Place Out Of Time
How would a conversation between Muhammad Ali and Napoleon on the subject of the intelligent use of force unfold? What might Queen Isabella have to say about the importance of a diverse society? Come to the Alhambra Palace and find out!
Place Out Of Time is a simulation of a trial, where students play guests who come from a range of places and times throughout history to discuss some of the great issues of humankind. Our trial takes place (virtually) at the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain. A core of banquet guests, portrayed by university student mentors, will come from Muslim Spain and the Arab world in the 9th through 16th centuries. These include people like the famed traveler/writer Ibn Battuta, and the philosopher Maimonides. This period was a time of a great flowering of intellectual pursuits, which resulted in significant advances in mathematics, science, and the literary arts, as well as the dissemination of knowledge through books, a legacy that has influenced our contemporary society in many ways. It is also an important time symbolically, as it was a time of comparative religious freedom and mutual respect that offers a powerful example for our own time.
Student participants may choose to portray historical figures of that time, or they may propose other characters, from other times and places, so long as they can make a case that the character will have something relevant to say to the simulation’s central topic. Imagine American History students portraying, say, Eleanor Roosevelt, or perhaps a Language Arts student becoming Huck Finn, with an eye towards using these virtual conversations to push them to a deeper understanding of the beliefs and motivations of the people they are studying and the times in which they lived, as well as sharpening their sense of the interconnections of history. What might students studying the American revolutionary period, for example, gain from portraying George Washington or Thomas Jefferson as they discuss conflict resolution with Leonardo Da Vinci or with the African emperor Mansa Musa? We’re hoping that you are interested in finding out!!
We ask our student participants to make a commitment to becoming a character, to doing some research into that character and the life experiences s/he’s had that might be relevant to the issues suggested by our trial, and then to participate regularly in discussion as that character (either a student by himself, or a pair of students if preferred) over a period of several weeks. This student research, and the conversations that unfold based on that research, will take place with the help and support of an enthusiastic band of university student mentors who will be working closely with your students.
During the Fall 2008 trial, we will be exploring a “case,” based on an actual situation, in which refugees from Darfur arrive in Israel, seeking asylum. Israeli law forbids the granting of asylum to refugees from an enemy state, though...should an exception be made?
For more information on Place Out Of Time, please view this tutorial and/or contact Jeff Kupperman at jkupp [at] umich [dot] edu.