Centre for the Study of State Violence Grand Opening: Public Workshops

Workshop 1: Practical Strategies for Teaching Difficult Topics
9:30-11:30 a.m. | Education Room (A246)

ABSTRACT: The Current Ontario curriculum requires educators to teach difficult topics including residential schools, the Holocaust, slavery, genocide and other histories of state violence and discrimination. These topics ask educators to move beyond content delivery and support students as they engage with complex historical narratives, ethical questions, and emotional responses. Many educators, including in-service and teacher-candidates, need practical support in how to approach this teaching in developmentally and pedagogically appropriate ways. This 2 hour workshop offers practical strategies to do this.

Pre-registration is mandatory. Limited Seats. Fee applies.

Facilitator: Anna Pearson
Guest Speaker: The Honourable Anthony Rota, MP Nipissing-Timiskaming, retired

Workshop 2: Imagining War: Game Design in Conflict Simulation
9:30-11:30 a.m. | Immersive Classroom (A251)

ABSTRACT: This interactive workshop explores analogue game design as an approach to teaching and learning about state violence. Drawing on Brian Train’s experience as a game designer, participants will examine how games can foster critical engagement with complex topics, including war, genocide, colonialism, and other forms of state violence.

The session begins with an overview of educational game design principles, highlighting how they can encourage historical thinking, ethical reflection, collaboration, and meaningful discussion. During the hands-on portion, participants will work in small groups to develop a concept for a short educational game addressing a topic aligned with the mandate of the Centre for the Study of State Violence. Through guided activities, participants will consider learning objectives, mechanics, narrative, and player experience while examining how games can engage with difficult histories thoughtfully and responsibly. No prior game design experience is required.

Presenter: Brian Train, Independent Game Designer, Victoria, BC (Virtual)
Chair: Stephen Connor, Nipissing University

Pre-registration is mandatory. Limited Seats.

Workshop 3: Lilia Topouzova: Documenting Historical Narratives on Film For Graduate Students
9:30-11:30 a.m. | CSV Seminar Room (A242)

This interdisciplinary workshop explores documentary filmmaking as a mode of historical and scholarly inquiry. Through discussion and the screening of selected film excerpts, participants will examine how archival fragments, oral testimony, silence, and place can be translated into cinematic form. Central to the workshop will be the question of the image: how do filmmakers decide what to show, what to leave outside the frame, and when the absence or deliberate withholding of an image may be more meaningful, or even more ethically responsible,  than its inclusion? Together, we will consider how visual presence and absence impact historical knowledge and the work of bearing witness.

No advance reading or preparation is required.