BIOGRAPHY

My scholarship and teaching focus on English education, postcolonial and minority literature, and internet learning. I am a co-investigator with WMU's Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to useTechnology (PT3) federal grant and co-director of the Fulbright Senegal project.

ABSTRACT

Crossing Cultures, Crossing Histories: The Village of Umuofia Role Play

In the Village of Umuofia readers of Chinua Achebe's 1961 novel about the confrontation of Nigerian Igbo villagers and colonizing British missionaries and soldiers are able to engage in a live action roleplay related to the events of the novel. Drawing on black and white archival photography of turn of the century Igbo villages, traditional West African music, programmed bots, and characters the Village of Umuofia has attracted dozens of classes of high school and college students from across the United States into live action role plays based on the novel. In this presentation, Webb describes the experience of participants in this literature-based roleplay and explores its possibilities for developing cross-cultural and historical understanding.