A three-part series exploring BRAC’s most consequential work
What makes an idea work in the real world? What stands between a child and an education, a girl and the future she imagines, a family and a pathway out of poverty?
BRACademics invites you to follow the evidence behind three landmark contributions from BRAC, meet the people who have studied and built them, and explore the human stories that bring the evidence to life.
Each lesson follows a simple, interactive format:
- Start with a puzzle. You’ll make a prediction about what might work and why.
- Follow the evidence. Hear from a leading researcher and BRAC practitioner as they unpack the investigation.
- Discover what it reveals. See what the evidence tells us about what works in the real world.
- Bring it to life. Close with a creative work that gives human shape to what the research describes.
A Life in Three Chapters
This first BRACademics semester follows a life from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, exploring the hidden barriers that can shape a person's path, and the capabilities that can help transform it.
Chapter I: Childhood
The Impossible School
The surprising story of BRAC’s floating schools
In the haor wetlands of northeastern Bangladesh, the land disappears for half the year. Roads vanish, schools go underwater, and children too young to travel alone are often kept home.
So how did BRAC’s boat schools help children in one of the hardest places in Bangladesh to access education achieve some of the best outcomes?
We’ll follow the evidence behind the model, from the boat that brings the classroom to the child to the community that helps make the school its own.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026 | 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET
Chapter II: Adolescence
Beyond the Bride
The unasked question about ending child marriage
Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. We have spent decades studying the girls who are married young and the families who make that decision.
But every child marriage has another person in it: the man on the other side.
What happens when researchers turn the lens toward the part of the story we have rarely studied? We’ll explore what the evidence tells us about poverty, social norms, education, and the overlooked role of boys and men.
Tuesday, November 10, 2026 | 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET
Chapter III: Adulthood
Can Hope Become Action?
The hidden capabilities behind lasting pathways out of poverty
We know that assets, skills, savings, and support can help families move out of extreme poverty. But what allows those tools to take hold?
This conversation follows the evidence behind BRAC’s Graduation approach and explores the less visible capabilities that can turn opportunity into action: aspiration, agency, self-efficacy, and the power to imagine a different future.
Tuesday, December 8, 2026 | 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET
Register for the semester
BRACademics is designed as a three-chapter experience. Registration includes all three sessions.
Register by [DATE] and we’ll send you a BRACademics syllabus, along with a short selection of supplemental readings and materials to explore before the series begins.
These short readings are designed to give you a little more context, spark questions, and help you come prepared to investigate each chapter with us.
What to Expect
- Make a prediction. Start each evening with a real-world puzzle and see how your intuition compares with the evidence.
- Follow the investigation. Hear directly from researchers and BRAC practitioners about what they discovered, what worked, and why.
- See the human story. Each chapter closes with art, stories, or creative work that gives human shape to the evidence.
- Come curious. You don't need to be a development expert. Just bring questions.
Join BRACademics
Three evenings. Three chapters. One life-changing journey from childhood to adulthood.
October, November, and December 2026 at 8:00 PM ET | Virtual
If you have any questions, please contact info@bracusa.org.