Conference review: AnthropologyCon 2017

Abstract

AnthropologyCon 2017 transpired across multiple sites at the annual American Anthropology Association meeting in Washington, DC. The first event included a workshop on “Anthropology of/through Games” on Thursday afternoon, November 30, where participants learned about, brainstormed on, designed, and prototyped table-top games under the tutelage of Dr. Anatasia Salter, a game designer and games scholar from the University of Central Florida. In the second event, workshop participants and other interested attendees played games at the “#AnthropologyCon Salon” on Saturday afternoon, December 2, including a couple of the table-top games prototyped during the first workshop. Finally, participants adjourned to the Board Room, a nearby gaming pub in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, DC, to play card games and role-playing games (Figure 1). In lieu of a single-authored review of AnthropologyCon, the organizers have asked themselves key questions about their goals and future plans.