MSU Digital Humanities
Walter Greason | Sojourners Trail: The First Afrofuturist Classroom Game
Walter Greason | Monmouth University, USA
*Note*: During the presentation, the live interpretation cut over the presenter's sound briefly. The video has been edited to remove the section of presentation affected by this issue. As a result, 30 seconds at the beginning of the presentation were lost.
Before the pandemic, educational technology could be considered a luxury. Educators no longer have that option. Digital puzzles and games have become an integral part of daily instruction. Sojourners Trail represents the next generation of immersive, digital simulations for every level of education. Starting with the Wakanda Syllabus in 2016 and based on the subsequent educational text, Cities Imagined, Sojourners Trail allows instructors to use principles of user experience design and digital humanities to explore the Black Speculative Arts Movement with their students. Additionally, as these learning communities explore the simulated environment, they experience lessons from world history, critical theory, and post-colonial literature. Initially presented at the Australia and New Zealand American Studies Association meeting in 2019, the initial version of the game inspired new ways to excite students about the learning process, while giving them ownership of the development of new content. The beta launch of the game in August 2020 attracted millions of users, and the initial guide to the game will be released in December 2020. The final version of the game as a 3D augmented and virtual reality system will be available in 2022. Moving beyond the standard game play environments like Minecraft and Fortnite, Sojourners Trail provides instructors with ways to deliver advanced and emerging academic content across disciplines. The audience for this presentation will learn how to create their own immersive simulations as well as how to develop specific platforms like Sojourners Trail. The concept for the system started with Bowdoin University’s “Flight to Freedom” simulation based on abolitionist narratives written by African Americans in the nineteenth century. More recent breakthroughs like Damian Duffy and John Jennings’ Kindred and Parable of the Sower graphic novels have enabled graphic and digital arts to inform new innovations. The process of creating Sojourners Trail combined aspects of Marvel Studios’ Black Panther film and Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch production. It offers ways to combine literary analysis with graphic art design, while advancing strategies for media convergence.
Access the game at: http://bluehawk.monmouth.edu/~wgreason/Maze/05/story_html5.html
For more information about the 2021 Global DH Symposium visit msuglobaldh.org.
