Taking Video Games Seriously Conference Panel

This roundtable aims to encourage American historians to engage with U.S. history-themed video games. Gaming is the biggest media industry in the United States, generating nearly $45 billion in revenue annually—even more than Hollywood. Yet U.S.-history themed video games have not drawn the same level of critical analysis from Americanists as cinema. This roundtable calls for Americanists to take video games seriously. The conversation will grapple with issues such as critical analysis of historical video games, the history of video games as a medium, teaching with video games, and questions of representation and authenticity in historical video games, among others.

Panelists include Jonathan Jones, Anne Ladyem McDivitt, Esther Wright, Jeffrey Lawler, Sean Smith, and Robert Whitaker.