Courses – Bennington College Curriculum Spring 2025 (2024)

In addition to being one of the major novelists of the twentieth century, Virginia Woolf was also an incisive literary critic, an influential editor and publisher, a member of the Bloomsbury Group, a prolific diarist, and a public figure whose lectures and essays re-shaped the discourse on women’s roles in literature and society. This course is a close study of Woolf’s major works—Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando, and The Waves—with a special focus on her contributions to Modernism and the pioneering narrative technique of stream of consciousness. We will explore the historical, cultural, and biographical contexts of her work, but our main focus will be the study of craft. How is time assembled, alchemized, in her novels? How is interiority mapped onto landscape? Gender onto history? Does her interplay with historical texts come to inform her work’s modernity? And how is consciousness—that fickle and involuntary phenomenon of perception—approximated in language, on the level of the sentence? Engaging critically with Woolf’s work, major projects will include a midterm paper and the assembly of a semester-long reading diary that uses Woolf’s own diaries, letters, and criticism as a model for their creation.

Native storytelling has thrived in recited, sung, painted, etched, sculpted, and danced forms since centuries before European colonists arrived on the North American continent. Against the backdrop of this long, linguistically complex, and multi-national artistic tradition, we will closely read the works of Indigenous North American authors, studying how their formal and thematic decisions draw from and add to their respective traditions, even as they address contemporary intertribal concerns such as language revitalization; land reclamation and sovereignty; decolonizing gender; and the continued struggle against settler-colonial legacies of genocide, land seizure, forced re-“education,” and environmental terrorism. Assigned writers may include Tommy Orange, Louise Erdrich, Morgan Talty, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, Tommy Pico, Natalie Diaz, Joan Kane, dg nanouk okpik, Joy Harjo, Jake Skeets, No’u Revilla, and Layli Long Soldier.

Creative writing is a method not just of expression, but of deep attention: thus we will begin our journey to the blank page by looking, with wonder and precision, at pages filled by such masters of craft as Cathy Park Hong, Robyn Schiff, Nathaniel Mackey, Ben Lerner, Miranda July, Mariana Enriquez, and Souvankham Thammavongsa. Our reading assignments, which will span poetry and prose of various aesthetic stripes (from “dirty” realist poetry to absurdist parable), will introduce a wide variety of topics and questions that will aid our own creative writing throughout the term. Such topics and questions will include: (A) What narrative strategies might we employ to enact a sense of individual pleasure? Or of collective dread?; (B) How can we be architects of surprise for a reader when we ourselves often know “how the story ends”?; (C) What is enjambment in poetry and can we leverage sentence structure to mimic it in prose?; (D) What is a sonnet and how do various practitioners of it leverage the form to different effect? Does a certain tone arise from its combination of pace, proportion, and volta?; (E) As a unit of perception and experience, how does the poetic line differ from the sentence? And how do they interact over the course of a stanza or an entire poem?; and (F) What is “vantage” and how does it relate to “point of view”? How might these terms apply not just to a story but also a poem in narrative or monologue form?

All of these questions, and others, will only fuel us as we respond creatively to our readings through in-class discussion, in-class craft exercises, occasional workshops, and take-home writing prompts. This is a generative course; therefore, participants will turn in an original piece of writing every week, whether that be a vignette or a villanelle.

This course is for students who have experience in playing drum set. In this 7 week class, students will fine-tune their stick control, hi-hat, cymbal, and bass drum technique, grooves, and drum fills. Listening, viewing, and reviewing drummers who have contributed to the innovation of the art of the drum set is a weekly part of our class discussion. We will use 2 drum sets in class to demonstrate an exercise or assignment. Students are expected to participate in this classroom practice. You are expected to learn grooves from a variety of genres including, but not limited to Blues, Funk, Rock, Progressive Rock, Fusion, Jazz, and Hip-Hop.

Homework assignments include: Recording 15 minutes of your practice for weekly submission, playing with other musicians, attending music workshop, and maintaining the drum setpractice space and equipment in the DCB attic and Fireplace room.

This class will introduce students to the fundamentals of scenic art, including terminology, and commonly used tools and techniques. Students will learn to create processes that will guide them from a rendering or scenic finish to a completed project. Skills we will develop include color mixing, surface preparation for soft goods and hard scenery, translating small renderings to fully realized pieces, analyzing and reproducing organic textures and architectural details.

To be LGBTQIA and AAPI is to occupy two disparate, marginalized identities that seem constantly to be shifting. What might the literature of this intersection teach us about larger questions of community, belonging, and resistance? This 2000-level class attempts to locate a Queer Asian Pacific America through literature, from the work of early Chinese American lesbian poets like Kitty Tsui, to David Henry Hwang’s queer reimagination of Madame Butterfly, to contemporaries like No‘u Revilla and Fatimah Asghar,and beyond. How do discourses of AAPI identity negotiate—even depend upon—gender and sexuality? How have writers of literature engaged with concepts such as hypersexualization, kinship, assimilation, and “saving face” as a matter of craft? And what possibilities for postcolonial and diasporic being may be opened up by queer/trans life, literature, and language? We will engage these and other questions by reading works of fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as critical and theoretical texts. Students will submit weekly responses, write two short papers, and do a final project with both critical and creative options.

This is a truly interdisciplinary opportunity for students to be part of a real-world project, develop data collection and analysis skills, and learn how to apply them to social problems in the humanities.

That racialized and gendered pay gaps plague the arts and publishing, to say nothing of the broader U.S. American labor market, is well known. What is not well documented, however, is the precise price of being a person of color in publishing.

In this course students will work with faculty Mariam Rahmani (Literature) and Michael Corey (Computer Science) to construct, from the ground up, a data-driven study on racial and gender pay gaps in contemporary publishing. First we will learn about the problem, and generally, how to think about it (i.e., by drawing on critical race theory, sociology, etc.). Then we will try to address the issue by closing the public knowledge gap.

We will build out data on pay and author identity using a mixed method approach. Large scale data on pay can be scraped from the web and industry documents. Authors’ self-identifications can be found through their own individual websites, deploying surveys of authors, and analyzing prior interviews. This dataset, once built, can be leveraged to perform social science analyses around discrimination and wage-gap.

Tools used in this class will include python, web-scraping, regression, and data visualization. The product of this research will include written and graphical storytelling to illuminate the gaps in pay based on authors’ racial and gender identities, or as close as we can get (a.k.a, their analyzable “ascribed characteristics”).

Do you play a wind or brass instrument? Do you like making music in a group? Consider auditioning for Wind and Brass Chamber Ensemble! This spring, we’ll meet weekly to read through repertoire from the past, present and future. We’ll finish the term with an outdoor concert on the Jennings or Commons Porch!

As a chamber ensemble, choices about arrangements, interpretation, creativity, and leadership will come from within the group.

