Board Game Studies Colloquia

What is the Board Game Studies Colloquium

In September 1990 Irving Finkel, curator and assyriologist for The British Museum, hosted a symposium on the study of board games "Board Games in the Ancient World".

This encouraged the regular gathering of minds, mainly thanks to Alex De Voogt, starting in 1995 first on a biennial basis, and since 2001 every year.

Today this meeting is known as the Board Game Studies Colloquium and, in 2023 celebrated its 25th meeting in Ephesus.

It is so far that the only recurring event devoted solely to the study of non-digital board games hosted at various venues throughout the world.

The Colloquium gathers a wide range of multidisciplinar scholars, curators, inventors, collectors and enthusiasts from all around the world. They present and discuss new research in the growing field of game studies. The focus has traditionally been on historical board, card, and dice games, but later years have begun to feel the impact from the current explosion in non-digital gaming.

Board Game Studies Journal

BGSJ – Board Game Studies Journal is a single peer-reviewed journal for historical and systematic research on board games.

Its object is to provide a forum for board games research from all academic disciplines in order to further our understanding of the development and distribution of board games within an interdisciplinary academic context.

All papers presented at the colloquium will be considered.

Go to the BGSJ

List of the Board Game Studies Colloquia

2025 Chemnitz, Germany
2024 Tampere, Finland
2023 Ephesus, Turkey
2022 Leeuwarden, Netherlands
2020-21 Paris, France
2019 Bologna, Italy
2018 Athens, Greece
2017 Copenhagen, Denmark
2016 Nürnberg, Germany
2015 La Tour de Peilz, Switzerland
2014 Ipswich, Suffolk
2013 Ponta Delgada, Portugal
2012 Munich, Germany

2011 Bruges, Belgium
2010 Paris, France
2009 Jerusalem, Israel
2008 Lisbon, Portugal
2007 St Pölten, Austria
2006 Ouro Preto, Brazil
2005 Oxford, UK
2004 Philadelphia, PA, USA
2003 Marburg, Germany
2002 Barcelona, Spain
2001 Fribourg, Switzerland
1999 Florence, Italy
1997 Leiden, The Netherlands
1995 Leiden, The Netherlands