Seminar by Dr Hamish Cameron (Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington)
Location: Manchester Metropolitan University; Geoffrey Manton 230.
Date and time: Thursday 26th March, 4–5.30pm

Like academic historians, historical game designers select evidence and construct arguments to provide a contemporary audience with a window into a version of the past. This talk will draw on two current game design projects that Hamish is engaged with as a scholar-practitioner: a board game about the Romano-Parthian borderland and a roleplaying game that combines the second century Roman empire with Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Through these examples, he will explore some of the productive tensions that arise between game design and research, including anachronism, received popular knowledge, and contemporary social, cultural and political committments.

There will also be the opportunity to play Hamish’s games with him after the event.

Bio: Dr. Hamish Cameron (he/him) is a Senior Lecturer in Classics at Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University of Wellington. As a historian, he focuses on the history and geography of the Roman Near East, representations of imperialism in ancient Greek and Latin literature, and the reception of the ancient Mediterranean world in analogue and digital games. As an analogue game designer, his primary design focus is tabletop roleplaying games, creating frameworks for players to explore neon and chrome cyberpunk dystopias (The Sprawl, 2016), friendship and cooperation for all ages (Dinosaur Princesses, 2019), hierarchies of oppression, cannibalism and radical bodily transformation (Kratophagia (2022-) and the kinetic urgency of Paul Greengrass (The David Web, 2022). His current design projects bring his historical and ludic worlds together: a board game on Romano-Parthian Mesopotamia and a tabletop roleplaying game in the fertile intersection of ancient Rome and the Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos.