The 2026 IRT Summer Workshop

Rooted in community. Grounded in our ways of knowing. Moving forward together.

Last summer, IRT Scholars came together not to be shaped by the academy, but to understand it, question it, and imagine what it could look like in their hands. They arrived carrying their own histories, their languages, and their ways of knowing. They read Anzaldúa and Crenshaw, Fanon and Spivak, not as distant authorities but as people who had wrestled with the same questions they were asking. They wrote. They pushed each other. They showed up for one another. And they left as a community. This summer, we will continue that work.

Knowledge That Belongs to Us

The 2026 IRT Summer Workshop starts from a simple and honest place: the knowledge scholars bring into the room already matters. Over four weeks of virtual, live, co-created programming, scholars will have space to develop their intellectual identities on their own terms while also building the skills to navigate academic spaces that were not originally designed with them in mind.

The Critical Reading Seminar Series will move through texts on teaching, ideology, identity, postcolonialism, and activism. These are not texts to simply consume. They are conversations to enter, respond to, and bring your own thinking into. Writing for Graduate School Sessions will support scholars in crafting statements of purpose drafts that are honest and full, documents that reflect who they actually are rather than who they think admissions committees want to see. The Chalk Talk Series will offer frank, grounded conversations about what it truly looks like to move through spaces that were built to exclude you, and to belong there anyway. Faculty and alumni who have lived these experiences will lead the way.

Collective Care as Curriculum

We believe that community is not an add-on to the learning. It is the learning. Alumni panels will center voices that are too often left out of these conversations, including first-generation scholars, undocumented and DACA students, family caretakers, and non-traditional students who found their way through and want to help others do the same. This year’s cohort will hear from people who have walked this path and will be reminded that they are part of something that keeps growing.

The workshop builds toward IRT Recruiters’ Weekend, where scholars will step into direct conversation with deans, graduate program recruiters, and IRT Alumni. Not as applicants hoping to impress, but as scholars who are clear about their ‘why’, their story, and the research questions they are bringing to graduate study. Last year’s cohort walked in grounded, prepared. We are confident that this year’s cohort will too!

Calling IRT Alumni — Construct Knowledge with the Next Generation of Scholars!

Bring your IRT experience full circle by joining the IRT Summer Workshop Faculty this summer! Together, we’ll cultivate a collaborative learning space that honors diverse ways of knowing, centers community and identity, and uplifts the brilliance of aspiring graduate students continuing the legacy you helped build.

Working alongside IRT’s Co-Curriculum Coordinators and program staff, faculty co-design and lead sessions grounded in collective growth, critical inquiry, and liberatory education. Each year, this virtual summer workshop brings together approximately 100 scholars dedicated to advancing equity across education, the humanities, and the social sciences.

2026 Timeline Snapshot

• June 15–25: Faculty orientation — flexible, part-time schedule set collaboratively by the faculty team
• June 29–July 23: Summer Workshop (IRT office closed July 3)
• July 17–18: Recruiters’ Weekend
• July 24: Faculty debrief and reflection

Share your insight, creativity, and commitment to equity and help shape a space where knowledge and community thrive.

The formal job posting will be uploaded to the Phillips Academy Application Portal shortly. Please feel free to check back frequently at this link.

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