Culture, humanities & social science
Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games
By Mikael Jakobsson, lecturer in comparative media studies, and Mary Flanagan
MIT Press · 2023
In "Playing Oppression," Jakobsson and Flanagan apply incisive frameworks of postcolonial theory to a broad historical survey of board games to show how seemingly benign entertainments reinforce the logic of imperialism. The work deftly analyzes this insidious violence and proposes a path forward with board games that challenge colonialist thinking and embrace a much broader cultural imagination.
From Summer 2023 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News).
More in Culture, humanities & social science
- Spoken Word: A Cultural History · Joshua Bennett, 2023
- A Thousand Steps to Parliament: Constructing Electable Women in Mongolia · Manduhai Buyandelger, 2022
- Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life · Michael M. J. Fischer, 2023
- Lines Drawn across the Globe: Reading Richard Hakluyt's 'Principal Navigations · Mary C. Fuller, 2023
- A New Companion to Herman Melville · Wyn Kelley, 2022
- The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland · Noah L. Nathan, 2023
- Eating Beside Ourselves: Thresholds of Foods and Bodies · Heather Paxson, 2023
- Writing Egypt: Al-Maqrizi and His Historical Project · Nasser Rabbat, 2022
- Life Is Hard · Kieran Setiya, 2022
- Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East · Steven Simon, 2023
- Ruderal City: Ecologies of Migration, Race, and Urban Nature in Berlin · Bettina Stoetzer, 2022
- Judicial Dispute Resolution: New Roles for Judges in Ensuring Justice · Larry Susskind, 2023
- Harvard Square: A Love Story · Catherine J. Turco, 2023
More from MIT Press →
- Auditing AI · Karrie G. Karahalios, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Bayesian Entrepreneurship · Erin L. Scott, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Birds Up Close: An Engineer Explores Their Hidden Wonders · Lorna J. Gibson, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Launching from the Lab: Building a Deep-Tech Startup · Lita Nelsen, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity · Elisabeth B. Reynolds, 2026 · Summer 2026
- The Art of Monetary Policy: Lessons from Sun Tzu for Central Banks · Kristin J. Forbes, 2026 · Summer 2026
- The Handbook of Social Protection: Evidence and New Directions for Low- and Middle-Income Countries · Benjamin A. Olken, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Carbon Removal · Howard J. Herzog, 2025 · Summer 2026