My professional expertise covers three overlapping domains:
- historical research;
- simulation, and game-based learning;
- language education.
I strive to blend cutting-edge theoretical and practical approaches in my educational design practice, always looking for new, innovative, ways to engage students of human experience, past and present.
History: as a world traveler and life-long reader of all things historical, I’ve long had the history bug. In 2018, I completed my M.A. in history at the Université de Montréal, and published a thesis (available in September, 2019) on the illegal fur trade between Montreal and Albany in colonial era (1715-1750) North America. In my research, I analyze how an undercurrent of shuttle diplomacy and illicit trade between the Haudenosaunee people and Dutch and French merchants integrated regional commercial activity into the larger transatlantic fur trade framework, despite official statements to the contrary. I’ve also given radio interviews and conferences about the tragic adventures of explorer Cavelier de La Salle, the Frenchman who planted King Louis the XIV’s banner at the Mississippi river delta in 1682.
Simulation and game-based learning: since 2013, I’ve been a regular contributor to the Play the Past community of game scholars, educators and designers. Over the years, I’ve analyzed many games (and game genres) as “storytelling engines”, and written extensively on the topics of simulation, narrative design, self-reflexive play and game-based learning. In 2018, I partnered up with Peter Christiansen of the University of Utah to help lead the Play the Past community into the next decade of exploring new media telling old stories.
Language Education: as a long-time student of modern and ancient languages, I have formally taught French and English to youth and adult learners since 2021. I have taught French to immigrant workers in rural Quebec, using active learning approaches designed to maximize exposure to French and build robust memory habits. I have also taught English as a second language at the elementary and middle-school levels in a Waldorf education setting, designing language curricula that blend modern communicative approaches with classical rhetoric.
