Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
Classes in NYC
The Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, established in 2011, offers liberal arts education and research opportunities to local communities while supporting young scholars. With a mission to engage various intellectual traditions, the institute aims to provide accessible education and foster active, engaged citizens.
9 classes with availability
Queer NYC: After Stonewall (In-Person)
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 304 Bond St., Brooklyn, NY
Explore the history of queer life and activism in New York City from the 1950s through the era of marriage equality. Examine Stonewall, community organizing, the AIDS crisis, and the evolving politics of gay rights through influential writings by queer activists, artists, and scholars.
Nov 18th
6:30–9:30pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
25 Seats Left
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Wed. Nov 18th, 6:30–9:30pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
King Lear: Madness, Soveriegnty, and Crisis (In-Person)
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 68 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY
Explore Shakespeare’s portrayal of political instability, power, and social upheaval through close reading and historical context. Examine philosophical influences from Montaigne and Machiavelli alongside theories of monarchy in early seventeenth-century Britain. Consider how the play’s themes of sovereignty, community, and political fracture remain relevant today.
Nov 19th
6:30–9:30pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
25 Seats Left
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Thu. Nov 19th, 6:30–9:30pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
What is Participatory Democracy? Theory, Activism, and Power
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ Online Classroom
Delve into the complexities of participatory democracy, exploring its diverse interpretations and potential for societal transformation. Through readings and discussions, you'll engage with classical and contemporary thinkers, examining how civic participation can reshape political power and address social inequalities. Consider whether participatory democracy offers a genuine alternative to existing systems.
Nov 17th
6:30–9:30pm ET
Meets 5 Times
$355
3 Seats Left
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Tue. Nov 17th, 6:30–9:30pm ET
(15 hours over 5 sessions)
Museums: a Critical Introduction
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school
Explore how museums became influential spaces for preserving, interpreting and presenting art, culture and history. Examine the political, ethical and cultural forces shaping these institutions, including colonialism, repatriation and curatorial authority. Develop a critical perspective on museums and their role in shaping knowledge and cultural narratives.
Nov 18th
6:30–9:30pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
25 Seats Left
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Wed. Nov 18th, 6:30–9:30pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
Tragedy and Decolonization: From Pessimism to Emancipation
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school
Explore how tragedy and decolonization intertwine through literature, theory, and political struggle. From the Haitian Revolution to contemporary liberation movements, examine how writers and thinkers like Césaire, James, Fanon, and Soyinka reimagined tragedy to confront history, violence, and the pursuit of freedom.
Nov 18th
6:30–9:30pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
24 Seats Left
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Wed. Nov 18th, 6:30–9:30pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
Thomas Mann: The Magic Mountain
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school
Explore Thomas Mann’s modernist masterpiece through a close reading of its complex themes and philosophical questions. Examine the tensions between life and death, science and mysticism, and progress and tradition. Engage in thoughtful discussions about the novel’s characters, symbolism and historical context.
Nov 18th
6:30–9:30pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
25 Seats Left
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Wed. Nov 18th, 6:30–9:30pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
Ruth Wilson Gilmore: Race, Capitalism, and Incarceration
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school
Explore Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s influential work on race, capitalism, incarceration, and prison abolition. Examine how carceral systems shape social expectations and ideas of freedom, justice, and responsibility. Consider alternative approaches to justice beyond retribution and imprisonment while engaging with critical questions about society and liberation.
Nov 22nd
2–5pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
25 Seats Left
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Sun. Nov 22nd, 2–5pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
Bach: Music and Transcendence
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school
Explore the complex life and enduring musical legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. Examine the beliefs, emotions and religious convictions that shaped his compositions, from sacred works to major instrumental pieces. Discover how the intellectual and spiritual conflicts of his era influenced Bach’s distinctive musical voice and lasting appeal.
Nov 22nd
2–5pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
25 Seats Left
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Sun. Nov 22nd, 2–5pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
Gershom Scholem: Mysticism and the Philosophy of History
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school
Delve into the rich intellectual legacy of Gershom Scholem. Explore his profound insights into Jewish mysticism and its intersection with contemporary politics and the Jewish historical condition. Uncover Scholem's influential philosophy of history, rooted in kabbalah, messianism, and a deep engagement with language, literature, and nationhood.
Nov 22nd
6:30–9:30pm ET
Meets 4 Times
$355
25 Seats Left
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Sun. Nov 22nd, 6:30–9:30pm ET
(12 hours over 4 sessions)
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The Dystopian Imagination
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
Thomas More’s sixteenth century treatise Utopia – literally, “no place” – coined the term “utopia” in its modern parlance: a planned, perfected vision of a possible society in some misty other geography or time. Over the next several centuries, More’s peculiar mix of religious discipline and egalitarian traditionalism increasingly underlined the negative connotation that the concept of “utopia” acquired. In the...
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Politics of the City: Plato’s Republic
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
From the ancient world to contemporary debates, the work of Plato is foundational in Western philosophy. As Alfred North Whitehead once quipped, “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” In particular, Plato’s Republicremains a vital touchstone for contemporary political and moral philosophers trying to understand everything from the very...
