Dr. Janice Okoomian here. I want to tell you about my exciting new course that will run this fall (and also hopefully in Spring 2027). It's called "Debating Gender Issues through Role-Playing Games," (GEND 263) and it meets Tuesdays and Thursdays 10-11:50.
If you haven't yet taken your Connections course in GenEd, this course might be for you! This course uses an exciting new approach to education called Reacting to the Past. Reacting courses consist of elaborate LARP (live action role-playing) games set in the past in which each of you will be assigned a role — many of the roles are real historical figures, while others are fictionalized.
During the semester, we will play two games that focus on gender issues such as voting rights, sexual freedom, the plight of working-class women, equity in the arts, and more.
The first game, "Greenwich Village, 1913: Suffrage, Labor, and the 'New Woman'", is set in New York. There are two factions: suffrage and labor, and then there are lots of bohemians who are living in Greenwich Village — artists, journalists, teachers, feminists, radicals of various stripes, wealthy socialites — and they have to choose between suffrage and labor. We'll be reading sources from the period to help you understand the issues, and then you will all write a speech to deliver in character. There's also a session that is a "salon" where you can do performances, again in character.
The second game is about the Guerilla Girls, a feminist activist group, formed in the 1980s, that calls out the art world (this is the fine art world) about its sexism in playful and humorous ways.
I think these games are an incredibly fun way to learn about history and gender issues, and I hope as many of you will join in as possible.
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or if you have trouble enrolling.
I hope to see some of you this fall!
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