[1][2] Alongside classes, BISR supports public research, programs with labor, non-profit, and activist organizations, and independent scholarly work outside the university.
BISR's offices, library, and main classroom spaces are located in New York City while it has held classes and established branches in Philadelphia, Chicago, London, and across the Midwest.
[4] As a doctoral candidate at Columbia's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Chaudhary conceived of BISR "as something of an alternative—for both students and professors—to our current higher education system.
[4][7] Other early courses included "Dreams and Hysteria: An Introduction to Freud", "Shocks and Phantasmagoria: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project", "Telegraphs, Pneumatic Tubes and Teleportation; Or, the Way We Communicate Now", "Philosophy and Film" and "Realism".
[citation needed] BISR currently holds courses in New York City, Philadelphia, as well as smaller centers in Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky.