The Brook Farm Institute for Critical Studies (BFI) is an independent, non-degree-granting educational endeavor dedicated to rigorous, discussion-based inquiry in the humanities, social sciences, and arts.
We offer intensive online and in-person seminars for curious adults of all ages and backgrounds across a wide range of subjects. Our faculty are accomplished scholars and educators who hold doctorates in their respective fields and maintain active research programs.
In an era of resurgent authoritarianism, ecological collapse, mass atrocity, and techno-capitalist dystopia, the need to sharpen our critical faculties has rarely been greater. BFI seeks to provide the space, structure, and intellectual community for serious engagement with ideas, inspiring forms of education and creativity that extend beyond the limits of the neoliberal university.
In our name, we draw loose inspiration from the Transcendentalist utopians behind the Brook Farm community founded in 1841 in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. The Brook Farm Institute for Agriculture and Education was sustained by a highly regarded school that served as both its intellectual center and primary source of income. Like the original Brook Farmers—a motley crew of “pious professors and Infidels,” as one contemporary observer joked—we seek to build a community of learners united in free intellectual pursuit. Unlike the original Brook Farmers, however, we intend to stick around for a while.
If you have any questions, please contact us at admin@brookfarminstitute.com.