Following years of research and practice in emerging area of Ludic Studies Ludics: Play as Humanistic Inquiry, (Palgrave, 2021), edited by Vassiliki Rapti and Eric Gordon, co-Chairs of the Ludics Seminar, provides a necessary interdisciplinary road map to this relatively under-researched field and explored Ludics across disciplines, domains, and histories in order to tease out connections that have been previously unexplored or under-appreciated. This collective volume provides both a critical perspective, building off of literature in Media Studies, Game Studies, Communications, Human Computer Interaction, and Civic Engagement, and an interventionist perspective, providing practical design insights for practitioners.

More specifically, this book establishes play as a mode of humanistic inquiry with a profound effect on art, culture and society. Play is treated as a dynamic and relational modality where relationships of all kinds are forged and inquisitive interdisciplinary engagement is embraced. Play cultivates reflection, connection, and creativity, offering new epistemological directions for the humanities. With examples from a range of disciplines including poetry, history, science, religion and media, this book treats play as an object of inquiry, but also as a mode of inquiry. The chapters, each focusing on a specific cultural phenomenon, do not simply put culture on display, they put culture in play, providing a playful lens through which to see the world. The reader is encouraged to read the chapters in this book out of order, allowing constructive collision between ideas, moments in history, and theoretical perspectives. The act of reading this book, like the project of the humanities itself, should be emergent, generative, and playful.

Reviews:

"Ludics: Play as Humanist Inquiry is a valuable resource, re-centering play as essential to the humanities. Working through a bracingly diverse set of examples, the contributors put flesh on co-editor Eric Gordon’s concept of meaningful inefficiencies—the ways in which understanding, inspiration and learning all arise through the messy process of play. Where play and work are often portrayed as being in opposition, this volume illustrates how meaning is often made through playfulness in the work of scholars, philosophers, and artists. In recent decades, corporatist models of productivity in the academy have too often lead to a diminished role for humanistic study. This book is a cogent argument for humanities reinvigorated through a return to their playful roots. At a time when all institutions of learning are undergoing dramatic transformation, this volume is a vital tool for those of us trying to imagine a better future."

— Scot Osterweil, Game Designer, Research Scientist, MIT

“This passionate volume invites us to see play at the center of the humanities. We can find it in the connections we make between ideas and with each other, both within and across disciplines. And we find it here on full display: leading scholars from an impressive cross-section of disciplines from Classics to Computer Game Research, Architecture to Archaeology, Religious Studies, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, and many more—as well as practicing poets, performers, and artists—all exploring ludic topics from the angle of their own scholarly interests. What emerges from the individual essays and the many connections between them is not only a rich source of scholarship about play, but a vision of play at the creative heart of scholarly endeavor.”

—Stephen E Kidd, Associate Professor of Classics, Brown University