To celebrate project CITADEL’s teaching campaign in the Netherlands, our colleagues from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG) visited Nassau College in Assen to thank participating students, award books, and host a lively quiz on Homer’s Iliad.
CITADEL’s Dutch teaching campaign reached over 110 students in three schools across the Netherlands: Johan van Oldenbarnevelt Gymnasium in Amersfoort (teacher Vivian Straver), Winkler Prins in Veendam (teacher Tessa van Waarde), and Nassau College in Assen (teacher Marianne den Teuling). To gather ideas for the final game, students completed questionnaires on storylines, characters, and gameplay. This was a fundamental step in our co-creative project bridging the Classical with the digital world.
To celebrate the contribution made by these Dutch schools, Bram van der Velden (Faculty of Arts) and Douwe van der Tuin (Scholierenacademie) visited Nassau College in Assen on 17 October 2025 to award special prizes. The participating students each received a copy of Medusa in de Spiegel (Medusa in the Mirror) by Jacqueline Klooster, a fellow CITADEL collaborator, generously donated by publisher Athenaeum. The book explores the powerful concept of retelling classical myths from female perspectives, echoing CITADEL’s commitment to inclusive storytelling.
A multiple-choice quiz on the Iliad decided the order in which the students the received their copy of the book. The class impressed, correctly noting, among other answers, that Troy stood in the land that is now contemporary Turkey. The visit closed with a discussion about how classroom insights are being translated into digital assets and gameplay decisions for CITADEL’s upcoming game launch.
Students and teachers alike expressed curiosity to see how their ideas have shaped the game’s development. The CITADEL game is scheduled to launch in May 2026, when partners will showcase how school input, scholarly expertise, and creative development come together to refresh interest in Greek mythology for young audiences.
We warmly thank the participating teachers and schools, all our colleagues at RUG, and Athenaeum for their support. We look forward to sharing further progress from the Netherlands, Malta, and Poland in the months ahead!
