Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program

The Summer Humanities Scholars Program offers rising high school seniors an intensive, four-week, on-campus introduction to college-level humanities. This is a full-time, non-credit program where students will receive a certificate of participation upon successful and full completion of the program.

The theme for summer 2027 is “the modern self.” By closely examining watershed literary works that have profoundly informed how selfhood is understood across a number of cultures, students will consider the relationship of self to society, the processes of fashioning and expressing selfhood, and the kinds of agency individuals have with regard to communities, social structures, and broad historical imperatives.

[cal] Program Dates: 

Monday, July 5 - Friday, July 30, 2027

What to Expect

Divided into two parallel seminar groups, participants in the program will tackle one of two major, famously difficult literary texts–William Shakespeare’s Hamlet or James Joyce’s Ulysses–and read it with close guidance from Yale scholars while examining its resonances across cultures, languages, and historical periods.

Alongside seminar sessions devoted to deep reading and discussion of each respective text, all students will come together for structured workshops informed by the overarching theme of modern selfhood. These workshops will help program participants build sustained attention to long, difficult texts, hone their interpretive and critical skills, and introduce them to college writing in a range of genres. They will include writing labs, shared screen-free reading groups, introductions to working with archives, rare books, and art-related primary sources (paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture), guest lectures by additional Yale faculty, film screenings, and hands-on practice in printsetting, papermaking, and bookmaking, with each student making their individual chapbook and letterpress broadside.

Participants should expect to read about 200 pages a week and complete writing exercises every day while in session. They will be introduced to many of the greatest treasures of Yale’s collections, from first editions of Shakespeare’s plays, through Yale's extensive collection of modern art, to its remarkable film archive.

Beyond the classroom, students will live and learn in a vibrant residential community on Yale’s campus. Through shared meals, informal conversations, and co-curricular programming, they can build friendships with peers who are equally curious about literature and the larger questions it raises about society and the human experience. By the end of four weeks, students will leave with stronger analytical tools, greater confidence as writers and thinkers, and a deeper sense of what it means to pursue the humanities with rigor and imagination.

Seminar Descriptions

Seminar I: Hamlet & Its Afterlives

Instructor: Ayesha Ramachandran

A close, detailed reading of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, considered the first modern tragedy which transformed the course of Western literature and continues to inspire adaptations, responses, stagings, and reimaginings from across the globe. We will spend two weeks diving into Shakespeare’s play, its literary precursors, and its historical contexts, before engaging with three contemporary responses to it: Al-Hamlet Summit by British-Kuwaiti playwright Sulayman al-Bassam; a comic, Manga Hamlet, in the Japanese style; and Haider, an adaptation of Hamlet set in Kashmir. We will examine how Hamlet became an allegory for the drama of modern selfhood, its desires and constraints, and the tragedy of its self-assertion. Along the way, we will also discuss how Shakespeare became a cultural phenomenon, whether and why we should still be reading him today, and how the making of literary canons can move beyond the frameworks of nationhood and colonialism.

Seminar II: James Joyce’s Ulysses

Instructor: Marta Figlerowicz

This seminar offers a carefully scaffolded introduction to James Joyce’s groundbreaking modernist masterpiece. An adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey set in early twentieth-century Dublin, Joyce’s novel is also an encyclopedic romp through the history of Western culture, a bracing argument against nationalism and ethnocentrism, an examination of what counts as reality and how it can best be represented–and, last but not least, a deeply moving exploration of the intimacies and lonelinesses of friendship, first love, and marriage, the promises and disappointments of youthful talent, and the life of the artist. While Ulysses itself will take up most of our attention, we will consider it in relation to modernist music and art as well as Joyce’s other aesthetic influences and inspirations. 

Faculty Profiles

Ayesha Ramachandran is Professor of Comparative Literature at Yale University. A scholar of the early modern world, she explores the challenges posed by globalization from the late fifteenth century to the present. Her writing focuses on the making of worlds, of personhood, and of cross-cultural networks through interdisciplinary relations between art and science, particularly, poetry, philosophy, cartography, visual and print culture. She is the author of two books–the award-winning The Worldmakers (2015) and the forthcoming Lyric Thinking: Towards a Global Poetics (2027)--as well as several edited volumes. A recipient of various prizes and fellowships for her research and pedagogy, she regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses on Shakespeare, lyric poetry, cross-cultural encounters, and on global histories of the self. 

Marta Figlerowicz is Professor of Comparative Literature at Yale University. Working in over ten languages, she has written extensively on the long history of the novel and twentieth- and twenty-first century film and literature across cultures and continents. Her books include Flat Protagonists (2016), Spaces of Feeling (2017), and the forthcoming It Must Be Possible: Modernity and Transcultural Knowledge (2027). A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of prizes for her research and pedagogy, she regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses on James Joyce and on global histories of the self.

Eligibility

The Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program is open only to students who will have completed their junior year (penultimate year) of high school, and will be at least 16 years old, by Sunday, July 4, 2027. High school graduates are not eligible.

