We are a collective of enthusiasts with broad expertise in the exploration of history through games.
Director
Akar Bharadvaj is the first-place winner of the 2021 Zenobia Award for his board game Tyranny of Blood, on changes to India’s social structure under British colonialism. Since Zenobia 2021, he has taken a role as a Research Associate at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), where he designs wargames and tabletop exercises to explore topics related to international relations and security. His academic and professional background includes history, analysis, graphic design, and user experience design, and he appreciates game design for letting him combine all of these into one medium.
Christienne Hinz is Associate Professor of History at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her research focuses on gamification and game-based learning best practices for the university classroom. She designs history education tabletop and role playing games focused on world history.
Board Members
Kevin Bertram is the founder and owner of Fort Circle Games. He is the designer of The Shores of Tripoli and the co-designer of the forthcoming The Halls of Montezuma. His favorite games include Twilight Struggle, Terraforming Mars, Fortress America, and Star Wars: Rebellion. Kevin was born in Montana and has lived in Washington, DC for 25 years.
Scout Blum is a professor in the Department of History and Philosophy at Troy University in Alabama. She earned her masters’ and doctorate degrees in history from the University of Houston. The designer of Rising Waters, she enjoys the challenge of integrating history into board games. She also uses games in a variety of formats in the classroom, as they work to increase engagement, empathy, and critical thinking skills.
Liz Davidson covers solo games on her channel, Beyond Solitaire, and is also the host of the Beyond Solitaire podcast. She has a particular interest in historical games, particularly those that focus on ancient history. Outside of gaming, Liz is a high school Latin teacher and freelance Coptologist (expert in Coptic language). She holds a BA in Classical Studies from The University of Chicago and a PhD in Ancient Christianity from Yale University.
Geoff Engelstein is an award-winning tabletop game designer whose titles include Space Cadets, The Fog of War, Pit Crew, The Expanse, and the upcoming Versailles: 1919 and Super Skill Pinball. He is adjunct professor of game design at the NYU Game Center. Geoff has since 2007 contributed a Dice Tower podcast series on the math, science, and psychology of games and since 2011 hosted the Ludology podcast on game design. He has published the books on game design Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design, Achievement Relocked, and the upcoming GameCraft and has spoken at GDC, Pax, Gencon, Rutgers, and USC. He has degrees in Physics and Electrical Engineering from the MIT and is president of the design engineering firm Mars.
Candice Harris is a Media Creator for BoardGameGeek (BGG) and an omni gamer with a strong appreciation and passion for historical board games and wargames. She contributes regularly to BGG News, often covering historical games. In addition, she hosts a designer interview series called “Cardboard Creations” and the BoardGameGeek Podcast. She is an SDHistCon Advisory Board member, and enjoys running and participating in events to help make the historical gaming space more accessible and inclusive.
Pijus Krūminas is an Associate Professor at ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius, Lithuania. There he uses board games in courses in political science and economics, including a subject on simulation-focused games. Pijus has also provided wargame training for the Lithuanian Military Academy and other related institutions.
Edgar Milik is a web programming team lead at the University of California, San Diego. He’s also board member of the San Diego Historical Game Convention (https://sdhist.com), a judge for the Summit Award, and a contributor to Conflicts of Interest historical gaming blog. He’s the former and current tech facilitator for the Zenobia Award.
Mitch Reed is a Defense and Hobby wargamer and designer, Zenobia 2021 judge and mentor. Runs the gaming website nodicenoglory.com
Volko Ruhnke is a freelance boardgame designer retired from the US intelligence community, where he promoted the use of tabletop games for training and analysis. His award-winning commercial designs, such as the popular COIN Series and Levy & Campaign Series of games, simulate military historical topics from ancient and feudal warfare and the French & Indian War to modern insurgency and the War on Terror. Follow him on Twitter @Volko26 or Mastodon @Volko@wargamers.social.
Damon Stone has been developing and designing games of all types including complex strategic trading card games, light board games, and historical conflict simulation, for 13 years. He prides himself on coming up with creative solutions to complex problems and marrying theme and mechanics to create a more intuitive and immersive game experience. When not designing his own games, he also does cultural consulting and development consulting for other games.
Wendy J. Turner is a Professor of History at Augusta University. She often uses games in her undergraduate courses, especially Reacting to the Past. Turner is well published in the history of medieval law and medicine with a monograph, five edited book, and numerous articles. She is one of the leading international scientists working on the history of disability with her specialty being mental health, intellectual disabilities, and intelligence. Turner has received several honors, including a Leverhulme Trust visiting Professorship to Swansea University in Wales. Currently, Turner is the Special Assistant to the Dean of The Graduate School at Augusta University and the Director of the Graduate Student Certificate program in Bioethics.