Monday, October 24, 2011

Reminder: An Excellent Resource for Board Games Studies

From the blog The Big Game Hunter - invaluable resources for those who study board games/board games history:

(Link updated April 26, 2012 to February, 2012 link at The Big Game Hunter). 

BGS-Board Game Studies

June 28, 2011
By
The International Society for Board Game Studies encourages board game research and hosts a yearly conference. The Board Games Studies colloquium is a multi-cultural event in which scholars, university professors, museum curators, and others involved in games research in the international community speak on various aspects of board games and board game study. Participants also include historians, authors, game inventors, collectors, and game company directors and representatives.

Some of the research is very general and examines board games as a part of play and learning in different cultures. Other studies relate to specific board games and their evolution; such games include backgammon, mancala (wari, oware, awele, et. al.), Halma (Chinese Checkers), the game of India (Parchesi, Ludo, et. al.), checkers, chess, and others.

The International Society for Board Game Studies has previously published a journal, Board Game Studies, and usually issues a book of proceedings following each colloquium.

The BGS group holds research seminars every year, meeting each time in a different country, usually in April.

Previous BGS colloquia have been held in:
  • 1995: Leiden, The Netherlands
  • 1997: Leiden, The Netherlands
  • 1999: Florence, Italy
  • 2001: Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 2002: Barcelona, Spain
  • 2003: Marburg, Germany
  • 2004: Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • 2005: Oxford, UK
  • 2006: Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil
  • 2007: St. Pölten, Austria
  • 2008: Lisbon, Portugal
  • 2009: Jerusalem, Israel
  • 2010: Paris, France
  • 2011: Bruges, Belgium
Coming up:
  • 2012: Munich-Haar, Germany
  • 2013-2014?: Edinburgh, Scotland; Poland (we were hoping to get to Munich in 2012, but it looks like we'll be going to Edinburgh in 2013 instead)
The Board Game Studies colloquia began as Board Games in Academia, following a preliminary gathering in the early 1990s in England, hosted by Irving Finkel, curator (keeper) of the Department of Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British Museum.

Abstracts, Journals and Proceedings

Abstracts were given to BGS colloquium participants but were never made available to the general public.

Proceedings have also been published at various times, based on some of the individual meetings. In 1995, Alex de Voogt published the proceedings from the first Board Games in Academia symposium. This is no longer available.

Board Games Studies, an academic journal for historical and systematic research on board games, was published from 1998 to 2004. Scroll to the bottom of this page for a list of articles, many of which were based on talks given at the various symposia. During this period, only one set of proceedings were published:
•Fribourg University Press published symposium chairperson Jean Retschitzki’s proceedings from the 2001 colloquium in Fribourg, Switzerland. as the book Step by Step. This is now out of print.
•The Proceedings of Board Game Studies Colloquium XI were published by host Jorge Nuno Silva after the 2008 Lisbon conference. Originally available in print, the material can now be found online as a pdf. Click on Lisbon 2008 (be patient — it takes a long time to load). You can also purchase the book on Amazon: click on BGS 2008
•The proceedings of the 2009 colloquium in Paris, hosted by Thierry Depaulis, are due to be published on CD in late 2011 or 2012. Though designed primarily for the speakers (who will all receive one) and attendees (who can purchase one), some copies may be made available for sale to the general public.

International Journal for the Study of Board Games

Board Games Studies, an academic journal for historical and systematic research on board games, was published from 1998 to 2004. Its object was to provide a forum for board games research from all academic disciplines in order to further our understanding of the development and distribution of board games within an interdisciplinary academic context.
Click on the title below to be taken to the BGS website page that has an abstract for the article in English, French and German. At the end of each abstract in issues 1-3, you can download a pdf. of the article.
Issue #1
. Articles / Articles / Beiträge
-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte
-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen
  • E.R. Santos Silva, Jogos de quadrícula do tipo Mancala, by Philip Townshend
  • A. van der Stoep, Over de herkomst van het woord damspel, by Rob Jansen
  • M. Zollinger, Bibliographie der Spielbücher, par Thierry Depaulis

Issue #2
-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge
-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte
-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen
  • W. Decker & M. Herb, Bildatlas zum Sport im Alten Ägypten, by Irving Finkel
  • M. Fittà, Giochi e giocattoli nell’antichità, von Anita Rieche
  • Alfonso el Sabio, Il libro dei giochi, P. Canettieri, ed., by Ulrich Schädler
  • R. Ineichen, Würfel und Wahrscheinlichkeit, von Jörg Bewersdorff
  • N. R. Keesen & A. v. der Stoep, Blinddammen en blindschaken, by Rob Nierse

