Pre-Texts at Cultural Agents Inc.

The PiE Network — Pre-Texts in Emergency — is a transdisciplinary and international network that brings the Pre-Texts protocol into contexts of war, humanitarian crisis, forced displacement, and extreme social fragility.

Founded on a core conviction: imagination is a resource for survival. Culture is not a luxury — it is a right, a form of protection, and a tool for civic reconstruction.

The network unites universities, humanitarian organizations, artists, and local communities across borders, with the support of Cultural Agents at Harvard and partners in Italy, Ukraine, and beyond.

March 31st, 2026, Jonas Domeisen ran a PreText session for my Architecture History Section at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

For our Architecture History class (BTC, Prof. Erica Naginski), we meet weekly for an hour in sections of 15 students, led by a teaching assistant. Every week, two students prepare a short presentation on the required reading, explaining the text and providing context. They also prepare questions for a group discussion. Section meetings have been challenging for me. I often feel ‘stuck’ there.

Inspired by experiences in weekly PreText meetings, when it was Leo and my turn, we proposed to implement the PreText protocol into our sections meeting. We celebrated when our TA agreed to let us lead the entire section meeting in the PreText spirit. We shared the PreText website, chose a two-page excerpt from this week’s readings, and provided a clear protocol.

On the day of our presentation, my classmates were aware that something unfamiliar was happening, and they showed up curious and supportive. A classmate volunteered to read the chosen excerpt from ORNAMENT IN ARCHITECTURE (1892) by Louis Sullivan. The room was tight; we laid our questions to the text on the central table and moved around it counterclockwise until everyone read all the questions. We later repeated the ritual clockwise to read each other’s answers. We found consensus on the art form: ornamenting each other’s bodies using the paper and tape available to us. Then we guessed the connections to the text.

On April 1st, we had the great pleasure of sharing Pre-Texts at Concordia University in Montreal. The session took place at the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP), with most participants being university professors and PhD candidates. We worked with The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation by Jacques Rancière, and as always, Pre-Texts worked its magic, allowing everyone to fully enjoy the experience.

Even more importantly, there was a shared recognition among participants of the significant potential that the methodology holds for teaching and learning at the university level. This collective enthusiasm has opened the door to exploring concrete opportunities for future collaboration, which we are eager to pursue.

A recent Pre-Texts training session at Harvard took an unexpected turn: participants decided they no longer needed a facilitator. The text for the session — Genjōkōan by Dōgen Zenji, a 13th-century Zen master — presented no small challenge. Dense, philosophical, and ancient, it asks what it means to study the self and forget the self.

The group moved forward on their own. That decision — to trust the protocol over the facilitator — may be the clearest proof that Pre-Texts works.

The ancient Greek word for school meant leisure — free time for thought and curiosity. Harvard professor Doris Sommer returns to that origin with Pre-Texts, a pedagogy recognized by UNESCO as “Education for Peace,” which places the student at the center of their own learning through art, critical reading, and creative expression.

During Instituto 512’s Week for the Promotion of Reading Culture in the Dominican Republic, Pre-Texts introduced 187 educators to the proof that they can achieve more by working less. https://listindiario.com/la-republica/educacion/20260329/pre-textos-protocolo-devuelve-ocio-metodologia-ensenanza_899664.html

A report by El País draws on PISA data to reveal a striking pattern: students with limited technology use in the classroom hold half a school year’s advantage over those who use it daily.

The finding challenges the widespread assumption that digital integration improves learning outcomes. In Spain, the three regions that most fully adopted classroom technology experienced the steepest declines in PISA scores over the past decade.

The data invites a necessary question: in education, what we remove from the classroom may matter as much as what we add.

CGM Cooperatives Advance Pre-Texts Training Across Italy
CGM, Italy’s National Consortium of Social Cooperatives, carried out Pre-Texts training for 16 members across two sessions in Reggio Emilia and Desio. The workshop used Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees to foster creativity, active listening, and collaborative leadership through activities such as timed reading, cover-design drawing, tableaux vivants, and collective poetry writing. These practices encouraged participants to value diverse perspectives, build intergenerational dialogue, and strengthen collective intelligence, creating a supportive environment for personal and professional growth.

Public school students aged 14 to 16 participated in a full-day Pre-Texts program at the Central Library of Mönchengladbach, in connection with the exhibition Women in the Resistance Against National Socialism. The day opened with an icebreaker that fostered trust and curiosity, followed by collective reading and creative responses to “Unbroken and Defiant,” the story of Eva Mamlok, and an excerpt from the diary of Anne Frank. Students explored themes such as resistance, censorship, and courage, reflecting on historical moments that continue to shape democratic values.
The afternoon culminated in a discussion with Marianne Pitzen, Roland Wolff, Yilmaz Holz-Ersahin, and Daniela Flörsheim, who addressed the significance of historical memory and the ongoing responsibility to defend democracy.

Harvard professors Tarun Khanna, Doris Sommer, and Moira Weigel offered a compelling talk on the growing relevance of the humanities across business, policy, and technology. Hosted by the English Department and moderated by Professor Martin Puchner, the panel explored what he called a “paradox”: while humanities programs face mounting challenges within universities, their value is increasingly recognized in professional sectors ranging from Silicon Valley to government. The discussion emphasized the expanding need for “applied humanities” beyond the academy and highlighted how humanistic methods shape innovation, ethical leadership, and public decision-making in a rapidly evolving world.

The University of Cape Town hosted the Pre-Texts Protocol Workshop “A Contemplative Pedagogy for the Humanities in the Age of AI” during its International Teaching and Learning Conference on 17 November 2025. Led by Dr. Mara Boccaccio (Italian Section) and Dr. Katia de la Kruz (Spanish Section), both trained facilitators, the session introduced participants to a method that places creativity and critical thought at the core of education.
The workshop invited educators to explore how aesthetic engagement can strengthen cognitive flexibility and emotional wellbeing. By transforming literature into art, Pre-Texts reaffirmed the Humanities’ role in shaping responsible and imaginative approaches to technology within a growing African network of innovative educators.