This course will be a hands-on introduction to ethnomusicology, the study of music in its social and cultural contexts. Ethnomusicologists think about the role music plays in everyday life. How do music and musicians build community, ignite protest and revolution, articulate racial identity, express and complicate gender and sexuality, or affirm faith? Some ethnomusicologists do research halfway across the world, while others study music in their own cities and towns. One of our classes each week will focus on developing applied techniques in research and fieldwork, including preparing questions, giving and transcribing interviews, field recording, music transcription, listening exercises, writing an ethnography of a live performance, and many other activities. In our second session, we will learn about the study of music and culture itself, reading from a range of texts that explore ethnomusicology’s intersections with fields like Anthropology, Black studies, Performance Studies, Indigenous Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and more. For the final project, students will conduct a short music fieldwork project at a local field site of their choice.This course is open to all students. Homework will be substantial and will include readings, listening assignments, short presentations in class, and papers.

Feminism imagines a world free of gender-based oppression and injustice. But what exactly does such freedom involve? In this course, we’ll investigate the interplay between gender, feminist theory, and philosophical views about freedom. Some prompting questions include: Is individual freedom enough? What does ubiquitous p*rnography mean for sexual freedom? How does politics shape desire? (How) should we rethink the family and work? Does feminist freedom require freedom from gender? Throughout the course we will explore various contested conceptual terrains, such as: agency, affinity, body, equality, difference, desire, freedom, power, sexuality, and work. We will use philosophical tools and methods to come to grips with some of feminism’s continuing critical questions. Likely readings include work by: bell hooks, Judith Butler, Talia Mae Bettcher, Patricia Hill Collins, Andrea Long Chu, Shulamith Firestone, Sophie Lewis, Chandra Mohanty, Jennifer Nash, Gayle Rubin, Amia Srinivasan, Kathi Weeks, and Iris Marion Young.

This course introduces students to econometric approaches to asking and answering questions about the economy, with a specific focus on labor markets. The primary aim of the course is to understand how economists analyze data to determine causal effect. We will analyze data sets to explore socioeconomic questions centered around labor such as: What factors affect a person’s income, and how do we know? How might we investigate the main causes of unemployment? Students will learn how to run regressions using the Stata statistical software package. Though we will primarily work with cross-sectional data, students will also gain exposure to time series and panel data. We will think critically about the quantitative methods that we practice, evaluating their strengths, limitations, and intellectual history. No math experience beyond a high school level of algebra is required for the course.

This introductory course explores the ways that theideaof culture underpins legal and political discourses, frameworks and agendas. Using the work of post-colonial, feminist and legal anthropologists, we will do a close (and interesting!) reading of primary sources, such as UN protocols and conventions, asylum and refugee principles, and development and anti-trafficking campaigns to explore: the boundaries of culture’s explanatory power; how problematic assumptions about the Global South are reproduced and mobilized through cultural explanations; and how activists from the Global South respond to and reframe these assumptions.

The body has been crucial (but sometimes overlooked) in anthropological theory since the early days of the discipline. This course begins with an introduction to recent anthropological analysis and methods of studying the body as both social and individual, biological and cultural, object and subject. We then explore its conceptualization in relation to topics such as the self, gender, disability, health and language. Using primarily ethnographic sources and cross-cultural data, we explore the meaning behind Lock’s assertion that anthropologists must “be content with a body that refuses to hold still”.

The Mediterranean Greeks of the 4th-6th c. BCE powerfully shaped the political, cultural, and intellectual worlds we inhabit today. The Greeks are credited with inventing democracy, drama, spectator sports, and astronomy, physics, biology, musical theory, history, and philosophy as areas of study. Various Greek thinkers championed free inquiry, global citizenship, radical equality, and vegetarianism. At the same time, the Greek world included male supremacy, slavery, and imperialism. In this course, we will immerse ourselves in the intellectual ferment of Greek antiquity. We will engage with Greek thinkers on a range of topics related to nature, culture, reality, ethics, politics, and the divine. Readings will include primary texts (in English translation) by Plato, Aristotle, and representatives of the atomist, Stoic, Epicurean, Pythagorean, and Eleatic intellectual movements.

Fortunately for all of us, the dumb title of this class is the only piece of writing I’m bringing to the course. Instead, once we’re in class together, we’ll leave the heavy lifting of writing and storytelling and merrymaking to Billy. The class will dive deep into reading and discussions of six Shakespeare comedies, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, and A Comedy of Errors, focusing on the structure, plot, character, and language, as well as influences and original source material for these plays. Why do Shakespeare’s comedies endure, what can we learn about storytelling, human nature, and contemporary life through discussions of works of art over four hundred years old? We will also screen and discuss contemporary and 20th Century films based on individual plays. Students should expect to write critical essays, take in-class reading quizzes, complete a longer final project, and participate actively and vocally in class conversations.

This course will serve as a workshop and forum for senior music students who are planning to present their senior projects in Spring 2025. In this course, we will meet and discuss students’ projects produced through any creative practice, including, but not limited to, performance, installation, musical show, and publication. Students will be expected to complete most of their composition/installation designs by the end of the first half of the term. The emphasis will be on technical planning, realization of the individual projects, and guiding students in the development of their presentations, which may involve interdisciplinary collaborations, rehearsals, and technical needs. Group critiques and discussions are a crucial part of this process. As part of this course, each student will be required to pick an advisor from appropriate music faculty to advise their particular project. We will meet twice a week with scheduled individual meetings throughout the term when necessary.

When theater starts with a script, visuals tend to follow the narrative. But what happens when bold visuals lead the way?

This course will offer students an accredited platform for design-centered, devised work focusing on collaboration and resulting in a student driven, designed production.

Three projects will be selected for the class. Students will need to join the class in collaboration groups with fellow students – creating a collaborative devising team. Working together, we will foster a room in which to create live performance pieces that centralize design as the core impetus for devising.

Students should submit a proposal for the project along with their two to four key collaborators, which may include fellow designers, choreographers, directors, actors, dancers or writers. Students/key collaborators are required to attend a weekly community meeting that will take place during class time. In these meetings groups will be encouraged to share process updates, hold design meetings, hold group presentations, initiate devising sessions and explore design developments.

Students will be responsible for the creation of the entire piece – from subject matter to executing the design ideas to managing the production and organizing rehearsals. There will be a small budget and some minimal production support.

Students eligible to apply for Advanced Design and Collaboration:

1. Priority will be given to students who have demonstrated the skill level and experience to lead a design led devising process.
2. Students who have not taken design classes, but who have demonstrated a background in devised work, choreography or directing.

