Many museums in Britain have their foundations firmly planted in the colonial project. I am a White British woman, educated through the English national curriculum and I work as a Digital Learning Officer in one such museum service – Leeds Museums and Galleries (LMG). Through the processes of collecting, classifying, cataloguing, displaying and interpreting artefacts […]
This interview features Dr Victoria McCollum and Dr Andrew Sneddon (Ulster University) in conversation with Kirstin Mitchell (PhD student with Cardiff University and Amgueddfa Cymru/Research Assistant for Historical Games Network). It explores Andrew and Victoria’s 2023 collaborative project with Carrickfergus museum, titled “Reimagining the Islandmagee Witches: An Interactive Exhibition.” This exhibition sought to communicate experiences […]
Practical and Ethical Concerns In my last post, I explained why I hesitate to wholeheartedly recommend the use of historical games for the delivery of content in formal education. In particular, I considered the potential for overlapping biases, which can influence the research discourse surrounding games and learning. I also explored the potentially troubling dominance […]
Our second HGN event, for our Ethics theme, took place on 1 September. We were delighted by both the panellists and the audience, who gave us a fantastic discussion and raised some thought-provoking questions. In case you missed it, or would like to watch it again, you can find the video of the event below. […]
As an archaeological ethicist, my work involves considering how archaeologists ‘do’ archaeology, and the ramifications of our professional choices and actions as archaeologists. More specifically, my main area of research is digital archaeology, and the archaeology of immaterial places like video-games, virtual worlds, and internet-based communities. To be an archaeological ethicist studying immaterial places, I […]
In public discussions of history, it is sometimes said that ‘history belongs to everyone’. This is often used to assert someone’s authority to interpret the past, their attempts to understand, talk or write about things which they perceive as having happened. It is also used to reject the (now old-fashioned) idea that professional historians have […]
As promised in last week’s update, we are now firmly in the terrain of Ethics and Historical Games. You may have seen our call for contributions for the theme, which focuses on the difficult questions developers must face when making games about the past, and the difficult questions players must encounter when playing them. These […]