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BOARD GAMES AND MEDIEVAL MEDICINE

 

 

The Board Games and Medieval Medicine Project was the public engagement element of a larger translation project called ALHOM, or "A Literary History of Medicine". Both of these projects were generously funded by the Wellcome Trust, with the main translation project running from 2015 to 2020, and the accompanying board game project running for 18 months, from April 2016 to October 2017.

The aim of this project was to examine the viability of using board games and card games as a vehicle for engaging the general public with the outputs of academic research, with the key deliverables being three prototype games on medicine in the medieval Islamic world, alongside a detailed report on the process of developing and testing these games, and an analysis of how effective games of this type can be at disseminating project research.

As part of this process the project team took part in public events, including talks and workshop sessions, as well as regular monthly play testing sessions at the History of Science Museum in Oxford.

Below are the two key outputs from the main Literary History of Medicine Project. On the left is an open access version of the full text and translation of The ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah, and on the right is a trade paperback published by OUP that contains selected biographies, poetry, and commentary on the larger text.

This website contains all of the outputs of the project, and includes links to online versions of the games, as well as recordings of talks, details of the main project outcomes, and useful links for readers interested in either the history of medieval Islamic medicine, or those more interested in board game design.

     
 

https://brill.com/view/db/lhom

 

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anecdotes-and-antidotes-9780198827924

     
     

 Forthcoming Event

On Thursday 10 December, from 6pm until 7pm, join Daniel Burt from Oxford's Faculty of Oriental Studies for a fascinating insight into the Board Games and Medieval Medicine Project as part of the Knowledge in Motion - Science and Medicine in the Islamic World lecture series at the History of Science Museum, Oxford. There is no charge to attend this online event, but you will need to register. For further information, please click here.

 

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