Western University: Students Dive into Ancient Greek History through Immersive Role-Playing Course
The year is 403 BCE. In the aftermath of the reign of the Thirty Tyrants, factions of Athenians fervently debate the future of their democracy.
Burning issues of the day include the potential amnesty for the tyrants’ supporters and Athens’ new constitution. Today, they gather for the trial of Socrates.
As democrats and oligarchs prepare to attack or defend the moral philosopher, onlookers prepare to ‘hurrah’ or heckle. But first, a prayer and an offering of a sacrificial pig.
The herald, Eryximachus, raises his knife and plunges it deep into the beast.
In reality, it’s 2023.
The pig is white chocolate, its blood, red food colouring. The court, a classroom in University College. The assembly of players are upper-year Western students, deeply immersed in the study of fifth-century BCE Athens. Their textbook is a playbook.
The course? Athenian Democracy at a Crossroads, taught by classical studies professor Bernd Steinbock, using the award-winning, innovative teaching method, Reacting to the Past (RTTP).
The rationale and roots of Reacting to the Past
RTTP puts students at the centre of an active learning pedagogy of role-playing games set in the past. Reacting roles, unlike those in a play, do not have a fixed script and outcome. While students are required to adhere to the philosophical and intellectual beliefs of the historical figures they’ve been assigned to play, they must find their own way of expressing those ideas persuasively, in papers, speeches, or other public presentations to help them win the game.
Bernd Steinbock (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)
Steinbock was inspired to try the methodology after his colleague, Roman history professor Debra Nousek, used RTTP to successfully engage her students during the pandemic, on the Conspiracy of Catiline and the aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar.
Steinbock, who’s accustomed to delivering what he calls “the standard fare” of lectures and class discussions, was skeptical at first.
“I have zero dramatic talent,” he said. “This is not my forte at all. The idea of running an entire class on this model, trusting the students would know what to do, without me modelling it, was a little scary.”
But now, more than midway through the term, Steinbock says the outcomes have “exceeded my wildest expectations,” giving full credit to his students. “Their creativity knows no bounds.”
In a previous game-day session, students performed a rap battle. A group assignment to honour the goddess Athena during the Panathenaeic festival saw students bring their individual talents to a collaborative task.
In one group, Anne Campbell created a peplos (woman’s garment), which Olivia Sifrer wore, posing as the statue of Athena. Their teammate Jeffrey Dias played a song he composed for the goddess on a harp.
“It was amazing. The level of engagement and creativity in the class is really outstanding,” Steinbock said. “Western is fortunate to have such talented students.”
RTTP was developed in the late 1990s by Mark C. Carnes, a history professor at Barnard College at Columbia University.
In his book, Minds on Fire: How Role Immersion Games Transform College, Carnes explains his motivation.
“Students and teachers deserve an academic world that is as exciting as intercollegiate football, and as enchanting as World of Warcraft,” he writes, adding that faculty can help students “glimpse the intellectual wonderland that attracted us to academia in the first place: the invigorating scholarly debates, the transformational power of new ideas, the exhilarating risk of looking at the world in a different way, and the thrill of challenging accepted beliefs and practices.”
Alexander Belan-Hudson makes his argument against Socrates as Anytus (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)
The opportunity to engage in debate and conversations is what brought third-year student Alexander Belan-Hudson to major in classical studies – and to Steinbook’s class. The aspects of the course are “right up my alley,” he said. But he was surprised at how immersive it would be.
“I had a general idea of what this course was going to be like, but I didn’t realize it would be this interesting and that I’d be drawn in, feeling like I was part of the Athenian democracy.”
“The topics we discuss are just as relevant today as they were 2,500-odd years ago,” he added.
Setting up the game
At the beginning of the course, Steinbock led set up sessions to introduce the students to the history and political context of fifth-century BCE Athens, and the RTTP principles. In addition to working with the background from their role sheet, students also research the personal, political and social background of their characters, consulting ancient sources such as Plato’s Apology of Socrates and the Republic to inform their arguments and speeches.
“As a Greek historian, teaching a Greek history class, that element is really important to me and to our learning objectives,” Steinbock said.
As are the interdisciplinary skills – from writing and public speaking to reasoning and strategizing.
Game sessions are run by the students, with Steinbock taking notes on the sidelines and grading their oral and written work.
“Some students are more comfortable than others, but it’s really great to see how they get into their roles and gain confidence as they make their case,” he said.
For her role as Eryximachus, Kariane Guenette made white chocolate pigs to “sacrifice” and for her classmates to enjoy during the trial of Socrates. (Christopher Kindratsky/Western Communications)
Kariane Guenette, a fourth-year student pursuing an honours specialization in classical studies, said she “was a bit shy” coming into the course.
“I don’t have theatre experience and had never acted something out in front of a large group of people before. But the class has become such a friendly environment, everybody’s interested in helping each other. We laugh together, even though we are all heckling each other during the assembly session.”
There’s also some friendly competition, which motivated Guenette, who performed the pig sacrifice in her role as Eryximachus, to make the effort to order pig molds, melt white chocolate and create not only the sacrificial pig, but candy pigs for the whole class to enjoy.
“From the first week onward, everybody came out swinging with great ideas,” Guenette said, recalling the student who pelted a pig piñata and another, who stabbed a stuffed toy pig. “They were so creative. I didn’t want to be the one who stopped that,” she said, with a laugh.
And with hopes to go on to law school, Guenette welcomes the opportunity to comb through large volumes of sources to form her own conclusions, and to learn how to be quick on her feet, responding to rebuttals.
“It’s just a really great atmosphere to come out of your shell,” she said.