Yale Summer Session cannot issue an I-20 for the Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents, or already hold a valid F-1 visa that permits them to participate in the program.

Application

To apply, select the "Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program" when completing your Yale Summer Session application. The Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program has additional application requirements. Please see our Application Information page for details.

Application Dates and Deadlines

* Although students are strongly encouraged to apply early in the admissions cycle and before the deadline listed above, students may continue to apply until May 17, 2027, and their applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, pending space in the program. Students who receive their admission decision after March 8, 2026, will have one week following their decision release to submit their Enrollment Deposit.

Tuition and Fees

On-Campus Housing

Summer Humanities Scholars are required to live on campus in the Yale Summer Session Summer Colleges, except for those who are living at home with their families in New Haven or its immediate suburbs. Housing includes a full meal plan and access to on-campus activities. Please make your housing selection when completing the program application.

The Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program is a non-credit within Yale Summer Session. Please review the Student Handbook for more information about Yale Summer Session.

Health Insurance

Students must have appropriate health insurance coverage while enrolled in person (taking in-person courses or living on campus) in Yale Summer Session; they are solely responsible for determining that their insurance covers all Affordable Care Act-compliant Essential Health Benefits in the New Haven and Yale University campus area. Insurance plans that do not meet these standards or do not offer full in-network coverage in the area may leave students underinsured and personally exposed to significant out-of-pocket expenses if ill or injured during the program.

Financial Assistance 

Students with demonstrated financial need may be considered for a Yale Summer Humanities Scholarship to attend the Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program.

While any applicant to the Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program with financial need may submit their parents' or guardians' 2025 or 2026 U.S. federal tax return for consideration, we will prioritize for scholarships applicants whose parents or guardians have an Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) under $200,000 on their 2025 or 2026 U.S. federal tax return. Such documentation should be submitted via the Summer Humanities Scholars Financial Assistance Form on the Yale Summer Session website by the application deadline on Monday, February 22, 2027.

Students whose parents or guardians file separate tax returns should submit both tax returns. A designated section is available on the application for students who wish to provide additional information related to the tax returns.

The number of scholarships and their award amounts may vary; such scholarships are not guaranteed. Yale Summer Session will consider a student’s level of financial need, alongside academic merit, extracurricular achievements, and availability of funds in determining any award. Scholarship awards for the Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program will not exceed $5,690; most awards will be lower than the maximum. Award determinations are final. 

Next Steps for Admitted Students

Students admitted to the Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program should review the Admitted Student Checklist for required next steps, important deadlines, and information to help you prepare for the program.

Pertinent Post-Admission Dates and Deadlines

Refund Schedule

The refund information and schedule below are specific to the Yale Summer Humanities Scholars Program. 

The Application Fee is non-refundable. The Enrollment Deposit and Administrative Fee are also non-refundable.

Yale Summer Session will refund or credit course tuition and residential fees for the Program according to the terms and schedule listed below. No refunds will be made unless we have received appropriate written notification via the Change Form on the Yale Summer Session website. Any refund will be calculated after deducting the non-refundable Enrollment Deposit.

1. If a Summer Humanities Scholar withdraws from the Program by Friday, July 9, 2027, at 5:00pm EDT, 100% of the course tuition will be refunded or credited. 
2. If a Summer Humanities Scholar withdraws from the Program by Friday, July 16, 2027, at 5:00pm EDT, 50% of the course tuition will be refunded or credited. 

No course tuition will be refunded or credited if a Summer Humanities Scholar withdraws from the Program after Friday, July 16, 2027, at 5:00pm EDT. 

If applicable, Yale Summer Humanities Scholarships will be reduced proportionally before any refund is issued.

It is the student’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy of their enrollment and to withdraw promptly from the Program if they no longer intend to attend. Withdrawals must be requested via the Change Form on the Yale Summer Session website. For consistency and fairness across all Yale Summer Session students, these deadlines are strictly enforced. Students may wish to obtain outside tuition insurance.

Residential Fees

For Summer Humanities Scholars who have elected to live in the Yale Summer Session Summer Colleges, a full refund of residential fees for room and board and residential student activities will be issued for those who relinquish on-campus housing or withdraw entirely from the Program prior to the Program move-in date on Sunday, July 4, 2027, and via the Change Form on the Yale Summer Session website.

Once Summer Humanities Scholars are in residence in the Yale Summer Session Summer Colleges, they are entitled to a partial refund of residential fees only by relinquishing on-campus housing or withdrawing entirely from the Program via the Change Form by Friday, July 9, 2027, at 5:00pm EDT. In such cases, the student will be charged prorated residential fees for each day in residence. Before a refund can be authorized, the student’s room must pass inspection, and the room keys must be returned to the Summer Housing Office.

No residential fees for room and board and residential student activities will be refunded to students who relinquish on-campus housing or withdraw entirely from the Program after Friday, July 9, 2027, at 5:00pm EDT.