About the Fall 2026 Course
As institutional higher education faces proliferating threats, and as formal learning becomes ever-more instrumental and ever-less convivial, we’ve observed the propagation of alternative schools, study groups, and intentional learning communities. These collectives offer opportunities for liberatory, mutualistic education; for acknowledging the world’s brokenness and imagining its repair or reinvention. This recent activity builds on a long and multifarious legacy of para- or anti-institutional schools. Our Fall 2026 CRC course, “Public Study,” will examine the past, present, and future of popular, alternative, and radical education — particularly as they shape the intellectual, political, and cultural landscape of New York City; and as they’ve intersected with established cultural heritage and educational institutions. We’ll index local resources and address the roles that libraries and archives — both formal and informal — have played, do play, and could play within this pedagogical ecology.
In the months following our final session we’ll work together on a collaborative project — one shaped by our course theme; by our communities’ (particularly METRO members’!) needs; and by your interests, skills, and bandwidth. We’ll consider potential formats: a field guide, atlas, or card catalog of local experimental schools; a speculative curriculum; or some other pedagogical form. From January through June, we’ll meet periodically — individually and as a collective — to plan, refine, produce, and release our project.
Just a Few Relevant Resources
- Beatriz Colomina, Ignacio G. Galán, Evengelos Kotsioris, and Anna-Maria Meister, eds., Radical Pedagogies (MIT Press, 2022).
- Jon Hale, The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement (Columbia University Press, 2018).
- Eli Meyerhoff, Beyond Education: Radical Studying for Another World (University of Minnesota Press, 2019).
- Natalia Viera Salgado and Nato Thompson, curators, “Future Schools,” National Academy of Design, through August 22, 2026.
- Noah Simblist, ed., Living to Learn: Art & Education for the Common Good (Inventory Press and Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU, 2026).
- This post about the Cross-Reference Coalition’s place within NYC’s alternative education landscape, which includes references to…
- Shannon Mattern’s 2022 “Redesigning the Academy” graduate workshop at The New School and her “Para-/Extra-Institutional Schools” Are.na Channel.
Important Dates
Eligibility
METRO welcomes applications from anyone who live or work in New York City or Westchester County. The CRC program directors and METRO staff will select cohort members to maximize heterogeneity and complementarity in the types of institutions, fields of expertise, skills, and experiences each participant brings to the class — yet we prioritize the following:
- Library, museum, or archives workers currently employed at METRO’s cultural heritage member institutions (individuals of all experience levels and department types are warmly welcomed)
- Graduate students currently enrolled at METRO’s higher education member institutions
- Self-identified artists and designers
Application Process
A cohort of up to 15 participants will be selected through an application process.
Each applicant will be asked to fill out basic information, include links to a CV or resume and, if applicable, an online portfolio, and describe in 300 to 500 words why they would like to participate in the class.
Expenses
Registration fees, which help fund speaker and advisor honoraria, space rental, and materials, are due upon acceptance and registration, and are offered on a sliding scale:
Regular rate: $125
Individuals who are not affiliated with a METRO member institution
Member rate: $100
Individuals who are affiliated with a METRO member institution
Solidarity rate: $50
For people (regardless of affiliation) who are currently undergraduate or graduate students, hourly library/archive workers, freelancers, in-between jobs, under-employed, otherwise precarious, or on a limited budget
If you are interested in and able to contribute more, we would gladly welcome and deeply appreciate your financial support; upon admission, you can add a donation to your registration.
Accessibility
If, upon acceptance, you’d like to request ASL interpretation, captioning, or other reasonable accommodations, you will be able to do so during registration. The instructor and program staff will coordinate with participants to meet their accessibility needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I receive university credit for this class?
METRO is not an accredited, degree-granting educational institution. Yet the Cross-Reference Coalition’s director and instructors do have extensive experience teaching in and administering various accredited graduate and undergraduate programs at a range of institutions!
Graduate students could simply “audit” the course, or they could enroll, with the approval of the student’s university advisor, in a for-credit independent study at their home institution. Prospective students can refer their advisors to the METRO website and the program director’s credentials. As a seasoned academic administrator, the CRC director has lots of experience engineering bespoke bureaucratic work-arounds (!) and is happy to liaise with enrolled students’ academic advisors to ensure that students are making adequate progress and receive formal evaluations as necessary.
Accepted participants can indicate their intention to pursue course credit during registration.
These classes are scheduled at the end of the work day. How can I balance class attendance with my full-time job?
We’ve scheduled these classes in the late afternoon so we can arrange field trips during institutions’ open hours and welcome visitors during their working hours — and, ideally, so we can occasionally allow our conversation to spill over into casual, optional after-hours gatherings. We aim to build in buffers for travel time, too; as we all know, NYC’s transit system is Manhattan-centric — so, for sessions that require travel to outer-borough destinations, we’ll aim to start at 4pm, to give everyone a little extra time to commute.
In addition, we hope that informing admitted students about their acceptance several weeks before the class’s commencement will allow them adequate time to organize their schedules around class meetings. Previous participants — which ranged from school librarians to city planners to self-employed artists, representing myriad public and private organizations — successfully negotiated with their employers to secure time off for this class. We can share their strategies during our info sessions or upon request!
Can I receive continuing education credit for CRC classes?
This class is meant to serve a different function than traditional continuing education; the CRC is focused more on creative thinking about critical concerns borne in our knowledge institutions than it is on professional development. That said, such creative and critical thinking is certainly germane to knowledge workers’ professional practice! METRO can offer a certificate of completion at the end of the course to anyone who is seeking credit for their participation.
For professional development offerings from METRO, visit our Events page and webinar archive, as well as our Continuing Education grants program, which accepts applications twice yearly.
What if I have other questions?
Because the Cross-Reference Coalition is a new program, we’ll inevitably discover, through our early application processes and information sessions, that certain details require further clarification. So, we’ll add new questions to this FAQ as they arise! Email crc@metro.org to submit a query.
METRO is committed to providing a welcoming and productive environment for all. Our Code of Conduct applies to all meetings, classes, and events associated with this program.
We would like to thank members of the Cross-Reference Coalition’s Advisory Committee for their advice and perspectives on this program.