A Greenhouse Research Talk by Elizabeth (Scout) Blum, Professor of History at Troy University in Alabama.
In 1927, the Mississippi Delta flooded, destroying homes and lives in one of the worst American environmental disasters of the twentieth century. African American sharecroppers suffered far more than local whites, as systemic racism permeated social, economic, and political responses to the flood. As a heartbreaking example of early twentieth century environmental injustice, the board game Rising Waters tackles these difficult issues in an engaging board game format. Designer Scout Blum will discuss some of the lessons learned in the making of the game, including addressing diversity imbalances, matching game mechanics to history, focusing on integrating marginalized groups in games and game publishing, and developing public learning tools for environmental history.
This research talk is part of the NoRS-EH PhD course ‘Play and the Environmental Humanities’, held in Stavanger, 3-4 December 2024
Dr. Elizabeth (Scout) Blum (she/her) is a Professor of History at Troy University in Alabama. An environmental historian, she specializes in the intersection of environmental activism with race, class, gender, and age. The author of Love Canal Revisited (UP Kansas, 2008), she is also the designer of Rising Waters (Central Michigan, 2023), a board game about the 1927 Mississippi flood.