• Aston University academic Dr Sarah Olive and University of Birmingham collaborator Professor Erin Sullivan secure £590,000 AHRC funding
• The Shakespeare Arcade will be the first large-scale investigation into using video games to support the study of Shakespeare
• New open-access digital platform will showcase Shakespeare-inspired games and provide resources for teachers.

Aston University’s Dr Sarah Olive and Professor Erin Sullivan from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham have secured £590,000 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), for a major new project exploring how video games can be used to support the teaching and study of the works of William Shakespeare.

The Shakespeare Arcade: Learning and Teaching through Video Games will be the first large-scale investigation into how video games can engage students with Shakespeare’s work and explore its artistic richness and ethical complexity.

Around one-third of the world’s population plays video games, while the global gaming industry is more than three times the size of the film and music industries combined. The project will investigate how the popularity and creative potential of video games can be harnessed to engage new audiences, particularly young people, with Shakespeare.

With English Literature A-level enrolments currently falling, the researchers say pupils risk missing out on opportunities to develop skills in critical thinking, cultural literacy and multimodal analysis.

The research team will begin with a systematic survey of existing video game adaptations of Shakespeare, from homemade microgames to commercial indie titles.

The project will examine which Shakespeare plays have been adapted into games, the genres used to reinterpret them, and how interactive mechanics, narrative design, and multimodal features can generate new insights into Shakespeare’s texts.

The findings will be shared through a new open-access digital platform, The Shakespeare Arcade, which will provide a gateway to Shakespeare-inspired games alongside guidance about their content, scope, and technical requirements.

The project will also explore how these games can be used in the classroom and aligned with national curriculum requirements and examination objectives.

Working with project partners, the English Association (EA), a prominent cross-sector subject association and learned society, and the National Association for the Teaching of English (NATE), an independent, not-for-profit educational charity and professional subject association for English teachers, the research team will introduce The Shakespeare Arcade to UK English teachers and recruit a team of teaching champions to trial selected games in their classrooms.

Researchers will examine teachers’ and pupils’ perceptions of the games and their impact on motivation and learning. This co-created research will inform a series of lesson plans for Key Stages 3 and 4, when school pupils in the UK most commonly study Shakespeare. The resources will be available free through The Shakespeare Arcade.

The project aims to contribute to a new understanding of the value of video games in the future of Shakespeare and English studies, demonstrating how the medium can offer engaging and intellectually rigorous ways to explore Shakespeare’s texts.

Dr Sarah Olive, senior lecturer in communication and culture, Aston University, said:

“Educators have always drawn on the latest technologies to engage students and facilitate learning, from cinefilm to chatbots. The Shakespeare Arcade is an exciting opportunity to expand existing resources and pedagogies for teaching his works and literary classics more widely. While we focus on secondary schools, elements of our work will be applicable from primary school to higher education classrooms.

Professor Erin Sullivan, Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, said:

“Shakespeare and video games might at first seem like strange bedfellows, but the truth is there is a long and rich tradition of adapting Shakespeare’s plays to new media. The Shakespeare Arcade will introduce the public to the world of Shakespeare-inspired video games and highlight how game developers might use classic texts in the future. We are delighted that this project brings together two Birmingham universities to support the development of digital media and the creative arts in our vibrant city and region”.