ENGL 780
Building, Playing, Thinking: Theory and Practice of Play in the Digital Humanities, Fall 2024

Instructor: Jeff Allred
Class Meetings: Th 6:30-8:30, GradCenter 4419
Office Hours: M/Th 1-2p at Hunter College (HW 1205) and by appointment [phone or Zoom is fine]

Contact me: [email protected]

Course Blog: https://dh780fall24.commons.gc.cuny.edu

Course Group: https://commons.gc.cuny.edu/groups/dh-780-fa24/

Hypothes.is group: https://hypothes.is/groups/qiwEianM/dh780fa24

Course Description:

Play is notoriously hard to pin down, especially from our twenty-first-century vantage point. Is it work’s opposite and antagonist, distracting us from the serious business of building up ourselves and our society and economy? Or is it itself a multi-billion dollar industry that is central to “social reproduction,” a fundamental component of “subject formation” that is baked into ideas of psychological development and pedagogy, and a foundational aspect of our psyches that fuels our capacity for growth and creativity? This course will explore these questions through a combination of theoretical texts (Huizinga, Callois, Sutton-Smith, Barthes, Bogost), literary texts and movements (OULIPO, Dada, Carroll, Borges, Cortazar, Nabokov), and games (RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, branched narratives like Adventure and Choose You Own Adventure, and/or interventionist games that glitch or interrupt expectations). To the extent possible, we will integrate play into the very structure of the course, exploring the tacit values and narratives inherent in “taking” a “course” (the language implies a single path on a “take it or leave it” basis) and experimenting with “making” something that affords multiple pathways and choices.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester, students will

• learn from classic and contemporary versions of "play theory"
• dabble in historical examples of play in culture across media and historical periods
• play with game-like modes of adaptation, glitching, deformance, and related practices aimed at remediating extant texts or producing new ones
• ruminate on the educational enterprise, wondering whether its received disciplinary structure can accomodate the subversive and ludic spirit of play in all its forms
• begin to scratch their collective head at the very notion of "learning outcomes," which seems to presupposed a static "content" that evinces a certain "throughput," eventuating in measureable "outcomes," rather than a contingent, idiopathic process that each student navigates for themselves to their own ends
• wonder at the strange grammar of "learning outcomes," which issue from a living, breathing human yet are written in a dry third-person mode of address that obscures their origin and makes them appear like the Commandments dropped on Moses or pronouncements from behind the Wizard's curtain

Responsibilities:

• four blog posts of 500-800 words + informal commenting on others’ posts
• participation in one small “building/sharing” group project
• one 10-15 min in-class presentation on a game or other example of "playable media" of your choosing
• final project OR topic of your own devising based on original research (ca. 15 pp. essay or equivalent negotiated with instructor)
• regular attendance and participation in all discussions

Grading:

I will give detailed guidelines for the blog posts, collaborative project, presentation, and final project separately. Your grade will be calculated as follows: blogging (25%); group project (15%); presentation (15%); final project (30%); participation (15%).

Sexual Misconduct Policy:

The Graduate Center seeks to create and maintain a safe environment in which all members of our campus community —students, faculty, and staff—can learn and work free from fear of sexual assault and other forms of violence. The City University of New York and The Graduate Center prohibit gender-based harassment of any kind, by students, faculty, and staff. Harassment is unwelcome conduct that may include sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or physical conduct of a sexual nature. Harassing conduct, also implicated by sexual assault, domestic and intimate partner violence, or stalking on any CUNY campus, creates a “hostile environment” which, when sufficiently severe or pervasive, may limit or interfere with a student’s ability to participate in educational activities, or an employee’s ability to perform his or her job. For more details, see the full documentation.

Academic Integrity:

Academic dishonesty is prohibited in The City University of New York. Penalties for academic dishonesty include academic sanctions, such as failing or otherwise reduced grades, and/or disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or expulsion. Plagiarism is defined as “the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writing as your own.” Examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying another person’s actual words or images without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source.
• Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source.
• Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments.
• Internet plagiarism, including submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, or “cutting & pasting” from various sources without proper attribution.

Here is the GCs full academic integrity policy.

Accessibility/ADA:

The City University of New York is committed to providing reasonable accommodations and academic adjustments to allow qualified individuals the opportunity to participate in programs, activities and employment. CUNY recognizes that there may be times when employees and their supervisors, as well as students and their instructors, can resolve accommodation requests informally. However, in many cases, such requests require a more formal process with the request being made to and considered by a designated decision-maker, with the opportunity for an appeal, as provided for in these procedures.

Here is the full statement of procedures, and here are some available resources regarding accommodations.