In this course, we will examine French culture’s engagement with questions of sexuality and gender, with a focus on authors, artists, theorists, and others who have questioned ideas of normative sexuality from the Middle Ages through the 21st century. Authors and texts to be studied may include Marie de France, Gabrielle d’Estrées et une de ses soeurs, Montaigne, l’Abbé de Choisy, Charles Perrault (La Belle au bois dormant), le Chevalier d’Eon, Virginie Despentes, Paul Preciado, Wendy Delorme, Abdellah Taïa, Edouard Louis, Bambi (Sebastian Lifsh*tz), and Parole de King (Chriss Lag). We will also look at the sodomitical subculture of eighteenth-century Paris as well as the contemporary ballroom scene.

Touring is not all about groupies and wrecking hotel rooms; it is one of the most common ways for independent performing artists of all levels to have their work seen and financed. With the goal of preparing Bennington’s creators to have their future time-based art presented, this course will investigate the practical aspects of touring for the performing arts. Through discussions, guest speakers, readings, and group projects, students will learn about presenting contracts, technical riders, budgeting, staffing, travel, freight, and adapting shows & designs to different venues. Throughout the term, discipline-based working groups will incorporate coursework into planning a simulated music, dance, or theater tour. Using real-world examples to compare touring operations, we’ll also interrogate the structural problems inherent in the business model and imagine more ethical and sustainable solutions for travelling live cultural content. This course is recommended for choreographers, musicians, and theatre artists interested in learning about what it takes to “get the show on the road.”

Why are some apps to hard to put down, while others break new ground and then go away? What are the commonalities across the digital surfaces you use everyday? What do you call that menu with three horizontal lines (a hamburger menu!). There are patterns and processes around making digital products that tie your digital life together.

In this class we will examine the process of software and product development using source texts, practical examples, and discussion with product managers and engineering leaders at large and small companies. Modern software development is so much more than a be-hoodied lone genius behind a blinking cursor. Instead it requires contributions in design, research, programming, marketing, customer ops, and many types of engineering. In this course we will do a survey of the multiplicative efforts that it takes to design, build, maintain, and ship software products. We will walk through examples from ideation through design, prototyping, user feedback, release, and feature development both by examining existing software and planning our own projects.

Introduction to Cybersecurity provides students with an overview of the fundamental concepts, principles, and practices in the field of cybersecurity. The course covers various topics including the cybersecurity landscape, international and national perspectives, legal considerations, threat actors, and more. Students will gain insights into the importance of cybersecurity, understand the different threat actors, and explore the legal and ethical implications associated with cybersecurity practices.

This intensive advanced translation workshop focuses on student work. Meant for those who have taken Ethical Translation and learned the nuts of translation there – though students who have otherwise translated may apply for special permission to join, including those taking The Global Enlightenment fall 2024 – here we dig into your longer translation projects.

Reading each other’s work with care and attention is required. Revising your own with the same dedication is crucial.

You will walk out of this class with a complete translation of a short story or series of poems, or a solid sample of a longer work of fiction (such as a novel).

This course is for experienced student artists making work in painting and drawing who have a firm commitment to serious work in the studio. In this course students will primarily work on self-directed projects in an effort to develop and refine individual concerns and subject matter. Overall, the development of a strong work ethic will be crucial; a high level ofcommitmentis expected.

Students will present work regularly both for critique in class and for individual studio visits with the instructor. In addition to consistent work on self-directed projects, students will be assigned occasional readings, short written responses, exercises/assignments to support their studio work, and/or a research project on the work of modern and contemporary artists (20th and 21st century). Due to the individualized nature of this course students will be responsible for purchasing whatever materials are necessary to realize their projects.

Some of the questions we will consider: What is drawing? In what ways can drawing go beyond representation? In what ways can a drawing go beyond image? How is drawing a way of thinking? What is the relationship between materials, process, and concept in a drawing? How does my direct tactile experience of a material change the way I make marks, draw, think, and see? How does the source of my idea change the outcome of a drawing? How do I bring the ideas I’m passionate about into my work in ways that are visually, conceptually, and materially compelling?

This course explores US relations with East and Southeast Asia from the early 1800s up through the present. We examine how transnational and international forces have shaped pivotal moments across three centuries, including the Opium Wars (1840s-1860s), the Meiji Restoration (1868-1889), US seizure of the Philippines (1899-1902), the two World Wars, the Vietnam War (1954-1975), the historic thawing of U.S. relations with the Peoples Republic of China in the 1970s, and more recent events related to global trade, mass migration, and regional security. Special emphasis is placed on understanding how transoceanic networks linking families and communities have shaped mutual images, provoked confrontation, and inspired cooperation. Weekly discussions, guest speakers, short weekly assignments, and student projects, such as digital maps, annotated biographies, fact-based narratives, podcasts, and videos.

This ensemble will perform a wide range of Jazz music (a genre that is constantly evolving), with an emphasis on both ensemble playing and improvisation skills. By playing together, students will learn how blues, swing, Latin, and rock elements have all fueled this music called jazz. Students will also learn how major Jazz artists such as Ellington, Monk, Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman and others have approached composition. As a group, we will explore different techniques for playing over chord changes and ways to make improvised solos more interesting, both harmonically and rhythmically. Whether playing a jazz standard, a student composition, or free music, the emphasis will be on listening and on interacting with each other, finding ways to create blend, groove, dynamic contrast, and tension/release. Students will also be encouraged to bring in arrangements, transcriptions, and compositions, which will be read and developed by the ensemble. Students need to have adequate technique on a musical instrument, be able to read music and have a basic understanding of harmony (chord structures, chord-scales, etc.).

In today’s data-driven world, organizations must prioritize data privacy, ethics, and governance to build trust with customers, comply with regulations, and harness the power of AI responsibly. This course explores the fundamental concepts of data governance, ethics, and their interplay in organizational success. Participants will learn practical strategies for implementing and managing a robust data governance program that aligns with ethical principles and regulatory requirements.

All course sessions will be conducted virtually using video conferencing platforms. Participants will have access to online resources, discussion forums, and collaborative tools. Guest speakers and industry experts will join sessions remotely to share insights and expertise. Participants will work on developing a comprehensive data governance plan for a hypothetical organization, integrating concepts learned throughout the course.

This course, “Introduction to Git and GitHub,” serves as an extension to the two-part Python class taught in Fall 2024.This course aims to equip learners with essential skills in version control, Git, and GitHub, enabling them to effectively manage and collaborate on coding projects. It’s designed for beginners with no prior experience required, offering a comprehensive understanding of these fundamental tools used in software development and collaboration.