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Signal and Noise: An Introduction to Statistics
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 247 West 37th St, New York, NY
How do numbers relate to the world? What insights can we derive from data? How do we separate signal from noise? This course is an introduction to statistical thinking and its applications to data analysis at a level accessible to a broad audience with no prior statistical background. We’ll learn and make intuitive the fundamental methods and concepts of data quantification: linear regression, logistic regression, probability distribution,...
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Kant’s Critical Aesthetics
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 75 Broad St, New York, NY
Art was anything but peripheral to Kant’s philosophical project. In judging a thing to be beautiful, Kant maintained, we bridge “the great gulf” of nature and human freedom, and prepare ourselves to “love something, even nature, without interest”—that is, exercise moral judgment. Immensely influential in its time, the so-called “third Critique” inspired and gave energy to both German Idealism, which attempted to provide a rational...
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Feminist Science Fiction
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 3009 Broadway, New York, NY
The world is not usually imagined for the benefit of women. What can feminist science fiction tell us about these oppressive arrangements and how the world might be otherwise? What makes a work of science fiction feminist? From utopia to dystopia, satire to space opera, in what ways does science fiction hold up a mirror to difficult realties? This course offers a selective introduction to critical themes in twentieth and twenty-first century...
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Architectural Experiments: Revolutions in Design
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 15 E 40th St , New York, NY
Explore how architecture has served as a vessel for radical imagination and collective aspiration across two centuries of social transformation. From utopian phalansteries to the avant-garde visions of Red Vienna and anti-functionalist collectives, this course examines how the built environment can embody dreams of a world beyond capitalism.
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The Subway: Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Social Life
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 208 West 13th Street, New York, NY
Explore the intricate relationship between urbanism, infrastructure, and social life through the lens of the New York City subway. Investigate its historical, sociological, and economic impact, from its role in urban expansion to its influence on everyday life and politics. Delve into the subway's cultural representations and envision the kind of life it enables and could enable.
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Socrates
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 178 Stanton St, New York, NY
The trial, conviction, and execution of Socrates on the vote of the Athenian democracy is a founding myth in the history of Western philosophy. And yet very little is known with certainty about the historical Socrates, who himself wrote nothing, but whose way of life, as accounted by Plato (and others) has become a powerful and enduring paradigm of philosophical practice. To Athenian eyes and ears, Socrates was doubtless strange: notoriously...
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Everyday Irrationalism: T. Adorno, Politics, and Reason
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 30 Irving Pl, New York, NY
Students in the course will read selections from a number of Adorno’s works, including The Stars Down to Earth, Minima Moralia, and The Authoritarian Personality. We will look at the famous dispute between Adorno and philosopher of science Karl Popper both to understand the grounds of their debate but also to understand their vast areas of agreement between empirical research and critical theory. We will pose a series of questions that emerge from...
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Introduction to Music Theory
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 30 Irving Pl, New York, NY
What are the basic structures of western music? What rules and norms—of harmony, melody, and rhythm—unite works as remote from each other in time and style as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper? What are the acoustic, perceptual, and historical roots of this musical grammar, and does understanding them shape the way we hear and respond to music? These are some of the questions we will address in Introduction...
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Jorge Luis Borges: Mysticism, Fiction, and Politics
Brooklyn Institute for Social Research See all classes by this school @ 612 W 116th St, New York, NY
Jorge Luis Borges’ fiction is uniquely powerful for its captivating amalgam of political, mystical, and metaphysical themes. In this course, an introduction to Borges’ most canonical works, we’ll read his great short story collections Ficciones and The Aleph, as well as the essay collection Other Inquisitions—bearing in mind, as we proceed, the literary themes and social concerns that pervaded the most formative decade...
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Reviews of Brooklyn Institute for Social Research
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George Eliot: Daniel Deronda
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Late-Capitalist Architecture
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Reading the Iliad
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Solarpunk: Theory, Fiction, and Radical Futures
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Herman Melville: The Confidence-Man
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Architectural Experiments: Revolutions in Design
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Emanation and Return: an Introduction to Neoplatonism (In-Person)
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Kierkegaard: Either/Or
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Ruins: Beauty, Feeling, and Catastrophe (In-Person)
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Leo Strauss: Philosophy Between the Lines
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Hysteria, Dreams, and Psychoanalysis: an Introduction to Freud
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Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (In-Person)
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The Subway: Urbanism, Infrastructure, and Social Life
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Vergil’s Aeneid: Myth, Empire, and Ruin
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Vergil’s Aeneid: Myth, Empire, and Ruin
First, I was really out of my element. I was lost from the start! I found the reading difficult….and I think I had the wrong book. Second, the discussions were tedious and baffling. The “class” was filled with Aeneid groupies who tried one-upping each other at every turn; I didn’t get anything out of that except being annoyed that everyone was trying to impress each other with their academic prowess. It just was the wrong class for me. I’m sure the students I’m referring to loved it! But it was really beyond me. And that’s on me. -
Mining: Industry, Ecology, and Capitalism
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James Joyce: Ulysses
It was not easy, but I didn't expect it to be. I got some very useful insight into the book, which will help in my second reading. I will be looking for more classes taught by Professor Porte. -
Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition
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Proust in Time: The Prisoner
pretentious, and unwelcoming professor -
Henry James: The Portrait of a Lady
