The talk will focus on the representation of history in AAA video games. Familiar to millions of users worldwide and therefore conceptualised as public spaces, these games may depict real-world historical environments, such as the sceneries in Assassin's Creed, the maps in Europa Universalis, or the mechanisms of Civilization. Alternatively, they may deconstruct fictional or virtual pasts, as seen in Shadow of the Colossus, or combine both approaches, like in Siberia.
Joanna Wojdon is Professor of History at the University of Wrocław, Poland, member of the Steering Committee of the International Federation for Public History, co-organizer of the Public History Summer School in Wrocław, editor of Public History in Poland (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor, with Dorota Wiśniewska, of Public in Public History (Routledge, 2021). Her interests include the use of information technology in history education, edutainment, the influence of politics and propaganda on education, with a particular focus on the communist period in Poland, and investigating the history of Polish Americans after World War II.
Wednesday, 3 May 2023
16.30 – 18:00
Maison du Savoir, Auditorium 3.110
Belval Campus
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Free entrance. The lecture will be followed by a reception.