Course Structure:

The course consists of four modules, each covering different aspects of Git, GitHub, and version control:

1. Introduction to Version Control and Git:
   • Introduction to version control concepts
   • Installation and basic usage of Git
   • Creating and cloning repositories
2. Advanced Git Interactions:
   • Skipping staging area for small changes
   • Undoing changes and amending commits
   • Understanding branching and merging
3. Introduction to GitHub:
   • Setting up GitHub repositories
   • Working with remote repositories
   • Handling conflicts and pull-merge-push workflows
4. Collaboration Tools in Git:
   • Overview of pull requests and code reviews
   • Managing projects and collaboration within projects
   • Understanding continuous integration in projects

Adolescence sometimes has a bad reputation—teens are often seen as impulsive, hormonal, irresponsible beings who talk back, do drugs, have risky sex, and drive too fast. In this class, we will flip this belief. Backed by the science of adolescent brain development, we will discuss adolescence as a time of malleability, social engagement, resilience, identity development, emotional spark, and creativity. We will discuss the causes and drawbacks of adolescent risk taking, but also the benefits of risk taking to facilitate identity development and social relationships. We will discuss how the adolescent experience is influenced by culture and policies.

Learning to draw is as much about learning how to use your hand as it is learning how to see. Drawing from observation fundamentally alters our experience of the everyday while also teaching us about ourselves: what we notice and overlook, what we find pleasure in and what we don’t, and so much more. In this course, students will practice and develop their observational drawing skills by using a variety of materials to represent a range of subjects. By exploring various approaches to drawing we will also explore the perceptual, philosophical, meditative, psychological, and embodied/sensory experience that drawing opens up.

The focus of this course is learning to draw from observation and developing close looking skills; to that end you will expand your capacity to see and represent what you see by investigating a wide array of methods, materials, and techniques. We will work with wet and dry drawing materials that may include: ink, charcoal, graphite, collage, and/or oil stick to explore various drawing processes, techniques, and conceptual approaches. Each material allows for a different type of focus and expressive quality to be achieved. The first half of this course is centered on drawing primarily from still life, interior space, and/or landscape; while the second half is focused on drawing the figure (live models, nude models, and portraiture). Class time will primarily consist of drawing and may be supplemented by slide lectures, possible visits to regional museums, readings, and conversations about the process of drawing and its outcomes (critique).

How do actors bridge the gap between themselves and the role they are playing? How do actors rehearse with other actors in order to explore the world of the play? This non-performance based class is designed to help individual actors discover their own organic, thorough rehearsal process. Step by step we will clarify the actor’s process: character research, character exploration, text analysis, identifying actions, working with scene partners, emotional preparation, and scene presentation. Each student will be required to research and present the biography of one renowned actor during the term, and these presentations will serve as a springboard for an on-going group conversation about the craft of acting. Students will work to create a warm-up specifically designed to meet their individual needs, and work on one scene throughout the term, allowing them to explore deeply, revise, and edit their choices. Various rehearsal techniques will be explored, so that students can begin creating their own rehearsal technique for future performance work.

Writers like Nnedi Okorafor, N.K. Jemisin, and Samuel Delany have helped define the field of Black speculative fiction. Fantasy, sci-fi, and horror seem to all meld together in this field, allowing writers to combine the supernatural with the technological. Similarly, magical realism (largely emerging from Central and South America) often blends a number of different realms: the natural world, religion and mysticism, the erotic, and the cosmological. Considering these two fields together––Black speculative fiction and magical realism––opens up a vast number of potentialities in Black and brown worldbuilding in the United States and throughout the Global South. We’ll read fiction and critical theory in equal parts, and students should expect a fairly heavy reading load of about 100 pages per week. Students will also complete a 15-page final critical essay by the end of the semester.

In this class we will advance the work of Meisner I into text and scene work. We will discover how to the transform words on the page into vital improvisation by continually giving up our ideas of how we think a scene should be acted and trusting in what is actually happening between actors on stage, in the moment. We will embark on a process of character development that teaches us how to ask the questions that will align the needs, desires and deeply held beliefs of the character with our own. The class will require extensive out-of-class preparation, with a minimum of six hours a week for rehearsals and the crafting of exercises.

This ensemble will introduce students to playing the music of the Middle East and neighboring areas. Students will learn a diverse repertoire of traditional urban, village, and popular music drawn from Arabic, Armenian, Greek, Hebrew, Kurdish, Ladino, Persian, Turkish, and other ethno-linguistic backgrounds. We will also study music by artists who have successfully blended traditional styles with more contemporary sounds and ideas. As the repertoire of these communities is primarily taught through oral transmission and emphasizes ornamentation and improvisation, we will primarily learn in this way. Rehearsals will include learning to play rhythmic patterns on percussion (darbuka and frame drum) in alternation with melody instruments; learning words to songs so that we can accompany ourselves, and learning dance steps for dance music repertoire. Student, faculty and staff singers and instrumentalists of all types (strings, percussion, woodwinds, brass, etc.) are welcome in this ensemble. The course will include a number of performance opportunities, culminating with a final concert, featuring acclaimed guest artists. Be prepared to sing, play, improvise, and dance in this class!

Who says you have to be disciplined to be a writer? After all, theorist Christina Sharpe writes in her book, In the Wake: On Blackness and Being, that undisciplined thinking can be waged as a weapon against the boundaries of traditional academic thought and practice. For Sharpe, being undisciplined isn’t about failing to be disciplined, it’s about aspiring to being unconstrained by disciplinary, social, and professional boundaries. Alongside a close reading of Sharpe, we’ll design and explore undisciplined writing practices of our own, spending much of class time engaged in the act of writing. Students will keep writing journals throughout the semester where they’ll record their ongoing experiences of both in-class and outside-of-class writing.

Both Toni Morrison’s and Octavia Butler’s novels push us to consider time differently. Rather than as static artifacts, both women’s characters treat time, memory, and history as malleable materials. Take Morrison’s idea of “re-memory” in her novel Beloved, for example, a vivid reliving of the past that seems more than memory itself, something closer to being transported backward through time. Or, consider Butler’s Kindred in which we literally shuttle backward and forward through time. These temporal glitches allow us to consider the possibility of changing the very metaphysical makeup of our world and intervening in history with newfound agency. We’ll read Morrison and Butler almost exclusively, working through 2-3 novels by each writer. Students will also author their own works of experimental writing that make use of the time travel strategies we discuss.

In this course, students will develop intermediate skills in aural perception, learning to visualize, sing, and notate music through melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic exercises. Classwork will include singing melodies with solfege (prepared and at sight); performing rhythms, eventually incorporating syncopation, cross-rhythms, small subdivisions, and changing meters; taking melodic and harmonic dictation; writing and singing back short compositions; transcription and analysis of recorded music. Our main focus will be tonal music, including diatonic and chromatic melody.

A practicum in playing and hearing the gamelan, the Central Javanese percussion orchestra. Students will learn about court and local traditions of Indonesia while playing classic works of karawitan (loosely translated as “weaving”), the multilayered repertoire of Central Java. Weekly rehearsals will focus on navigating the intricate levels of irama (rhythm), pathet (tonality), and the ornate elaboration of the balungan, or basic skeletal melody. Performers will be expected to play all instruments—from gong to metallophones—while orally learning and memorizing tunes. The course will culminate in a performance. Students will be expected to master readings on karawitan, and keep a weekly practice regimen.

