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Students in Europe Learn History by Living It

Mary Dempsey
By Mary Dempsey
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Cicero

Julian Temblador said emotions ran high as he navigated the war crime charges against him as a young George Washington. Connor Kuzminski immersed himself into the life, beliefs and speeches of Roman senator and orator Cicero. Lydia Rose, meanwhile, recalled her scramble to make a toga, given the high cost of the fabric in Germany.聽

Temblador, Kuzminski and Rose are among the 抖阴视频 (UMGC) students who have sought out the history courses of Michael Mulvey, a UMGC Europe professor who uses role-playing to teach. Earlier this year, Mulvey was one of two faculty members in Europe, and one of only nine across the entire university, to receive the Stanley J. Drazek Teaching Excellence Award, UMGC鈥檚 highest teaching prize.

Mulvey said one advantage of role-playing鈥攐r gaming鈥攊n the classroom is that it can make learning fun.

鈥淢y students have been working all day and they are spending three hours in a classroom after work. If they are in my Roman Republic course, we are debating what situations can lead democracies to fail. I want to offer something that covers the material but is also going to keep students engaged,鈥 Mulvey said. 鈥淭hey are learning about weighty issues and covering serious questions, but we can go at it in a way that is lively.鈥

The role-playing courses open with students being randomly assigned to portray historical characters. They spend the next weeks learning about those people by reading original documents, engaging in class discussions and examining just historical events but also about what was going in the political, art, social and even architectural arenas of the time period they are studying. Near the end of the course, students use what they have learned during a role-playing exercise that stretches over two classes.

鈥淗e鈥檚 my favorite professor,鈥 said Temblador, who played a young Washington in Mulvey鈥檚 U.S. history course that touches on the so-called Jumonville affair. At issue was whether Washington had ordered or carried responsibility for the assassination of a French commander and the massacre of French troops during the first battle in the French and Indian War.

鈥淓ssentially, we held a trial,鈥 said Temblador, who took the UMGC course at Ramstein Air Base in Germany as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army. 鈥淲e were given briefs about our character. And we all were given information known only to us.鈥

Temblador鈥檚 history course coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, so classes were held virtually. Nonetheless, students got into character. Temblador used a painting of Washington as his screen background and his onscreen name appeared as 鈥淕eorge Washington.鈥 Other students changed their profile photos or used creative screen backgrounds to evoke the era and their roles.

Temblador said the course let students learn by doing, not just by reading.

鈥淧rofessor Mulvey wasn鈥檛 a history professor who made you memorize every date,鈥 said Temblador, who completed a bachelor鈥檚 degree in communications鈥攚ith a minor in history鈥攁t UMGC and now works as a public affairs officer for the Defense Logistics Agency in California while pursuing a graduate degree in communications at the University of San Francisco. 鈥淚nstead, you research all this information and you develop your arguments, then you play the game. Most of us really delved into it, even more than was required.鈥

Temblador noted that Mulvey let his students pursue areas that especially interested them, even if they roamed a bit from the main thread of the course. 鈥淚鈥檓 interested in the power of propaganda, and he let me focus on that,鈥 Temblador explained.

Michael Mulvey

Students in Mulvey鈥檚 Roman Republic course follow a similar program, including using primary documents鈥攕uch as speeches by Roman senators鈥攖o understand the republic鈥檚 unwritten constitution, institutions and political life.

Students learn about the senators they are portraying through research, written posts, in-character discussions with allies and in-character talking points they develop. Their course culminates with a loose reenactment of a historic meeting of the Roman senate and a speech by each student.

鈥淚 encouraged students to be believable and consistent with the historical moment, to think like Romans,鈥 Mulvey said. 鈥淭hat meant knowing Roman republican ethics, history and virtues. Students had to ask themselves, 鈥榃hat would my character do in these contextual circumstances?鈥欌

As Cicero, Kuzminski presided over the senate during a debate on whether to suspend civil rights and impose martial law in defense of the republic. Each student could speak for up to five minutes and their speeches, typical of Rome at the time, were sometimes met with cheers or hisses and heckling. The session peaked with a vote by the senators.

Mulvey said some students came to the debate dressed for the part, literally. He recalled one student who showed up in full senatorial regalia, including a Roman gladius, or sword.

Rose, the spouse of a civilian employee for the Defense Logistics Agency at Ramstein, was one of the first students to take that Roman Empire class when Mulvey joined UMGC four years ago.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 terribly excited because Roman history is not a favorite subject of mine,鈥 said Rose, who completed a bachelor鈥檚 degree in history from UMGC earlier this year, 鈥渂ut Professor Mulvey ended up making it so interesting that it became a class I loved. I fell in love with his teaching style.

鈥淣ot only did he go over the history, but he brought in culture and society,鈥 she said.

True to the traditions of the era, the role-playing component of the course opened with a ritualistic reading and a sacrifice to the gods. For the sacrifice, Rose contributed a stuffed toy pig, a prop that was used in subsequent classes. She also wore the toga she made. In preparing for her role, she said she adopted the habits of the senator she portrayed.

鈥淲e were put into the story, and that gave us an opportunity to understand a little bit of what it might have been like,鈥 Rose explained. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to see ourselves removed from history, to see it as something that happened a long time ago or as something that doesn鈥檛 apply to us. But even though we鈥檙e so far removed from Roman antiquity, we can see leftover remnants in our daily society 鈥 and in our government offices.鈥

Mulvey acknowledged that the classes can get intense. He recalled a debate in his French Revolution course during which the volume of the room rose so high that a professor in a classroom on the floor above came down to complain. During debates in his Roman Republic course, students shout out Latin phrases that would have been used at the time.

Kuzminski was so taken by role-playing as a teaching tool that anytime Mulvey had a course during the academic calendar, Kuzminski checked to see if it would fit into his degree plan. When he played Cicero, he wasn鈥檛 even taking the class for credit. Rather, he had permission from Mulvey to audit the class and shadow the professor. Kuzminski, who received a BA in history from UMGC, said he might eventually like to teach history.

He said a big part of the course involved getting to know and trust classmates. 鈥淵ou need to be comfortable around your classmates so you鈥檙e able to let down your guard and not feel too silly when you鈥檙e in the game,鈥 Kuzminski explained.

He noted that Mulvey encouraged ongoing and in-depth discussion among students, and that the professor sparked lively conversation by sometimes introducing a painting or even an example of architecture from the time period under study.

鈥淲e got comfortable speaking out and challenging each other鈥檚 opinions,鈥 Kuzminski said. 鈥淢y interpretation was that this course was not necessarily to learn about a particular incident [in history] but to see how they built the world we live in, where the parallels are to our modern society. I could look at modern society through the lens of the Roman Empire.鈥

Kuzminski separated from the U.S. Air Force for medical reasons after five years of service before taking UMGC classes at Ramstein; he was eligible to enroll because his wife is an active-duty logistics specialist with the Air Force. The couple is currently stationed in Japan.聽聽 聽

Mulvey said not all moments in history are appropriate for role-playing, although he would like to add board gaming as a learning tool to his courses on European military history. He said his classes have attracted a wide range of students, from a high school student to a retired lieutenant colonel. He also noted that there are unexpected moments when teaching servicemembers.

鈥淭he invasion of Ukraine started during one of my courses鈥攊t was a Zoom class鈥攁nd one student messaged me and said he might not be able to attend because he was being deployed,鈥 Mulvey said. 鈥淓veryone was on screen when he suddenly popped up. He was coming to us from the woods at an undisclosed location.鈥澛