BGA Conference 2026
Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester NY
October 16-18, 2026
Annual Conference
This year’s conference will be held at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY, on October 16-18, 2026.
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 three days of discussion, networking, research, and fun at the Strong Museum, devoted to the history and exploration of play.
Attendance Options:
- General Admission – $200
- Early Bird – $150 if registered by July 31.
* 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.
PRESENTATION TOPICS
- A Copy in No Need of an Original: Call of Cthulhu in Japan and the Ambivalence of Media Convergence (Daniel Johnson, William & Mary)
- Gamebooks and Board Games: An Untold Love Story (Marco Arnaudo, Indiana University)
- Serious Fun: A Quantitative Study on Using Dungeons and Dragons to Build Essential Skills in the ELA Classroom (Will West, Murray State University)
- Playable Futures: Disability Justice in Libraries and Games Studies (Jennifer Stubbs, Bradley University)
- A Journey to Find One’s Voice: Utilizing Adapted TTRPGs to Treat Language Disorders in Speech-Language Therapy and Beyond (Heather McFarland, University of South Dakota)
- Spoonies: A Serious Game About Chronic Illness (Carolyn Noe, Northern Kentucky University)
- Creating Your Backstory: Using Dungeons and Dragons as a Tool for Student Identity Exploration in a Higher Education Setting (David Runge, Oswego State University of New York)
- ‘Moving Pieces’: Experiential Rhetoric in Board Game Design (Christopher Jeansonne, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI))
- Over the Tabletop: Exploring Board Games as Media (Sagar Ghosh, Samata Kukade, Elvis Francis, Dr. Madhavi Reddy,
- Toward an Art History of Board Games – And Why That Matters (Maureen Quigley, University of Missouri-St. Louis)
- Universes Beyond—Vicinities Within: Immersed in Magic: The Gathering’s Crossover Culture (David Burton, Old Dominion University)
Venue
We’re excited to be holding the 4th 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 16-18
Register to attend the conference October 16-18 from the link below. Students and adjuncts are eligible for a discounted rate. Please contact us for additional details.