Immersive Civic Learning Institute
Brought to you by TDC's New Civic Leadership Academy
Immersively Teaching Race, Social Uprisings, and Civic Skills
Reacting to the Past (RTTP) consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. This immersive pedagogy also features civic skill building embedded in the games. Pioneered by historian Mark C. Carnes, RTTP has been implemented at over 350 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad. Learn more while experiencing a game yourself at TDC’s first Immersive Civic Learning Institute.
Also featuring an optional guided tour of the National Mall!
When: November 10, 2017 | 9:00 am - 5:00pm & November 11, 2017 | 9:00 am - 12:00 pm
Where: AASCU Offices, 1307 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC (Just blocks from the White House)
Registration begins September 22. Note: Registration not limited to Community Colleges | For questions, contact Verdis Robinson, [email protected] or Jenn Worth, [email protected].
Reacting Consortium and TDC Members: $165 | All Others: $195
Featured Games
Bacon's Rebellion, 1676-1677
Birth of American Institutional Racism
by Verdis L. Robinson, The Democracy Commitment & Gamemaster
Take a historical journey to colonial Virginia. A conflict is brewing within Virginian society between a powerful elite class and the lower classes of Anglo and Afro-Virginians who have become increasing restless, difficult, and dangerous. In disagreement with the urgent “Indian Problem,” a significant threat to the gentry’s power and authority in Virginia emerges transforming American society forever.
Chicago, 1968-
The Democratic National Convention
by Dr. Nicolas Proctor, Simpson College | Dr. Jennifer Worth, RC Administrative Director, Gamemaster
In August 1968, delegates to the DNC gather in Chicago to settle their party platform’s position on domestic issues as well as a policy on Vietnam and must also pick a candidate for President. In the RTTP game Chicago, 1968, players assume roles of historical figures and must understand and contend with competing ideologies and incipient chaos that defined this pivotal moment in American history.
Friday, November 10
8:30 - 9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00 – 10:00 Welcome Plenary and Introduction- Verdis Robinson and Jenn Worth, GMs
10:00 - 11:00 Game Session #1 (Intro and Faction Meetings)
11:00 - 12:30 Game Session #2
12:30 – 2:00 Lunch- Speaker- TBA
2:00 – 3:30 Game Session #3
3:30 – 4:30 Panel on Using RTTP in the Classroom and in Community Colleges: Panelists TBA
Dinner on your own
Saturday, November 11
8:30 – 9:00 Continental Breakfast
9:00 – 10:30 Game Session #4
10:30 – 12:00 Closing Plenary- RTTP and Civic Skill Building and Q & A
12:00 – End of Institute
12:30 –2:00 Optional Historical Walking Tour of the National Mall led by Verdis Robinson; Boxed lunch provided for tourists.
Online registration will open by September 22.
Institute Costs: TDC Members and Reacting Consortium Members: $165; All others: $195. Covers- Gamebooks and materials, breakfasts, and lunch on the first day.
Optional Historical Walking Tour of the National Mall led by Verdis Robinson includes boxed lunch and tour guide: $10.
Lodging options and information coming soon.
Reacting to the Past (RTTP) consists of elaborate games, set in the past, in which students are assigned roles informed by classic texts in the history of ideas. Class sessions are run entirely by students; instructors advise and guide students and grade their oral and written work. It seeks to draw students into the past, promote engagement with big ideas, and improve intellectual and academic skills. Pioneered in the late 1990s by Mark C. Carnes, Professor of History at Barnard College, the RTTP curriculum has been implemented by faculty at hundreds colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad since dissemination began in 2001.
All of the games are set in the past, and thus might be regarded as history, but each game also explores multiple additional disciplines. Part of the intellectual appeal of RTTP is that it transcends disciplinary structures. In addition to games currently published in the RTTP Series by W. W. Norton, we seek to expand the curriculum by supporting faculty workshops and collaboration on new game designs that explore a variety of historical moments in the humanities and sciences.
RTTP was honored with the 2004 Theodore Hesburgh Award for pedagogical innovation. The project has received developmental support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, Spencer Foundation,National Science Foundation, Teagle Foundation, and FIPSE, U.S. Department of Education. RTTP has also been featured in Change magazine, the Chronicle Review, the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Christian Science Monitor; and elsewhere.
The RTTP initiative is sustained by the Reacting Consortium (RC), an alliance of colleges, universities, and individual faculty committed to developing and publishing the Reacting to the Past series of role playing games for higher education. Through the main program office at Barnard, the Consortium provides programs for faculty development and curricular change, including a regular series of conferences and workshops, online instructor resources, and consulting services. For those interested in developing their own games, the Consortium also has an Editorial Board that provides guidance and oversight during the game development process from concept to official designation and publication.