2023 Annual Institute

Our flagship event returns, live and in person, to Barnard College!  From June 8-11, 2023, we'll meet in New York for the first time since 2019, and we hope you'll join us.  

Much has changed since we last convened on our home campus, and accordingly, the theme for this year is "Reacting to Our New Realities," and our non-game pedagogy sessions will build on our recent Winter Conference workshop topic--"From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs"-- by focusing on the challenges that we're facing in the larger educational landscape: student (un)preparedness, the proliferation of AI technology, the changing demographics and demands in higher education, and how best to support each other and our students in our learning.

Another new reality is that the Consortium is now formally supporting use of RTTP by secondary instructors, and so this June we'll be offering HS-focused working sessions, as well as games recommended for secondary students.

COVID POLICY

We strong encourage, but do not require, masking. However, to ensure safety for the wider campus community, all summer participants are requested to meet Barnard College’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement, which means that they are fully vaccinated and boosted. Complete information on Barnard's COVID policies can be found here.

We will be offering grab-and-go meals for those who wish to reduce their exposure to others by eating outside; please let us know if you would like this option when you register.

PROGRAMMING

GAME WORKSHOPS

The Reacting pedagogy is best understood by experiencing as students do, albeit in abbreviated versions. This game workshop provides a condensed gameplay experience over two days, broad context for the simulation and mechanics, and include post-game guidance on how to use it in your own classroom.

Participants will be sent a gamebook for each game, outlining the topics and debates of a historical moment, as well as a detailed role sheets for a historical actor in those debates. Participants prepare and engage as that historical actor, making arguments and forging alliances to achieve specific Victory Objectives. You need not be a specialist to play (or run) a Reacting game, but you should plan on doing some preparatory reading.

We are pleased to offer nine different games this year, including:

• The Threshold of Democracy: Athens in 403 B.C.E.*
  
• Wrestling with the Reformation: Augsburg, 1530*
  
• Rousseau, Burke, and Revolution in France, 1791*
• The Fate of John Brown, 1859
  
• Detroit 1859
• Greenwich Village, 1913: Suffrage, Labor, & the New Woman, 2nd Ed*
• Democracy in Crisis, Weimar Germany, 1929-32
• Diet and Killer Diseases: The McGovern Committee Hearings, 1977
  
• Ending the Troubles: Religion, Nationalism, and the Search for Peace and Democracy in Northern Ireland, 1997-98 
  

In lieu of a tenth game, we'll be offering an intensive workshop for our newcomers (piloted last June at CU-Boulder) that will better prepare them to launch a Reacting game in the coming academic year. 

WORKING GROUPS

This summer, we're what used to be known as "concurrent sessions" where people presented their Reacting-related work to their peers, is being replaced with a set of working groups tasked with grappling with a problem facing the larger community, including  post-pandemic learning loss, artificial intelligence programs like Chat GPT, and RTTP in/and Honors.  Of special note is a working group dedicated to Reacting at the high school level. We're excited to meet our secondary education community, and are grateful for the grant-funded team from Grand Valley State University for leading the charge.

KEYNOTE PLENARY

Our plenary speaker this year is anthropologist Zoe Antoinette Eddy of Harvard University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who studies, among other things, LARPing and cultural appropriation. Her presentation, "Playing at the Margins: Indigenous Experiences in New England Larp," will discuss how marginalized subjects reclaim creative space  within live-action roleplaying contexts.

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE 

(ALL TIMES EASTERN & SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7 

THURSDAY, JUNE 8

FRIDAY, JUNE 9

SATURDAY, JUNE 10 

SUNDAY, JUNE 11

PRICING

Become a member to save money on your registration! Individual memberships start at just $25. 

FUNDED REGISTRATION FOR DEI ADVANCEMENT $0
The Reacting Consortium is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and belonging. We have funded registration for instructors who are members of historically underrepresented and marginalized identity groups, and/or for those teaching at minority-serving institutions (HBCUs, Tribal colleges and universities, AAPI- and Hispanic-serving institutions). If you are interested in applying for one of these spots, please send an email to reacting@barnard.edu with the subject line “Funded AI Spot” by May 1. Approved applicants will be able to register for free , but housing will not be included.  Please apply and share with colleagues!

HOUSING

This year, we have approximately 100 residence hall rooms available in Sulzberger Tower for our conference participants; 85 singles can be booked at a rate of $100/night; and 14 double rooms at a rate of $65/night. Basic linens will be provided.  Reservations are available only for the nights of June 7-10, and all participants must be checked out by 2pm on June 11.

Registration is open now!

The Reacting Consortium Board, in its sole and absolute discretion, reserves the right to bar any person from the Reacting Faculty Lounge on Facebook and from participation in any Reacting Consortium event.