This seminar will look at works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, as well as by Erik Satie, Les Six, Tailleferre, Boulanger, and diverse U.S. composers at the turn of the 20th century. We will start by looking at Debussy’s Preludes as a microcosm of his harmonic style, and then analyze major orchestral works. Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, String Quartet, and select songs will also be analyzed. Students will be expected to write analyses of short works, and to contextualize the innovations of these composers within the complex literary and visual styles of fin-de-siècle France. This course will have special assignments for those who wish to explore advanced harmonic analyses of these works. Students must be able to read notation fluently.

Quintessential to the Victorian cult of the girl-child, both Alice Liddell and Wendy Darling have emerged as contemporary mythic icons of both traditional and subversive femininity. In this class, we will investigate how girl-children are entrapped and enchanted in the works of men, focusing on J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, including the prototype, Alice’s Adventures Underground. We will also read biographies, letters, and the cultural discourse on the idea of children (such as Philippe Aries’ Centuries of Childhood). Additionally, we will dive into the world of Carroll’s other mechanism of capturing girl children: photography. Ancillary texts will include essays by Carol Mavor (Pleasures Taken; Reading Boyishly), James R. Kincaid (Erotic Innocence; Child-Loving), Catherine Robson (Men in Wonderland), Bruno Bettelheim (The Uses of Enchantment), and U.C. Knoepflmacher (Ventures into Childhood). We will also consider contemporary representations of Alice and Wendy and Henry Darger’s Girls and how they continue to be entrapped and re-enchanted.

The Great Exhibition of 1851 was meant to showcase the greatest inventions and industries of the Victorian age. Included among the various treasures from around the world, such as machinery, paintings, and gems, were samples of crochet, an art that became increasingly popular during the Victorian age. The idea of domestic handcrafts seemed to be counter to the industrial revolution, which could turn out fabricated items through machinery and at a much quicker pace. Through reading works on art and social thought by John Ruskin and William Morris as well as studying and replicating Victorian crochet, we’ll gain an understanding of Victorian sentiments and values. We’ll read Elizabeth Gaskell’s novelThe Daisy and the Chain as well as Margaret Oliphant’s Phoebe Junior, in order to glimpse into the ordinary, everydayness of domesticity that was at odds with industrialism. To fully appreciate and understand the process of makingrather than quick consumption, we will try our hand at replicating crochet patterns from the period. You need notknowhow to crochet to take this course. All levels are welcomed.

Ceramics is the first material created by humankind, produced across scales and applications from the craft-studio to high-volume, automated manufacturing environments. Pleasing to the touch and easily manipulated by hand, it can also be subject to digital technologies and robotic approaches. This course investigates the material nature of clay as a medium to create three-dimensional forms. Students will explore the material aspects of clay using a variety of mechanical/digital processes and the intersection of traditional hand building methods, including coil construction and digital fabrication.

This course will explore digital design and production methods of ceramic objects within the context of contemporary art and design. Students will undertake a series of projects utilizing 3D modeling applications to produce forms that can be fabricated by additive technologies including direct extrusion of clay. It will emphasize introductory approaches to 3D modeling in Rhino software as well clay preparation for successful printing and printer operation.

This course serves as an introduction to rhythms, chants, and musical practices from Africa, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and the African Diaspora. Using indigenous percussion instruments from these territories, students will use their hands, mallets, and sticks to learn and play traditional folkloric rhythms and melodies. Additional conversations reveal history, culture, language, and dance. This class serves the greater Bennington community in the spring by partnering with the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, Bennington Project Independence, and the Village School of North Bennington. Near the end of term students will share their work in celebration with these organizations. Weekly practice is expected.

Individual private lessons with focus on the classical repertoire. Students are accepted by audition. Students will meet with the instructor weekly on scheduled class days, at times to be arranged with the instructor. A minimum of 20 minutes practice per day is expected. Two excused absences permitted, with every effort made for make-up lessons. Participation in Tuesday evening music workshop and performance at the end-of-term recital are required.

For the experienced (3+years of playing) violinist. Lessons in traditional styles of fiddling – Quebecois, New England, Southern Appalachian, Scandinavian, Cajun, Irish, and Scottish. This tutorial is designed to heighten awareness of the variety of ways the violin is played regionally and socially in North America (and indeed around the world) and to give practical music skills for furthering personal music making. Students will be expected to perform at Music Workshop, or as part of a concert, in ensemble and/or solo.

We will study and perform from the string band traditions of rural America, Nova Scotia, Quebecois, Irish, New England, Scandinavian, African-American dance and ballad traditions. In addition, these will be experienced with listening, practice (weekly group rehearsals outside of class), and performing components. Emphasis on ensemble intuition, playing by ear, and lifetime personal music making skills (transposition, harmonizing, etc.). Performances in past terms include: contradances, music workshop appearances, arts-in-education programs for local elementary schools, and participation in a traditional Pan-Celtic music session (Saratoga Springs, NY).

A comprehensive course in learning musical skills on the ukulele. We will learn the history of the uke, from its Portuguese and Indigenous Hawaiian origins, and both traditional and contemporary styles. Music theory and playing techniques will be learned and practiced. Awareness of traditional styles of playing the instrument will be furthered through a listening component and ensemble playing with other instrumentalists. Repertoire will be drawn from traditional and original Hawaiian songs, as well as contemporary music from the past 60 years. Students must have their own soprano or tenor ukulele.

Beginning, intermediate and advanced group lessons on the mandolin will be offered. Students will learn classical technique on the mandolin and start to develop a repertoire of classical and traditional folk pieces. Simple song sheets with chords, tablature, and standard notation, chord theory, and scale work will all be used to further skills. History of the Italian origins of mandolin and its introduction to the western world will be discussed as well as past and present practices. Awareness of traditional styles of playing the instrument will be furthered through a listening component and ensemble playing with other instrumentalists. Student must have a mandolin to practice with, a limited number of instruments are available from the music department and instructor.

Celtic history and music from Ireland, Scotland, Bretagne, Galatia, and Cape Breton will be experienced, studied, and performed using instruments and voices. We’ll find and cross the musical bridges between regions–from the ballads of Ireland, Scotland and Wales to the Alalas of Spain and dance tunes of Brittany. An end-of-term presentation will be prepared drawing on inspiration from traditional forms. Students must bring a guitar, banjo, mandolin, or fiddle (or other social instrument) to class for purposes of furthering personal music making through traditional forms. We will practice and perform as a group, improving our reading and aural skills.

Doyou compose songs but lack confidence inyour singing? Learn skills to getyour ideas across clearly while preserving your unique sound. We’ll study successfulsinger-songwriters to see how they do it, then study and apply breath, alignment, diction, phrasing,mic technique and timing to help you sing anythingyoucan imagine writing.You will be expected to show progress regularly in Music Workshop. Students must be able to match pitch and should be prepared to work on at least 3 original songs.

