26 July 2019

The Dungeon Masters are now the Professors

Fellow philosopher—and fantasy fan and role-playing gamer—Christopher Robichaud is senior lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Apparently he has quite the office!

[Photo of Robichaud in his domain from here.]

Here is his explanation of his engagement with popular culture:
As a philosopher and ethicist, why is pop culture a part of your work?    I sometimes joke that philosophy is wasted on philosophers. It's only half a joke. I love the discipline. I love my colleagues who are professional philosophers writing mostly for professional philosophers. There's so much good that philosophy can do in the public, at large, but you sort of have to meet them halfway. So, my way of meeting folks halfway is by saying, "These popular cultural things that you love—Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead or Dungeons & Dragons or superheroes—there are some interesting philosophical ideas here."  

And here he mentions his ongoing D&D game:
Any Easter eggs in the office? Anything hidden that people wouldn't notice?    In the corner, there are a bunch of Dungeons & Dragons books; I run Dungeons & Dragons game out of the Kennedy School. A couple times a month, people—including a Cambridge city councilor—play with me and a bunch of the students.  

Living the academic nerd dream!

Christopher edited the volume Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy and authored this blog’s review of Curse of Strahd.

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I'm a Canadian political philosopher who lives primarily in Toronto but teaches in Milwaukee (sometimes in person, sometimes online).