University of California, San Diego

Project Director:  Emily Roxworthy

To Support:  The development of a role-playing game focused on Japanese-American internment in Arkansas during World War II.

Award Dates:  04/01/2009 - 03/31/2010

Outright Funds: $24,983.  Matching Funds: $0

Abstract: DRAMA IN THE DELTA will produce an interactive 3D model of key historic sites from the WWII Arkansas Delta in order to digitally simulate the systems of racial segregation that governed home-front life when black-white Jim Crow laws intersected with the policies of two local internment camps for Americans of Japanese descent. Rohwer and Jerome each imprisoned a peak wartime population of 8,500; these were the only War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps in the American South and the only to house Hawaiians of Japanese descent. The wartime internment in general has not entered most Americans' consciousness. The popularity of interactive role-playing games (RPGs) presents an effective pedagogical medium to capture public interest: by creating a historically accurate RPG reenacting 1944 Arkansas, DRAMA IN THE DELTA will engage the problem-solving behaviors of "gamers," and use this active learning environment to teach about civil liberties--struggles that were eventually triumphant.

Project Website: [none]

Project Whitepaper Available for Download?  [no]

Jointly Funded by the NEH and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.