Brook Farm Institute for Critical Studies (BFI) is an independent non-degree-granting education institute that offers discussion-based seminars in the humanities, social sciences, and the arts.
In an era of resurgent authoritarianism, ecological collapse, mass atrocity, and techno-capitalist dystopia, it is more important than ever to develop our capacity for critical analysis and intellectual self-defense.
BFI provides the space, structure, and community for serious engagement with ideas, inspiring forms of education and creativity beyond the constraints of the neoliberal university.
Our faculty are accomplished scholars and educators who hold terminal degrees in their respective fields and maintain active research agendas.
In our name, we draw inspiration from the Brook Farm Institute for Agriculture and Education — better known as Brook Farm, the celebrated utopian community founded in 1841 in West Roxbury, Massachusetts. Like the original Brook Farmers—a motley crew of “pious professors and Infidels,” as one contemporary observer joked—we seek to build a community united in free intellectual pursuit. Ⓑ Ⓕ Ⓘ
