Friendship and Identity in Literature, Film, and Adolescence

As an abiding feature of adolescence, friendship is of special curricular interest in the high school English classroom. During this innovative, residential institute, teachers examine how friendship is understood, portrayed, and experienced from literary, social, cultural, theoretical, and pedagogical perspectives. Learning from colleagues and guest scholars, including Robert Pinsky, as well as through literature and scholarship, teachers explore friendship’s cultural/social contexts and factors including gender, race, class, loyalty, reciprocity, social media, and power dynamics. Teachers develop curricular materials to help their students become more nuanced readers of friendship in literature and in their own lives.