Issue #3
-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge
-1. Documents and Materials / Documents et Matériaux / Dokumente und Materialien
-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte
-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen
  • A. Sanvito & K. Whyld (ed.), Il Dilettevole, e Giudizioso Giuoco de Scacchi, by Gianfelice Ferlito
  • C. & L. Gavazzi, Giocare sulla pietra, by Thierry Depaulis
  • J. Bewersdorff, Glück, Logik und Bluff, by Jos Uiterwijk
  • G. Westerveld, De invloed van de Spaanse koningin Isabel la Catolica op de nieuwe sterke dame, by Arie van der Stoep
  • G. Westerveld, De invloed van de Spaanse koningin Isabel la Catolica op de nieuwe sterke dame, par Thierry Depaulis

Issue #4
-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge
-1. Documents and Materials / Documents et Matériaux / Dokumente und Materialien
-1. Book Reviews
  • Peter Banaschak, Schachspiele in Ostasien, by Ken Whyld.
  • Michel Boutin, Le Livre des jeux de pions,by Joris Wiersinga.
  • Jean-Louis Cazaux, Guide des échecs exotiques et insolites, by Ulrich Schädler.
  • Masukawa Koichi, Awasemono by Sepp Linhart.
  • David Parlett , The Oxford History of Board Games, by Egbert Meissenburg,
-1. Obituary
  • Yuri Averbakh, In memory of Natalia Ivanova (July 22nd 1947 – February 21st 1998)

Issue #5
-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge
-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte
  • Thomas Thomsen, Chess in Europe in the 5th century?
  • Jean-Marie Lhôte, Martin Le Franc et la dame enragée
  • Arie van der Stoep, Early Spanish board-games
-1. Obituary / Nécrologie / Nachruf
  • Ricardo Calvo (22.10.1943 – 26.9.2002), von Ulrich Schädler
-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen
  • Antonio Panaino, La novella degli scacchi e della tavola reale, von Egbert Meisenburg
  • Grigori L. Semenov, Studien zur sogdischen Kultur an der Seidenstraße, von Ulrich Schädler
  • Leo van der Heijdt, Face to face with dice: 5000 years of dice and dicing, par Thierry Depaulis

Issue #6
Articles / Articles / Beiträge
-1. Documents and Materials
  • Manfred Zollinger, Zwei unbekannte Regeln des Gänsespiels: Ulisse Aldrovandi und Herzog August d.J. von Braunschweig-Lüneburg
-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte
  • Thierry Depaulis, Un jeu de pions mapuche au XVIe siècle
  • Alex de Voogt, Hawalis in Oman: a first account of expertise and dispersal of four-row mancala in the Middle East
-1. Obituary / Näcrologie / Nachruf
  • Ken Whyld (6 March 1926-11 July 2003), by Jurgen Stigter
  • Alain Borveau (1933-2002), by Thierry Depaulis
-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen
  • Renate Syed,Kanauj, die Maukharis und das Caturanga. Der Ursprung des Schachspiels und sein Weg von Indien nach Persien, von Egbert Meisenburg
  • Robert Bollschweiler,Die Handschriften großer Schach, von Hans Holländer
  • Roberto Convenevole and Francesco Bottone,La storia di Risiko e l’anello mancante : origini e evoluzione del gioco di strategia più diffuso nel mondo, by Thierry Depaulis
Issue #7
-1. Articles / Articles / Beiträge
-1. Research Notes / Notes de recherche / Forschungsberichte
  • Thierry Depaulis et Jean Simonata, La plus ancienne représentation datée de joueurs de dames (1492)
  • Claudia Engler, Karten-, Würfel- und Brettspiel im spätmittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Bern
-1. Book Reviews / Comptes rendus / Rezensionen
  • Jean Louis Cazaux, Du Senet au Backgammon. Les jeux de parcours, von Ulrich Schädler
  • Jean Louis Cazaux, Gerhard Josten, Myron Samsin, The Anatomy of Chess. Überlegungen zur Herkunft des Schachspiels, von Ulrich Schädler
  • Francis Willughby’s Book of Games. A Seventeenth-Century Treatise on Sports, Games and Pastimes, by David Parlett

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