A lecturer in the University of Iowa Department of Rhetoric has had an article published in the debut issue of the journal Board Game Academics. 

Justin Cosner, director of graduate studies, examined the use of tabletop role-playing games in helping students identify the rules that shape discussion and debate practices. His article, “Gaming [the] Systems: Critical Analysis Through Tabletop Roleplaying Games in Humanities Classrooms,” appeared in the March issue of Board Game Academics, which will publish annually.

Cosner says he discovered ways to bring games into the classroom to encourage students to identify how discussions in humanities classrooms can be shaped by their format.

 “In a world where discussion is increasingly mediated by applications, students need to be able to identify and analyze how formal constraints shape the conversations that can and do take place,” Cosner says.