BGA Conference 2025
Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester NY
October 4-5, 2025
Annual Conference
This year’s conference will be held at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, on October 4-5, 2025.
Board Gamers Academics would like to sincerely thank our partners at the Strong Museum for their enthusiastic support of scholars, researchers, practitioners, and gamers in learning more about gaming and its power to go beyond the tabletop.
The conference features academic research on poignant topics within the board game and TTRPG communities, with insights from faculty, researchers, emerging scholars, and practitioners.
Join us for two days of discussion, networking, research, and fun at the Strong Museum, devoted to the history and exploration of play.
Attendance Options:
- General Admission – $200
- Student/Adjunct Faculty/K-12 Teacher Rate – $100
* Inquire about group rate discounts.
We understand the importance of accessibility, and therefore, the registration fee will be waived for hardship cases. Contact BGA for details.
AGENDA
Day 1: Play as Identity, Learning, and Cultural Memory
Day One explores how tabletop games reflect and shape identity, learning, and culture. Sessions delve into unconscious play, educational design, and storytelling to reveal how games act as mirrors, tools for growth, and carriers of collective memory.
Day 2: Systems, Design, and the Transformative Power of Play
Day Two shifts from reflection to action, exploring how games model real-world systems, challenge norms, and inspire change. Sessions focus on meaningful mechanics, transformative play, and interdisciplinary design, culminating in a dialogue between academia and industry on using games for research, education, and impact.
PRESENTATION TOPICS
Keynote Presenter: Eric Zimmerman
Professor, NYU Game Center
Co-Founder, The Institute of Play
Co-Founder, Gamelab
- Gamification as Educational Tool (Christopher Rondeau, University of Tulsa)
- Around the Round Table: Fellowship and Cultural Longing in Arthurian Tabletop Games (Camille Deschapelles, Georgetown University)
- A framework for analysing board games and what they say about the world. (Ian Greener, University of Glasgow)
- Roleplaying Games, General Education, and Understanding Culture (Stephanie Hedge, Associate Professor of English and Writing Program Director, University of Illinois Springfield)
- The Sustainability Lens Game: Using Storytelling as a Creative Development Tool for Connection and Change (Tamara Stenn, Assistant Professor, Suffolk University, Sawyer Business School)
- Leveraging Gameplay for Cognitive Skill Development and Active Learning: The
Educational Potential of Nine Tiles Extreme and Similar Lightweight Board Games (Jenny Yanzhi Wang, Designer Columbia University, New York University) - “Laws Are Threats..”: The Cubby’s, Marxist Ideology, and the Politics of Humor in Dimension 20’s Fantasy High (Mx. Tarae McQueen, San Francisco State University)
- Cards Against Humanity and the Ethics of Algorithmic Curation in Analog Games (Dan Tibbles, University of Washington)
- The Cognition of Game Playing: Learning Cognitive Psychology by Playing Board Games (Dr. Stephen Blessing (Janet R. Matthews, PhD., Endowed Chair in Psychology), University of Tampa)
- Mapping Common Core Math Standards onto Tabletop Game Mechanics to Enhance Age Appropriate Gameplay (Jonathan Croft and Catherine Croft, Ph.D., Catlilli Games)
- Lacan Plays Catan: Unconscious Desire in Tabletop Gaming (Paul Hoard, PhD, LMHC, Associate Professor of Counseling Psychology, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology)
- Dungeons, Dragons, Difficult Deliberations: Campaign Settings and Contemporary Considerations (Pascal Verheul, MA, Nottingham Trent University)
- Endgame: Playing at Dying (Dr Laura Davies, University of Cambridge, UK, and Dr. Emma Reay, University of Southampton)
- Representing Folklore: The Rakshasa in Western Tabletop Games (Caleb Levy, New York University)
- Vanessa Michelle Cozza, Director of Communication Studies Online Program, Colorado State University
Game Demo Night: Learning Through Play
Saturday evening, we’re hosting a four-hour demo and presentation night. Sign up to participate, presenting recent research, classroom success, or hands-on practical applications.
Explore exciting new applications of games, or share your research and designs with fellow scholars.
This evening event will feature hands-on game demonstrations focused on themes of identity, education, systems, and transformation. We welcome presentations from scholars, designers, educators, therapists, students, and others invested in the role of games in society.
Application is open for demonstrations, poster presentations, slides, or anything you feel fits the theme of learning through play in your field.
Hotel
We have negotiated a reduced group rate with the Hampton Inn and Suites in Downtown Rochester, just a 5 minute walk from the museum.
Hampton Inn & Suites Rochester Downtown
We’re in the heart of Downtown Rochester, close to many shops and restaurants. The Strong National Museum of Play is a short walk away and the Blue Cross Arena is a five-minute drive. The Geva Theatre Center is a 10-minute walk and Genesee Brewery is two miles from us. Enjoy our indoor pool and relax with a drink at our bar. Free overnight parking, breakfast, WiFi, and local transportation.
Conference Rate: $169 (Cut-off: September 24)
Distance to Conference: 5 minute walk
Venue
We’re excited to be holding the 3rd Annual BGA Conference at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY.
Strong National Museum of Play
1 Manhattan Square Dr, Rochester, NY 14607
Time zone: America/New York (UTC -04:00)
About Board Game Academics
We are Board Game Academics, a group of tabletop gamers and academic professionals of various stripes. Our mission is to combine research and gaming in novel ways that benefit academics and gaming. This multi-disciplinary project takes the form of an academic journal and conference to better critically examine the role of gaming across society, education, and beyond. We are mainly focused on the historical, cultural, and systemic exploration of games as they relate to themes of race, gender, nationality, (de)coloniality, ability, sexuality, and class. In bringing these areas closer together, we hope to encourage meaningful discourse between academics, researchers, and gamers. To this end, we welcome participation in our first conference as researchers present their works linking these worlds together.
The editorial board would especially like to welcome students and those not currently engaged in this research. The world of tabletop gaming is ever-expanding, and the issues discussed in the research being presented affects all sorts of gamers, not just those in academic settings. Scholarship in this field is also relatively new and constantly developing, with ideas from our community of gamers and guiding discussions and research discourse. We encourage gamers and interested parties of all types to come along as we explore how people relate to and experience games together.
Join Us on October 4 and 5
Register to attend the conference on October 4 and 5 from the link below. Early bird tickets are available at a discounted rate using the code EarlyBirdDiscount until May 31, 2025. Students and adjuncts are eligible for a discounted rate. Please contact us for additional details.