Dr. Biz Nijdam publishes on Catan in the Conversation



How do board games uphold colonial narratives? Learn more in Biz Nijdam’s article in the journal ‘The Conversation’.

Assistant Professor of German Studies in CENES, Biz Nijdam, recently published an article in the Conversation titled What’s unsettling about Catan: How board games uphold colonial narratives.

In this article, she dives into the history of the popular board game Catan, and how board games have continued to include themes of settler colonialism since the mid-90’s. Nijdam also explores and recounts the achievements of “a small group of Indigenous designers and board game enthusiasts who have begun to develop counter-discourses through board game development”, and she notes that games like Catan and others have “…created a compelling story at the expense of Indigenous traditional knowledge and contemporary lived experience.”

Read more in Biz’s article to learn more.