Gaming the Past

High school senior at Cincinnati Country Day School, Ali Zimmerman, took on an independent study with me in this spring semester, her final before graduating. The topic: how does the medium of a work about the past, in this case the Trojan War (granted that the protean “historical” Trojan War has no clear referent but so many references) shape the message of that medium. Investigating that question from the angle of historical video games is one of my main research areas of interest in historical game studies as some readers may know. So when a phenomenal student and young scholar such as Ali, whom I had the true privilege of teaching as a tenth grader in Honors Modern World History, came to me asking not only to advise her in an independent study, but a study in my research areas, I immediately accepted. Ali, within the confines of a sixth class, met with me weekly to discuss the readings I suggested to her: Rosenstone on film as history, a couple of my most relevant articles on historical games as problem spaces, Van Wees on Greek Warfare, Dalby’s excellent work on Homer. After grounding in Dalby and Van Wees for the historical period she read the Iliad, watched Troy, and Played Troy: A Total War Saga. She took notes on her experience as media consumer, we discussed, she analyzed in light of her research and our discussions.

The results, her 20 minute video essay on YouTube, are phenomenal. I can and do vouch for both the serious work and research and thinking she did, the fact that her insights and her questions and her drive guided this, I was simply a good (I hope) academic advisor and teacher, and thus, this final project is her source-based innovative work. And Ali’s reasoning and analysis are rock solid. There is nothing her claims and analysis are spot on; were she to go back someday and make this a journal article, it would only require more research and close reading (as we expect in the jump from student to journal article writer), but that would not challenge the essential validity of her claims.

In short: this is amazing and I am so very proud of what it shows about Ali, who is, I am most happy to say, off to William and Mary to pursue Classics (yay!) and about what talented teenagers are capable of doing, at Cincinnati Country Day School, and all across the world!

If you do watch it and like it, please leave a comment on YouTube. Ali is a gregarious scholar like myself and we just appreciate it so much when people engage our work.

The Trojan War Across Different Media