholarly accounts of Tar Heel Populism. These pioneers offered a version of the recent past that supported white supremacy and the current Progressive Era political leadership. They agreed Populism’s destruction had been desirable. University-based historians opposed the Populist Party’s support for significant changes to tax policy, broad-based democracy, and radical forms of corporate regulation, especially of railroads, banks, and monopolies. The key figures included J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, Simeon A. DeLapp, Florence E. Smith, and John D. Hicks. Most earned Ph.D. degrees in history from northern universities, …

“We Are Worried Mothers:” A Panel Of “Ordinary South Africans” On Us Capitol Hill, Myra Ann Houser

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In 1986, a “panel of ordinary South Africans” addressed members of the US Congress. Their visit did not command as much attention as would the visit of (future president) Nelson Mandela in 1990 or as did (former prime minister) Jan Smuts in 1930. Yet, for an increasing number of Americans watching closely, it represented a momentous public rebuttal to apartheid. The visit responded to ongoing celebrity protests and built public support for sanctions. While many Americans instigating “designer arrests” believed that they spoke for South Africans, in 1986, physicians, activists, and children who had faced detention spoke for themselves on …

(Re)Visions Of The Outre-Mer: Looking At The Male Gaze In Jacques Feyder’S Le Grand Jeu (1934), Barry Nevin

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Cinéma colonial is regarded by certain scholars as a highly conventionalised and commercialised film practice that grants spectators a sense of control over the potentially threatening colonial Other, and Belgian director Jacques Feyder has been subject to particularly harsh criticism in this regard. This article argues that Feyder’s Le Grand Jeu (1934), which depicts a young legionnaire’s relationship with a cabaret singer who bears an uncanny resemblance to a previous lover who jilted him in Paris, challenges dominant tendencies in portrayals of gender and colonialism in French cinema of the 1930s. Drawing on the relationship between Laura Mulvey’s theorisation of …

Life In The Time Of Covid-19, Joe Jeffers

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This narrative is a personal account of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on my life in 2020. Three factors come to bear on my reactions. First, I am 75 years old. Second, I have a minor heart condition. Third, I am a scientist. The first two put me in a higher risk category, and my behavior changed accordingly. The third is the window through which I view the world. It affects my reaction to data as the nature of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are revealed. I follow numerous information sources about the pandemic and share those articles on Facebook. Retirement …

Henry Ivens Stone, Local Inventor, Lisa K. Speer

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Henry Ivens Stone was born October 30, 1866, in Clark County, Arkansas to William Clark "W.C." and Mary Ann (Smith) Stone. Stone's mother, Mary Ann, was the daughter of Dr. Willis and Margaret Janes Smith. Stone married Sara L. "Sallie" Turbeville on May 14, 1887, in Nevada County. Henry and Sallie lived in Whelen Springs, and were the parents of three children--Willie Mae, Warner "Cap," and Henry Jr., who died before his first birthday. Henry Ivens Stone died from pneumonia on November 20, 1900. Frederick Vallowe, the great grandson of Stone, donated the original patent, transcribed below, to the Archives …

Another Man Done Gone, Lisa K. Speer

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Author’s note: I grew up hearing stories about a maternal great uncle who died young following an arrest for some minor offense. As an adult, I hadn’t thought much about his story until earlier this year. While hunkered down in quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak, a cousin texted a photograph and a newspaper clipping to me and asked if I knew who the man was, or anything about what had happened to him. The photograph was of our great uncle, Richard Audell Clift, and the clipping was about his death. Reading about his death made me realize that there was …

Acts Of Meaning, Resource Diagrams, And Essential Learning Behaviors: The Design Evolution Of Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

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Lost & Found is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed for teaching medieval religious legal systems. The long-term goals of the project are to change the discourse around religious laws, such as foregrounding the prosocial aspects of religious law such as collaboration, cooperation, and communal sustainability. This design case focuses on the evolution of the design of the mechanics and core systems in the first two tabletop games in the series, informed by over three and a half years’ worth of design notes, playable prototypes, outside design consultations, internal design reviews, playtests, and interviews.

Jewish Time Jump: New York, Owen Gottlieb

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Jewish Time Jump: New York (Gottlieb & Ash, 2013) is a place-based mobile augmented reality game and simulation that takes the form of a situated documentary. Players take on the role of time traveling reporters tracking down a story “lost to time” to bring back to their editor at the Jewish Time Jump Gazette. The game is played in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, New York City. Players’ iPhones become their time traveling device and companion. Based on the player’s GPS location, players receive digital images from their location from over a hundred years in the past as well …

#Thisisirishfood - The Flavour Of Ireland's West Coast, Anke Klitzing

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In the West of Ireland, a new awareness for quality ingredients and indigenous flavours are drawing out the potential of local produce and craftsmanship.