For students of varying levels of singing ability. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed. Group warm-ups and vocalizations will incorporate exercises to develop breath control, resonance, projection, range, color, and agility. The fundamental concepts of singing will be explored in the preparation of specific song assignments. Personalization of text and emotional expression will be addressed. Students will study and perform classical song literature (including early Italian songs, 17-18th century arias and repertoire in several languages) to strengthen and to facilitate technical growth before moving on to other contemporary styles of their choice. Students will keep a written record of their progress and practice. Students should have some previous voice experience and/or study, and some music literacy.

Through creative embodied inquiry and somatic practice, we will disorient and deconstruct human-centric ways of being, doing and performing. We will engage the more-than-human as teacher, as agent, and collaborator, by attuning ourselves toward more-than-human timescales, spatialities, relationships, and modes of perception and embodiment. Physical investigations will be supported and inspired by studying, reading, and viewing resources by scholars and artists thinking/moving at the intersections of Indigenous cosmologies, Black Quantum Futurism, Posthumanism, Queer and Speculative Ecology, and Disability Studies. Together, we might grow slime mold bodies, become monstrous, dance “weather-map” choreographies, develop “plastic” kinships, become “zombies,” vibrate as water bag bodies, immerse in interspecies publics, and conspire with mycelial economies and symbiotic collaborators!

This course welcomes students from all disciplines with an interest and curiosity in exploring the porosity of binaries such as human/non-human, animate/inanimate, living/dead, lively/inert, nature/culture, self/other, objecthood/personhood, and unsettling the value systems and beliefs that uphold them. Our time together will be shaped by movement practice, discussion, journaling, photo-archiving and drawing in the studio and outdoors. Students will be asked to create and share body-based arts and movement practices throughout the course which will culminate in a collective showing at the end of term.

If you had a robot who always tied your shoes for you, would you ever have learned how to tie your shoes yourself? What about if that same agent did all your arithmetic and all your writing, and eventually shaped all your decisions? The promise of AI is fraught with ethical questions that strike at the very heart of what it means to be human and to act as a moral agent in society. It reveals a fundamental tension between what AI can do and what AI should do. In the modern world, that tension is growing.

This course investigates AI Ethics using a truly interdisciplinary approach. We shall explore AI from the perspective of computer science, where you will learn about neural networks and deep learning; and from the perspective of philosophy, where we will discuss how one ought to act. Our goal is to think deeply about human values in an increasingly technological world, and to inform discussions about ethics with an understanding of how AI actually works.

You do not require a background in philosophy or computer science to take this class. But you must be willing to read and think about both technical and philosophical works, and be comfortable with elementary algebra. Any other background will be provided. By the end of our class, you will discover whether you want a robot that ties your shoes.

Topics include: computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks, deep learning, philosophy, ethics

Evaluation will be based on active engagement, projects, writing, and a comprehensive final examination.

Embark on a deeper exploration of computer science, where the focus shifts from programming and foundations of computer science, to the intricacies of algorithms and their real-world applications. This course reinforces and builds upon the concepts introduced in Introduction to CS 1, and provides an introduction to algorithm design, data analysis, and the practical application of computational techniques.

You will learn not only how to explore possible solutions using computational thinking, but also how to analyze and understand the data that drives these solutions. You will explore a selection of topics such as dynamic programming, stochastic modelling, statistical inference, and machine learning. These techniques will provide you with some tools to make sense of the vast amounts of data often encountered in computing tasks.

This course does not simply aim to expand your technical skill set. It seeks to cultivate a critical mindset that questions, analyzes, and interprets data, so that you can make informed inference and decisions. It invites those who are intrigued by the power of algorithms to engage computation in diverse contexts, setting the stage for advanced study in science, the arts, and beyond.

This course follows from Introduction to Computer Science 1: Programming and Computer Science.

Topics include: Python programming, complexity theory, discrete structures, recursion, object-oriented programming, testing and debugging

Evaluation will be based on active engagement, projects, and a comprehensive final examination.

This is not your typical class in computer science, or in formal logic; but you will learn a lot about both by taking it. Our subject will be one of the most important and influential papers that has ever been written—”On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem,” by Alan Turing. This is the paper that birthed computer science as a discipline. Understanding it requires that you be comfortable with some mathematical concepts (powers and roots) and with thinking abstractly; but the most important prerequisite for understanding this paper is determination.

Turing’s 1936 paper proves something very interesting. We usually believe we have made progress in solving a mathematical problem when we come up with a general procedure. When you were young, you learned a procedure to subtract one number from another. Later, you learned a procedure to solve for the unknown in a quadratic equation. What Turing shows is that there is a large class of mathematical problems that cannot be solved procedurally. By this, we mean not merely that we do not know what the procedure is, but that no procedure will ever be found!

This is a shocking result! How can we know that no procedure will ever be found? Could it not be that we simply have yet to stumble on the right procedure to solve the problem? No, says Turing! In fact, he proves it, and his mind-bending proof is the centerpiece of our course. His proof lies at the center of three disciplines that have profoundly shaped the modern world: formal logic, foundations of mathematics, and theoretical computer science. Each of these disciplines looks back to Turing’s paper as a flashpoint, a moment which defined how each understands reality. What is the best way to characterize Turing’s paper? Simple. It changed the world.

Topics include: computation, computability, formal logic, philosophy, infinity, Turing Machines

Prerequisites: At least one course in Computer Science or Mathematics.

Sound is critical to the survival, social structure, and well-being of many organisms, human and non-human alike. In this interdisciplinary course we will examine how animals, plants, humans, and other forms of life impact one another through the calls, songs, and other vibrations they make. Using various case studies about music, sound, and society in Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, the Middle East, Southern United States, Brazil, Iceland, and a variety of music compositions spanning several centuries, we will begin to understand and appreciate how sounds of nature shape and inspire the musical and sound-making practices of different cultures throughout the world. On the non-human side, we will explore the different ways that birds, mammals, insects, plants, and other organisms produce sounds and the various reasons why these behaviors evolved. Further, we will focus on how non-human organisms have responded to living in a world that has become increasingly dominated by human-made sounds. This will be a highly integrative class, mixing foundational knowledge from both Ethnomusicology and Biology as well as other disciplines including sound studies, ecomusicology, multi-species anthropology, music composition, soundscape ecology, animal communication, and bioacoustics. Our work will include reading a diverse assortment of texts, reviewing scientific literature, active music listening in class and at home, and opportunities to conduct studies in the field.

In this applied course in microeconomics, we draw upon game theory models to explore the strategic decisions firms must make to compete in the market and compete for the market. Throughout the course, our emphasis will be on market structure and its influence on market power, and we will integrate theory with real-world case studies to delve into critical topics such as pricing, advertising, platform competition, capacity investments, investments in R&D product innovation, and patent strategies.

