CERTIFICATE in ATTENTION STUDIES
The Certificate in Attention Studies is a year-long program that invites students to do serious intellectual work at the cutting edge of humanistic inquiry in the age of human fracking.
The educational landscape as we know it is undergoing a tectonic shift. The destabilizing effects of AI and the fracking of human attention on a global scale produces an urgent need for radically creative modes of thinking, learning, and attending together: STUDY.
This Certificate program is our response. Our vision of STUDY centers transformative experiences of understanding, which can only be brought about through attention: by broadening, deepening, and widening our collective attentional capabilities and experimenting with diverse forms of attention through a wide array of interventions. As a Certificate Student, you will contribute to this world-building project through participation across SoRA programs and a capstone project.
Program Overview
Over the academic year (Fall through Spring), Certificate Students will complete:
At least six in-person seminars at our Sanctuary Gallery in Dumbo;
Attention Activism 101 and 201, our virtual core courses;
Two of our three special virtual classes on WRITING RADICAL ATTENTION (on textual culture and writing), ATTENTION AND DEMOCRACY (on civics and politics), and ATTENTION IS ALL YOU NEED (on AI);
At least two in-person Attention Labs and Sidewalk Studies;
At least one additional in-person event at our Sanctuary.
Capstone Project: At the end of the Fall semester, you will submit a proposal for an in-person gathering focused onyour vision of STUDY for ATTENTION ACTIVISM. By the end of June, you will have held your gathering and presented the results at your graduation salon.
Who should apply: For our inaugural run of this program, we are seeking motivated and intellectually curious applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds. You should demonstrate an enthusiastic commitment to reshape the future of intellectual and creative culture. Once you leave this program, you will have a wide array of tools at your disposal for contributing to this project; we want people who will put these tools into practice!
What tuition covers: All of the programming above, at least two one-on-one mentoring sessions with our Academic Dean, and a graduation salon where you will receive your Certificate and share with our community the results of your Capstone.
Tuition: $4,950
For our inaugural cohort, we have received a grant allowing us to offer a limited number of full and partial scholarships to be awarded based on application quality.
Applications for the 2026–27 academic year are open! Please apply by emailing a cover letter and CV directly to Academic Dean henry@sustainedattention.net with the subject line “Certificate Application: [Your Name]”. Your cover letter should include an answer to the question: What has drawn you to the study of attention?
Priority Deadline: Wednesday, September 16. Submissions may continue to be accepted on a rolling basis through the end of September.
For any questions, please email henry@sustainedattention.net.
