By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 25/04/2026Palmer teaches Renaissance history at the University of Chicago, where she is legendary for a unique annual pedagogical exercise in which she leads her students through a weeks-long live-action role-playing game that re-enacts the election of the Medicis' Pope. 11/ 2140
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 25/04/2026Every student is given a detailed biography of their character's position, goals, proclivities and history, and for weeks, the students scheme, ally, betray and assassinate each other. 12/ 1100
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 25/04/2026At the climax, the students take over the university's faux-Gothic cathedral, dressed in Renaissance drag (Palmer's tiny office at the university overflows with racks of cardinals' robes and other period garb), and they invest a Pope: pluralistic.net/2021/10/17/a... 13/pluralistic.netAgainst the great forces of history – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow 180