Save the Date! 2026 Annual Summer Institute

Save the date for the 2026 Reacting Annual Institute at Barnard College in New York City June 4-7, 2025, with optional programming and check-starting on June 3rd! While we're still finalizing details (though we share what we know so far below), we encourage you to go ahead and hold these dates to plan accordingly for the best professional development conference for game-based learning.

We are please to announce a few of the games that will be featured at this year's flagship event:  

1349: Plague Comes to Norwich 
The Enlightenment in Crisis: Diderot's Encyclopedié in a Parisian Salon, 1750 
Patriots, Loyalists, and Revolution in New York City, 1775-1776  
Defining a Nation: India on the Eve of Independence, 1945 (with new microgames for set-up and debrief)

Other games and details will be announced in the coming days and weeks, and we will open registration by February 6 (if not sooner)! 

Affiliated Awards
Two awards are presented annually at the Summer Institute: the Brilliancy Prize and the Dana Johnson Gorlin Fellowship

The Brilliancy Prize is presented to a particularly ingenious or creative idea or pedagogical practice that advances Reacting games. The prize comes with a cash award of $1000. 

The Dana Johnson Gorlin Fellowship is given to a deserving faculty member, especially from a community college or public university, who best exemplifies Dana’s exceptional qualities of character and mind and who gives high promise of advancing Reacting. The Fellowship covers registration, housing, and travel to the Summer Institute.

Nominations (of self or others) are due by March 1, and winners will be informed by April 1. Read more about the awards and suggestions for your nominations here. 

Prices and Housing
See our 2023, 2024,  and 2025 annual summer institute event pages for previous programming and pricing details. Historically, early member registration has started at around $580, and nightly stays in the dorms is around $100 per night. 

Though unlikely, these dates are subject to change.