Bread Loaf School of English to Begin Summer Sessions
The 107th summer session of the Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English begins on Friday, June 26, when new students begin to arrive at the Ripton, Vermont, campus. An intensive summer master’s and continuing education program for teachers and other professionals, Bread Loaf takes place in three locations: the main campus in Ripton, Vermont; the campus of Lincoln College at the University of Oxford in England; and the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California. The school also offers online options through its Directed Research and Writing (DRW) and Critical Writing Tutorial (CWT) programs.
Roughly 230 students from 35 states, the District of Columbia, and 10 countries will pursue continuing graduate education or a Master of Arts or Master of Letters degree in English. They will study with a faculty of approximately 45 in courses covering a wide range of traditional and nontraditional literatures, creative writing, pedagogy, and theater arts.
These students and faculty come to Bread Loaf to do a remarkable thing: engage their creative and critical energies in discovering the unique power that stories hold. And in the process, they are uncovering—and preserving—the complexity of human experience itself.
Throughout the summer, Bread Loaf students enjoy a diverse cocurricular program of readings, lectures, panels, workshops, and other events. Each of the three campuses offers distinctive opportunities to enhance the academic program.
In Vermont, a professional acting ensemble works with students to stage a major theatrical production each summer (this year, Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins). The ensemble also collaborates with faculty to bring performance into classes as an interpretive tool for understanding all kinds of texts.
Students in Monterey engage in the three-week Summer Institute in Global Humanities, an intensive residential program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies that explores global issues through a literary lens. The interdisciplinary coursework is designed to support students as they pursue and present their own independent projects in a final symposium.
At Oxford, students can take full advantage of the rich history surrounding them as well as access to one of the best libraries in the world. Courses include a number of field trips, such as theater excursions to London and Stratford and visits to local museums.
“These students and faculty come to Bread Loaf to do a remarkable thing: engage their creative and critical energies in discovering the unique power that stories hold,” said Emily Bartels, dean of the Bread Loaf School of English. “And in the process, they are uncovering—and preserving—the complexity of human experience itself.”
Founded in 1920, the Bread Loaf School of English offers an innovative graduate curriculum in the fields of literature, pedagogy and literacy, creative writing, and theater arts. The program is tailored to K–12 English and language arts teachers, who make up roughly 75 percent of the student body. Its faculty come from leading colleges and universities in the United States and the United Kingdom. The school aims to provide a full-time, intensive educational experience enriched by the local culture at each campus.
More information is available at www.middlebury.edu/blse, 802-443-5418, or blse@breadnet.middlebury.edu.