Rare Book School Summer Course Applications Now Open


Rare Book School (RBS) is now accepting applications for its summer 2025 courses. This year’s schedule features more than 40 classes, including online courses and  in-person offerings at two new partner institutions: the University of Michigan and Oxford University’s Bodleian Library (also RBS’s first international courses).

Rare Book School’s summer 2025 in-person courses in Charlottesville will be offered in the University of Virginia’s recently renovated Edgar Shannon Library. Other in-person courses will run in Chapel Hill (NC), Chicago, New Haven (CT), Philadelphia, Princeton (NJ), and Upperville (VA).

Courses running for the first time include:

Returning course Paper as Bibliographical Evidence (G-75), taught by Cathleen A. Baker, will run at the University of Michigan, a new RBS venue.

Click on the course titles to view detailed descriptions and faculty biographies, along with the schedule, format, location, and fee for each offering. For courses that have run before, be sure to consult the evaluations written by past students to gain further insight into the course.

For the best chance of being admitted, please submit your application(s) by the first-round deadline on 17 February. Applications received after that date will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all available seats have filled, but many of the classes will fill in the first round of admissions decisions.

Applications will be accepted through the myRBS system; instructions for using the site can be found on the landing page once you’ve created an account. For information about the application process, visit rarebookschool.org/admissions-awards/application/. If you have any questions, please contact rbsprograms@virginia.edu.

We look forward to welcoming you to an RBS course this summer!