Video Games and the Caribbean

A friendly reminder: this week, the Program in African & African American Studies at Stanford (AAAS) and the Caribbean Studies Reading Group (CSRG), a graduate initiative sponsored by the Stanford History Department, are teaming up for a special international collaboration on Wednesday, April 20 at 12pm PST with the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, to explore the intersection of Video Game Studies and Caribbean Studies.   

Video games are often thought of as simply a part of the world of entertainment, but what are the educational possibilities and political stakes at hand when games engage with the history and culture of the African diaspora? What are the differences between video games about the Caribbean emerging from the region itself and those developed in North America? What is the present and future of the video game industry and video game culture in the Caribbean? 

This special Zoom panel, "Video Games and the Caribbean", features scholars from both the U.S. and the Caribbean who are exploring these questions. We are excited to welcome Dr. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, Professor of History at California State University San Marcos and alumna of Stanford University's History PhD program, who will present about the representation of the Haitian Revolution in video games. Her newest book, Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games (which received the Honorable Mention for the 2021 HSA biennial Book Prize, Haitian Studies Association), was published in June 2021 by the University Press of Mississippi. Edward Knight, a PhD Candidate and adjunct lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus will provide remarks about the politics of video games culture. Our very own African & African American Studies graduate fellow, Matt Randolph, will moderate the event and there will be time for a Q&A with the panelists. 

If you are based in the Bay Area, note that the Caribbean Studies Reading Group is providing a limited number of copies of Dr. Sepinwall's book Slave Revolt on Screen for pick-up on Stanford's campus. Fill out this interest form to get on the list and we'll email you more details about the pick-up!