Program and schedules
We believe that education should be a lifelong process and that learning alongside a group of peers can be an empowering experience.
Writers of Western Massachusetts
Professor Samantha Harvey
Boise State University
The Berkshires, a mountainous country retreat, and the bucolic Connecticut River Valley inspired some of America's best writers of the 19th and 20th century, including Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edith Wharton, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. We will read their works and visit their houses and gardens, where some of the great masterpieces of American literature were written.
→ Reading List
Pivot Points: Knowledge That Changed Everything
Professor Susan Ware
University of Massachusetts Amherst
How did modern cultures come to think the way that they do? This class examines that question from international and interdisciplinary perspectives. Featured authors include Socrates, Lucretius, William of Ockham, Gandhi, Plato, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Simone de Beauvoir. We will also consider readings from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.
→ Reading List
Daily Schedule
8:15 am: Breakfast in Alumni Dining Hall
9 am to noon: Two Classes
Noon: Lunch in Alumni Dining Hall
Afternoon: Outings and use of special campus facilities
4 pm: Tea
6 pm: Dinner in Alumni Dining Hall
2025 Schedule: June 18–27
Wednesday, June 18: Arrival. Shuttle available
from Bradley Airport (BDL) in Hartford, CT
Thursday, June 19: First day of classes
Saturday, June 21: Daylong excursion to
The Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA
Sunday, June 22: Rest day
Monday, June 23: Afternoon excursion to
The Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, MA (following morning classes)
Thursday, June 26: Afternoon excursion to
The Mount, the home of Edith Wharton, Lenox, MA (following morning classes)
Friday, June 27: Departure. Shuttle available
to Bradley Airport (BDL) in Hartford, CT
