Bread Loaf School of English to Open Institute for Engaged Humanities at Swarthmore College

The Middlebury Bread Loaf School of English (BLSE) will open an Institute for Engaged Humanities in July 2027 at Swarthmore College in Greater Philadelphia. Designed for K–12 humanities teachers, advanced undergraduates, and lifelong learners, the institute will serve as one of Bread Loaf’s three campus programs, offering innovative master’s-level education in literature and related fields.

A three-week program with a public-facing course of study, the Institute represents a new kind of session for Bread Loaf that explores the humanities’ role as a catalyst for creative thinking, community building, and change. Its interdisciplinary curriculum features place- and arts-based courses and humanities labs that draw on the Philadelphia area’s natural and cultural resources, including museum exhibits, herbaria, community archives, performances, and library collections, as resources for learning and connection in the public sphere.

The Institute aims to provide students with the inspiration, skills, and mentoring needed to develop their own publicly engaged teaching, writing, artistry, and advocacy.

“My administrative team and I are very excited about this new venture and the opportunities it affords us to expand BLSE’s accessibility, curricular reach, and impact, and pedagogical creativity,” said Emily Bartels, dean of the Bread Loaf School of English. “We hope that the Institute will amplify the importance—and the joy—of humanities education and inspire new generations of learners and teachers to see in its study paths to a better world.”

Financial aid and special funding, including $9,000 fellowships for mid-Atlantic teachers, are available. Students are encouraged to apply by the end of January for the best access to campuses, courses, and funding. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis through mid-May.

Complementing Middlebury’s and Swarthmore’s public humanities initiatives, the Institute builds on the model of Bread Loaf’s Summer Institute in Global Humanities, which BLSE opened in 2022 at MIIS and closed this year, following Middlebury’s sale of that institution. It is supported by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation as well as by a host of supporting colleagues at Swarthmore.