Our Programs
Buzzards Bay Term
The centerpiece of Gull Island's programming on Buzzards Bay, this multi-week program runs from mid-May to early June each year.
8-9 undergraduates take responsibility for themselves and their community through co-leading a seminar with remarkable faculty, formal self-governance, and work on a wildlife sanctuary managed by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife and a sustainable oyster farm on Cuttyhunk island, along with other labor projects. Integrating the program's three pillars of academics, labor, and self-governance is a core question: what makes a place habitable, and what does it mean to inhabit it well? Each student cohort is selected by an Application Committee comprised of Gull Island student alumni. The program is tuition free.
For more on the inaugural Buzzards Bay Term -– the Junemester 2023 – check out this profile in The Boston Globe.
Classroom to Island
The Classroom to Island initiative was launched in 2023 to seed creative place-based learning within liberal arts curricula at private and public universities across the country.
The Institute works with faculty at partnering institutions to develop an immersive, 3-day to 1-week program on the Elizabeth Islands aligned with credit-bearing courses of study. While attuning participants to the ethical, ecological, and political dimensions of place, the program serves as a practical starting-point for students and faculty to develop place-based learning programs at their own campuses.
The first Classroom to Island programs will run in the Academic Year 2023-4. Stay tuned for updates! If you are interested in exploring a partnership with the Gull Island Institute for your institution, please be in touch.