We hope this message finds you very well! We’re writing you as the Brooklyn Institute enters its third year. Not that long ago, we thought the Institute might be no more than a side project that we launched during grad school, a few classes in the back room of a bar. Thanks to you, to overwhelming public interest in our courses and programs, and to the generosity of partner organizations like the Center for Jewish History, the Barnard Center for Research on Women, the Goethe-Institut, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, it’s become much more than that. We’re working hard to make the Institute an enduring part of the New York City cultural landscape. In addition to our courses, we’re working on a digital humanities initiative, podcasting, and producing original research in our own digital publishing platform, Arcades, which will make its debut later this year. As we make this transition, we’re reaching out to ask for volunteers to help with these projects. We’re looking for people who share our commitment to expanding access to high-level study and intellectual conversation well beyond the traditional audience for higher education. We are specifically seeking people with skills and experience in these areas: audio recording/editing, video recording/editing, other podcast-related skills such as transcripting (in particular, we are looking for someone to work on creating our distinctive time-stamped and hyperlinked podcast “Notations”), intra-office communications, social media management and advertising, publicity (including good old-fashioned pavement-pounding), and working to scan/preserve delicate and/or rare academic texts for our ~Archive project.

All our volunteers will, of course, have access to classes at the Brooklyn Institute free of charge. If you’d like to volunteer with us, or if you have friends or family members who might be interested, we’d be grateful if you’d get in touch and/or pass this message along. If interested, please email info@thebrooklyninstitute.com with a paragraph or two about your interest in the Institute, what relevant skills and experience you’d bring to the table, what project(s) you’d like to work on, and what aspects of the Institute you’d like to be involved with.Thanks so much for being part of our community, and for taking the time to read this!

All best wishes,