We will explore the key concepts in the course verbally and through written expositions, and use mathematical formulations to express the ideas in formal terms. For this, knowledge of high school-level algebra and geometry is required and expected.

The course has two requirements: [a] Class participation based on a deep reading of assigned materials and [b] problem sets and related assignments. You should not miss a class. Before coming to class, you must engage carefully with the assigned materials and participate seriously in class discussions. Also, you must complete all problem sets and submit them for discussion in a timely manner.

(Important Notice: This course focuses on the novelLolita,which can be disturbing to some readers. Our class discussions will not be able to circumvent the narrative of an older man exploiting a child. Please be aware of this difficult material before registering for the course.)

InVladimir Nabokov’sLolita(1955),Humbert Humbert writes, “I am trying to describe these things not to relive them in my present boundless misery, but to sort out the portion of hell and the portion of heaven in that strange, awful, maddening world—nymphet love. The beastly and beautiful merged at one point, and it is that borderline I would like to fix.” It is precisely thisborderlinebetween “monster” and “fancy prose” stylist that we will examine in this course, which will also consider Nabokov’sSpeak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited(1951), his research on butterflies, as well asThe Enchanter,a precursor toLolita. WhenLolitawas first published, it was deemed “filthy” yet enjoyed the status as a best-seller, and it continues in the contemporary era to both attract and repel. In addition to reading academic scholarship onLolita, we will also consider the recently publishedLolita in the Afterlife: On Beauty, Risk, and Reckoning with the Most Indelible and Shocking Novel of the Twentieth Century(2021) as well as cultural and cinematic representations or reckonings of the novel.

Poverty signifies a state of deprivation where individuals fail to meet a minimum standard of living, while vulnerability indicates the risk of poverty within a population. Several key questions emerge from discussions on these issues: Who are the poor and the most vulnerable? How do we measure poverty and assess vulnerability? Why does poverty persist, and why are some individuals more prone to it? And, why are these conditions unfair and unjust? This advanced research seminar examines these key questions.

This research seminar is designed for students in their third and fourth years of college. Students in their second year may also join with the prior approval of the instructor. We will explore the key concepts in the course verbally and through written expositions and use mathematical formulations to express the ideas in formal terms. The course will involve a close analysis of household survey datasets. Some familiarity with spreadsheet analyses of data is expected for this purpose. Prior knowledge of statistical theory/applications will be advantageous.

The course has two requirements: [a] Class participation based on deep reading of assigned materials, and [b] a research project with related homework assignments. Attendance is mandatory, and students are expected to carefully prepare by engaging with assigned readings and actively participating in class discussions. Additionally, students will conduct empirically-grounded research to examine the nature and causes of poverty and vulnerability. All datasets will be provided to the students; however, it’s important to note that the instructor has the permit and privilege to oversee the datasets. Any use, citation, or distribution of the datasets without prior written approval from the instructor and/or without their knowledge would constitute a breach of trust and violate the terms of use.

A central element of the “economic problem” is coordination of people’s economic actions. In a market economy, prices play a crucial role in addressing this problem. This course examines how the system of prices work, and when it fails.

This is an introductory course in microeconomic theory and applications, designed for students in their first and second years of college. We will explore the basic ideas in the course verbally and through written expositions, and we will use graphs and mathematical formulations to express the key concepts in formal terms. For this, a grasp of high-school algebra and geometry is required. Additionally, some knowledge of calculus will be advantageous.

The course has two requirements: [a] Class participation based on a deep reading of assigned materials and [b] problem sets and related assignments. You should not miss a class. Before coming to class, you must engage carefully with the assigned materials and participate seriously in class discussions. Also, you must complete all problem sets and submit them for discussion in a timely manner.

This course invites students to research and write a paper on aphilosophical topic of their own choosing. Students will be required to clearly state thephilosophicalproblem they want to research, construct a detailed bibliography, and write a paper that explains the problem, engages with thephilosophical literature, and advances an argument.

For students of varying levels of singing ability. This course will teach fundamental concepts of healthy voice technique that can be applied to singing in any style. Students will work towards individual goals through regular practice of warmups, vocalizations, and awareness exercises, and progress will be assessed by preparation and performance of specific song assignments. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed, as well as personalization of text and emotional expression. Students will study and perform at least one classical art song or aria to strengthen and facilitate technical growth, as well as explore repertoire in other vocal styles that move a student towards their individual performance goals (as determined with guidance from the instructor).
Students should have previous singing experience and/or study and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Sections will meet weekly in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every week to work on repertoire.

This class uses movement and the principles of the Alexander Technique to prepare the body for making sound, and is appropriate for singers, actors, dancers, or anyone interested using their body as an instrument. Class begins with gentle movements on the floor, sitting and standing to develop physical awareness and ease, and will over the term progress to vocal warmups, spatial games and exercises that allow the free flow of air, vibration, resonance and emotion. Students will investigate their existing habits and learn fundamentals of voice technique for application to singing in any style, acting, or public speaking. Students will show regular practice and application of these tools in their chosen area of focus. This is not a vocal performance class but can be taken concurrently with or in preparation for an auditioned voice class.

Students should be able to do gentle movements on the floor, sitting and standing.

This course approaches the college’s ceramics studios as a case study in how to archive a collection and curate an exhibition. Students will research, document and catalog pottery, ceramics and other objects that have aggregated in the studios over a period of years. Drawing on this research, they will select objects for display in a new window space inside the studios, creating a public-facing exhibition reflecting the history and future of ceramics at Bennington. Students will be introduced to skill- and theory-based practices through activities including database use, photographing and writing about objects, and curatorial strategies for storage, selection and display.

Sometimes called apolitical or ahistorical, many of Pedro Almodóvar’s luscious films have met with consternation, if not distain, by Spanish critics. Yet Almodóvar leads the jury for the 2017 Cannes film festival. In fact, Spanish film scholar Paul Julian Smith notes that while “Pedro Almodóvar is now the most successful Spanish filmmaker of all time, whether that success is measured in terms of commercial or creative capital, […he…] remains a prophet without honour in his home country” (in Desire Unlimited: The Cinema of Pedro Almodóvar).

In this course, we will uncover the hidden political realities that inform the director’s oeuvre. An anarchic extrovert and flamboyant auteur, Almodóvar has long exploited cinema as a means of provoking social change. His films roughly span the years of Spain’s post-dictatorship (1977-present) and must be situated within this highly charged context of dramatic political and cultural transformation. While his early screwball comedies flaunt the freedom of the era, his more recent films have grown more ambitious and serious, with his most restrained film to date being an adaptation of Alice Munro. The course will also address how Almodóvar’s work theorizes issues such as gender and sexuality, power and the body, visual pleasure, religion and its abuse, consumerism, authenticity, high and low culture, and film authorship itself. Readings, most in Spanish, will inform rigorous discussion on all of these topics.

