Category: Higher Education

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October Update: what’s new

October has been a busy month with teaching and the new term – I’ve had a ton of guest lectures on top of teaching Art in the Age of the Great Caliphs.

In other news, yesterday I was recording an interview for an upcoming History-focused podcast, which I’ll be writing more about soon.

However the main project that I want to update you on and that is occupying my time is the Digital Lab, including new developments in my longstanding Digital Munya research. Maxime Durand, a longtime historian on the Assassin’s Creed franchise, is my collaborator on this project as well. We started working with the student game dev team back in May (having been planning for even longer) and as of our last meeting this month the project is moving forward in an exciting way.

What are we doing?

We’re co-creating the concept for a new video game set in 10th century Córdoba, this time focusing on stories and characters associated with munyas (villas), to bring this art and history to wider audiences.

We’re working on this alongside my Digital Lab team leads Dara, Sarah, and Deniz, who worked with us on Assassin’s Creed Mirage, AND a new group of students that we selected especially for this project.

Check out the Digital Lab’s post about Digital Munya 3 on LinkedIn for more details…

And if you want to hear more from me, including about my work in the Digital Lab for Islamic Visual Culture & Collections, I invite you to join my free community list via the form at the bottom of the page.

I don’t send tons of emails – my messages to my lists have been quite infrequent this year because frankly, after these last years of working very hard to get my new book out, while simultaneously working on Assassin’s Creed Mirage and all the other video games, learning experiences, and projects we’ve had going on in the Digital Lab – and keeping up with a full time academic job – friends, I am TIRED – and I’m re-learning how to prioritise my health and rest.

So if you’re feeling like that too – let me say that you’re not alone! Let’s hang in there…

If I’m going to continue to do the work that I’m trying to do in the world I’m realising rest is key, and I’m actively pulling back, slowing down, and taking time off/away as necessary.

So here’s the thought I’d like to leave you with this month. Let’s slow down, take time we need to take care of ourselves, our loved ones, and what’s really important … whatever that may be for you.

Fuel for a busy October day in Edinburgh!

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Looking for more support for your grad school search?

As a first step you can get my free advice on grad school in my previous post.

If you want more support I’ve created an email course that guides and supports you step by step through my 10-day strategic process for finding potential programs and advisors that best fit your specific goals and circumstances.

It’s available instantly here (US version). A UK version is here.

I believe we need more women, POC/BAME, and minoritised groups with the academic background in Islamic art and history, post-colonial studies, and lived experience to move knowledge out of the academy and get it to the public. People who can move the needle on ensuring that representations of Muslims and Islamic civilization in games and entertainment are fair and representative of accurate visual, material, and historical evidence.

It’s taken me a few years to arrive at this solution and I’m interested to see if I can help more people, more effectively this way.

Do me know how it goes – sending you good luck in your grad school search!

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Thinking about grad school? Here’s my advice

One of the most frequent email requests I get are requests for my advice on graduate school.

Navigating the grad school search as the first person in my family to pursue a PhD was a confusing process for me. Even after I finished a Master’s degree I didn’t really understand academia, how it works, what I should be looking for in a PhD program or an advisor, or why.

I remember what that was like and how mystifying the whole process can seem to an outsider.

And I believe we need more women, POC/BAME, and minoritised groups with the academic background in Islamic art and history, post-colonial studies, and lived experience to move knowledge out of the academy and get it to the public. Who can move the needle on making accurate, inclusive public-facing games and immersive experiences inspired by Islamic art, architecture, history, and the global medieval past.

So here’s an expanded version of the pdf that I’ve been sharing with students for years. This is the advice I give to students I have mentored, based on my experiences as a tenured professor at research universities in the US and UK. You can get it instantly below.

If you’re interested to study with me at the University of Edinburgh, please start with my free guide below, and the key info on my University of Edinburgh faculty page here.

If you know someone who could use some advice on grad programs please share this with them.

Thank you!

Finding Your Ideal Graduate Program (2024)

Are you considering Master’s or PhD programs in history of Islamic art/architecture or allied fields, and not sure what to look for in a program or an advisor?

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I’m happy to help.

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In this free guide I lead you through the first step of my strategic approach to finding potential programs and advisors that best fit your interests and circumstances.

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Who is this for?

It’s for women, people of colour, and others from minoritised communities, and anyone considering Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences graduate programs who cares about public education and making a difference in the world, and who wants advice from an experienced academic mentor who’s been through it.

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Why did I write this?

I’m committed to making accurate, inclusive knowledge about global Islamic art and history widely and freely accessible to all, in and out of the academy. I believe we need more people from diverse backgrounds with the academic training and background, and lived experiences, to make positive change in public education, including through video games and entertainment and our public-facing museums and cultural heritage institutions.

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About me

Hi, I’m Glaire Anderson (PhD, MIT), Senior Lecturer in Islamic Art and Founding Director of the Digital Lab at the University of Edinburgh. I’m an award-winning researcher and author, and a video games and GLAM consultant. I was an historian/art historian for Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ubisoft, 2023).

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​Get my free guide instantly below.

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    Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) 2024

    I’m super excited to be speaking about my Digital Lab collaboration with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Mirage at GDC 2024! And, I’m bringing two of the Digital Lab team with me!

    If you’re not familiar with this event, here’s why it’s so significant for me and the DLIVCC team to have this opportunity, here’s a quick introduction to it:

    ‘GDC is the game industry’s premier professional event, championing game developers and the advancement of their craft.

    The Game Developers Conference (GDC) brings the game development community together to exchange ideas, solve problems, and shape the future of the industry across five days of education, inspiration, and networking. Attendees include programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals, and business leaders.’

    All the details of my talk are here.

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    Córdoba Field Trip 2024

    Join me and members of my Digital Lab team 17-21 June for a 5-day experience combining medieval Islamic art, architecture, archaeology with a focus on using video games and immersive technologies for cultural heritage and public impact.

    It’s going to be (another) amazing, adventurous retreat.

    All the details here.

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    History Respawned interview

    I was the interviewee for the 10th Anniversary Episode of History Respawned! I had a great chat with host Bob Whitaker about working with Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s History of Baghdad Codex feature.

    Bob does a walkthrough of the Mirage game environment (no violence, so handy for classrooms and showing to general audiences) and the educational feature with the museum objects we chose for the Codex.

    Check it out!

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    Pre-Order A Bridge to the Sky

    Happy to announce my book is now available for pre-order from Oxford University Press! Check it out here.

    I hope you read and enjoy it – please do let me know if you do!

    A Bridge to the Sky (Oxford University Press, October 2023)

    To receive occasional updates and opportunities from me, focused on Islamic visual culture, video games, and GLAM, join my community list below:

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    Collaborating on Assassin’s Creed Mirage!

    The news is officially out!

    If you’ve been following me or the Digital Lab you’ll know about this project, thanks to the announcement earlier this year by The Barakat Trust.

    The official announcement, released this week by Ubisoft, has all the details on the feature I and my Digital Lab research assistants, Sarah Slingluff and Deniz Vural, helped to create: The History of Baghdad, a historical codex similar to the Database that appeared in earlier games.

    This project means a lot to me, personally as well as professionally (as you’ll no doubt notice from the way it’s being reported in the UK news! )

    Anyway, I’m very happy to finally be able to share information about the project, and I hope it will fulfill its aim, of making information about the art, architecture, and history of the caliphal period available to a wide global audience.

    Check it out!

    To subscribe to my email list and receive updates on my work, including in the Digital Lab, sign up below.