A guest lecture was taught by Dr. Tyler Kynn, from the Central Connecticut State University, on Monday, November 13th. Dr. Kynn is an Assistant Professor of the History of the Islamic World. He is the co-creator of the Hajj Trail: A Journey along the Darb al-Hajj simulation. His dissertation entitled “Encounters of Islam and Empire: The Hajj in the Early Modern World,” has been the fundamental research for this historical simulation of the pilgrimage to Mecca in the early modern world.

The annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. It is one of the five pillars of Islam and incumbent upon all able-bodied Muslims once during their lifetimes. The purpose of this educational historical simulation is to bring students along that same journey and understand how the hajj fit into the larger social, political, and cultural world of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. In this guest lecture entitled “Imagining the Ottoman World in Digital Spaces,” Dr. Kynn talked about the development stages of the Hajj Trail simulation and answered the questions of students during the discussion session.

You can also find Tyler Kynn working on the Hajj Trail on their Twitch channel (twitch.tv/tkottomans) as well as follow him on Twitter.

Dr. Kynn’s Suggested Sources and Readings:

• Select Academic Orgs and People:
  • https://value-foundation.org/ (The Value Foundation – Angus Mol)
  • https://gamingthepast.net/ (Gaming the Past + Books – Jeremiah McCall)
  • http://www.elizabethlapensee.com/#/games (the Games and work of Elizabeth Lapensee)
  • https://homer.open-lab.com/site/ (New Twine-like digital storytelling tool)
  • https://archaeogaming.com/ (Great site for an introduction into the concept of Archaeogaming)
  • https://www.digitalottomanstudies.com/ (Open minded to different types of digital projects for understanding the Ottoman World)
  • www.hajjtrail.com (this is our home site, and any updates can be found on Twitter @kynntyler)

• Twine Resources:
  • https://twinery.org/
  • Twine Cookbook (sugarcube)
  • Sugarcube Sample code
  • Harlowe (more user-friendly for your Twine story format)

• Further Reading:
  • Pérez de Miles, Adetty and Kevin Jenkins, “(Re)Born Digital-Trans-Affirming Research, Curriculum, and Pedagogy: An Interactive Multimodal Story Using Twine,” in Visual Arts Research, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Summer 2017), p. 43-49.
  • Boom, Krijn, et.al., “Teaching through Play: Using Video Games as a Platform to Teach about the Past,” in Communicating the Past in the Digital Age, ed. Sebastian Hageneuer. (London: Ubiquity Press, 2020).
  • Denning, Andrew. “Deep Play? Video Games and the Historical Imaginary” in The American Historical Review. Volume 126, Issue 1. (March, 2021) Pages 180-198.
  • LaPensée, Elizabeth. “When Rivers Were Trails: Cultural Expression in an Indigenous Video Game.” International Journal of Heritage Studies (2020).
  • McCall, Jeremiah. “Navigating the Problem Space: The Medium of Simulation Games in the Teaching of History.” The History Teacher 46, no. 1 (2012): 9–28.
  • Nicoll, Benjamin. “‘How History Arrives’: Twine as a Minor Platform.” In Minor Platforms in Videogame History, 157–90. Amsterdam University Press, 2019.
  • Winkie, Luke. “The Board Games That Ask You to Reenact Colonialism,” in The Atlantic. (July 2021).