Board Game Academics
Scholarship and research into the role of modern tabletop board games in society and education.
Academic Discourse & Gameplay
Board Game Academics was founded as a platform that encourages engaging discourse around play and analog games and systems that facilitate play.
Submit to BGA
Publishing annually, BGA is open to submissions year-round. Submit your completed article, audio presentation, or proposal to contribute.
Volunteer
BGA offers a forum for academic engagement with representative systems of society. As a peer reviewed journal and communications platform, volunteers are welcome.
Read Recent Articles
Read recent articles from leading scholars in media studies, communication, writing pedagogy, game design, and more.
Connecting Play with Purpose
🎲 BGA Spring Conference
📅 April 17–19, 2026 w/ April 16 pre-conference
📍 The Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, NY
The Tabletop Scholars Conference brings together practitioners across education, mental health, healthcare, community engagement, corporate training, and creative fields to explore how commercially published tabletop games can transform learning, professional practice, and community engagement.
Over three days, professionals will come together to evaluate commercially available, nominated games to determine whether they qualify for BGA Accreditation due to their ability to be a valuable tabletop play experience in their profession. Based on their ratings, we will bestow our accreditation on that game and promote it for use in that field.
Recent Publications
Read our recent releases.
NOTE: Volume III Issue 1 coming in March 2026.
Get Involved
Are you engaged in research related to analog games, including tabletop RPGs, board games, card games, or anything else featuring dice, cards, meeples or game boards? Submit your proposal or finished draft for review, volunteer as a manuscript reader, or donate to support our efforts.
Become a Tabletop Scholar
Are you an educator, counselor, researcher, or professional interested in participating in the evaluation of tabletop games for use in professional settings? Apply to become a Tabletop Scholar and join us in April 2026 at our annual conference.