The Bullet In The Brick: The Materiality Of Conflict In Museum Objects, Siobhan Doyle

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Tangible traces of conflict in visual artefacts can take viewers uncomfortably close to the realities of war—violence, destruction and fatalities. This article questions the evidential force of objects associated with conflict and their eventual display in exhibitions. Through a study of the display of a brick in which is embedded a bullet that is said to have passed through the body of Francis Sheehy Skeffington when he was executed by firing squad during the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916, this article explores the historical configuration of the brick and analyses its public display in the National Museum of Ireland …

French Place Names In Clark County, Arkansas, Joe Jeffers

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French place names are common in Arkansas, especially in south Arkansas, where after the French explorers left, French trappers and settlers from Canada moved in. Some of those names remain unchanged from the original French. General usage and English speaking settlers modified others. Clark County was one of five counties established in the Arkansas Territory. Its boundaries changed five times before reaching its present form in 1877. This article explores French place names in today’s Clark County and in the original Clark County formed in 1818.

The Wiley Funeral Home Records At Ouachita Baptist University, Lisa K. Speer

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In 2009, Ouachita Baptist University's Special Collections and Archives received a set of records from the Wiley Funeral Home (now Mitchell Funeral Home) of Arkadelphia, containing death certificates, burial transit permits, and funeral insurance records kept between 1941-1968. The records document the lives of several thousand African Americans who were either residents of Clark County or whose funerals were handled by Wiley Funeral Home.

Clark County, Arkansas: The Garden Spot Of The Sunny South, Lisa K. Speer

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Presented here is a typescript of a pamphlet produced and distributed circa 1877 by the St. Louis, Iron Mountain, and Southern Railway to promote settlement in Clark County. The original pamphlet is housed in the collections of the Arkansas State Archives.

100 Years Ago: Front-Page Stories From Arkadelphia's Southern Standard, Lisa K. Speer

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The following news items were extracted from the front pages of Arkadelphia's Southern Standard weekly newspaper of 1919. The articles illustrate the variety of news published by the paper and offer glimpses into life in early 20th-century Clark County. The return to normalcy following the end of a world war; agricultural and economic development of the county; and moonshining were just a few of the themes that ran through the news that made the front pages of 1919.

The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act's Evolving Genocide Exception, Vivian Grosswald Curran

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The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) was passed by Congress as a comprehensive statute to cover all instances when foreign states are to be immune from suit in the courts of the United States, as well as when foreign state immunity is to be limited. Judicial interpretation of one of the FSIA’s exceptions to immunity has undergone significant evolution over the years with respect to foreign state property expropriations committed in violation of international law. U.S. courts initially construed this FSIA exception by denying immunity only if the defendant state had expropriated property of a citizen of a nation other …

Re-Playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games To Teach Religious Legal Systems, Owen Gottlieb

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Lost & Found is a game series, created at the Initiative for

Religion, Culture, and Policy at the Rochester Institute of

Technology MAGIC Center.1 The series teaches medieval

religious legal systems. This article uses the first two games

of the series as a case study to explore a particular set of

processes to conceive, design, and develop games for learning.

It includes the background leading to the author's work

in games and teaching religion, and the specific context for

the Lost & Found series. It discusses the rationale behind

working to teach religious legal systems more broadly, then

discuss the …

From Maggie To May: Forty Years Of (De)Industrial Strategy, James Silverwood, Richard Woodward

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Upon becoming Prime Minister, Theresa May installed industrial strategy as one of the principal planks of her economic policy. May's embrace of industrial strategy, with its tacit acceptance of a positive role for the state in steering and coordinating economic activity, initially appears to be a decisive break with an era dating back to Margaret Thatcher, in which government intervention was regarded as heresy. Whilst there are doubtless novel features, this article argues that continuity is the overriding theme of May's industrial strategy. First, despite the reluctance to confess it, like every UK government over the past forty years, May …

First Airplane Lands In Arkadelphia One Century Ago, Wendy Richter

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Many technological advancements occurred in the United States during the early twentieth century, bringing about change in many phases of life, including transportation. One new type of travel drew a lot of attention in Clark County on Saturday, May 25, 1918, when an airplane landed for the first time at Arkadelphia.