Vice Provost for Teaching & Learning
Massively Multiplayer Humanities
Professor Tom Mullaney developed the Massively Multiplayer Humanities project to engage large numbers of Stanford undergraduates in direct historical research and thinking. Through a partnership with VPTL and Stanford University Libraries, Mullaney developed curricula and methodologies that draw students in high-enrollment courses such as “History of Information” and “The History of Modern China” into the Special Collections archives. Working hands-on with primary documents, students are taught how to think as scholars, proceeding from empirical examination to the formulation of evidence-based research questions. To facilitate this experience, Massively Multiplayer Humanities trains graduate TAs to act as advisers to undergraduates, coaching them through the development of individual research projects based on the particular primary documents they have engaged in the archives.