Advisory: Students should be aware that some of the films contain graphic images of a sexual or violent nature.

Students in this course will continue to learn the Spanish language through an immersion in Latin American and Spanish films. While there will be some focus on stylistic nuances, script-writing, acting, dubbing, and directors’ biographies, it is expected that we will continue to develop sufficient linguistic ability to focus on cinematographic and social movements. A consideration, for instance, of national and regional identity, political violence, border crossing, intolerance, and gender identity, will drive the student-generated conversation. The course will provide specific and explicit support for the linguistic development necessary to communicate in increasingly complex ways, in both written and oral Spanish. This support will generally be student-driven, servicing the content, corroborating the hope that in confronting our own preconceived notions of the Spanish-speaking world we will simultaneously debunk those regarding how a language is taught. Conducted in Spanish. Introductory level.

“Jessica and Lorenzo are in love, but in order to be together they must plan an escape from her father’s house, the Venetian ghetto, and her entire culture. Taking place in the gaps between “The Merchant of Venice” and the realities of Jewish history, “Everything That Never Happened” is a play about a father, a daughter, disguise, assimilation, pomegranates, and everything Shakespeare left out….

Clothing can suggest 16th century Venice but it should be more improvised, more flexible, more like rehearsal room costuming….This world is created primarily through language…. The visual world of the play functions like memory—we only see the things we need, the things that we touch.” — Sarah Mantell

Guided improvisation and creative collaboration will be key in our rehearsal process. The words and movements of the actors, and perhaps musicians, in concert with light and space, conjure the maze that is Venice. This is a story of intrigue: what we conceal to survive, and what we must reveal to become fully human.

Sarah Mantell is the 2023 winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Award for their play “In the Amazon Warehouse Parking Lot.”

Performances will be scheduled for April 2025.

I often suggest to students in a writer’s workshop that they should, when submitting work for class, aim for spectacular failure, figure out the breaking point of their own abilities and charge headlong past them, because there is no better place to test one’s limits than in a workshop full of peers working at the same goal. In this generative writing workshop, I’m putting my money where my mouth is. In this course, students will be asked to break things — generally their own things — as they try to test the limits of what they can do as writers, the limits of what a story or piece of prose can sustain, and as they leap at the chance to both stretch their abilities and throw themselves headlong into experiments ripe for spectacular failure. This class will feature mostly generative writing in-class as well as lengthy discussions of published work that hoped to push storytelling and prose to an extreme. The class will finish with one round of workshop in which students submit work built on the exercises, failures, experiments, and small successes they’ve had over the last quarter of the term. Readings will be pulled from Samanta Schweblin, Helen Oyeyemi, Donald Barthelme, George Saunders, Stuart Dybek, Deborah Eisenberg, Danielle Evans, and a host of other modern and contemporary writers who have, either through loud experimentation or a deep well of powerfully quiet writing (and everything in between), pushed the envelope of what prose can accomplish and demonstrated a compelling and lasting authorial voice.

Nature is often violent and unforgiving, but few understand the extent to which animals engage in behaviors that, if judged by human ethical standards, would be considered malicious, immoral, or even evil. This provocative course will challenge our understanding of morality through the lens of non-human behaviors. Throughout this course, you will uncover the ecological and evolutionary underpinnings of seemingly malevolent behaviors, including predatory play, surplus killing, infanticide and siblicide, traumaticinsemination, sexual coercion, sexual cannibalism, brood raiding, brood parasitism, host manipulation, resource hoarding, chemical warfare, inter-colony elimination, and unprovoked lethal violence. We will examine the implications of applying anthropocentric ethical standards to the interpretation of animal behaviors, fostering a nuanced understanding of nature’s diversity. This course is designed for students who are eager to engage with the complexities of animal behavior from a critical and evolutionary perspective. Participants will gain a deep appreciation for the intricacies of the animal world and the ability to critically assess the anthropomorphism of animal actions. Prepare to challenge your perceptions and sensibilities as we explore the darker side of nature in a course that will be as controversial as it is captivating.

The archive–and using archival materials as the generative basis for creative output–is having a moment. The visionary scholar-writer Saidiya Hartman has popularized once unknown terms like “critical fabulation” and “documentary poetics” through genre bending works like “Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments”; erasure projects like poet Nicole Sealey’s “The Ferguson Report: an Erasure” are transforming leaky government records into poetry; the influence of the late German wanderer W.G. Sebald has proven to remarkably durable in contemporary writing of all kinds. In this class, we’ll read a wide range of creative non-fiction that involves archival work, and students will undertake their own adventures in the archive to help them generate personal essays, hybrid works, and other forms of creative nonfiction, which they’ll refine in regular workshops.

A comprehensive survey of American Transcendentalism through the writing of its major figures (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller) as well as more overshadowed club members like Orestes Brown, Bronson Alcott and Ellery Channing. We will explore the debates the movement set off among thinkers of the 19th Century, especially concerning slavery, Abolitionism, and women’s rights, and come to a keen understanding of Transcendentalism not just as a philosophical ideal, but as a radical new way of living that only could have flowered in the roiling America of the 1830s and 1840s. Students will write frequent responses to their reading throughout the term and two papers.

Self-reflexive narratives, improvisation, non-linearity, slow cinema, alternative representations of time and space, experimental film grammars, poetic scripts, collective direction, Brechtian techniques. All of these processes and more will be explored in this hands-on production based course. Working collaboratively and on your peers’ work in various roles is required for this course. This course is appropriate to students doing advanced work in film and video as we will be taking a project from research, writing and structuring to post-production in the span of a term.

This course is a seminar focusing on films that were made by filmmakers and collectives which saw themselves as inaugurating a new kind of filmmaking modeled neither on the commercial American filmmaking, nor on the European “Auteur” Cinema, instead crafting a third position, a cinema that was implicated in anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist struggles of the time. These works challenged ideas of authorship, questioned the role of the filmmaker in political transformation, and proposed alternatives to the forms of production that filmmaking made use of. We will wrestle with the ethical, political and aesthetic implications of this period of filmmaking and its legacy, moving through the questions and debates that were opened by these works: what is an anti-capitalist film and how should it be made? What does a politically transformative film look like and which positions does it require? How does it circulate? For whom is it made? We will also look at more recent works which are in dialogue with Third Cinema and think about the implications that these questions have for film and art today. We will watch films by: Gettino/Solanas, Sarah Maldoror, Sara Gomez, Haile Gerima, Ousmane Sembene, Glauber Rocha, Luis Ospina and other filmmakers and artists engaged with this legacy, up to the present moment. Students will keep a film by film record of the ways in which thedebates of Third Cinema are in dialogue with our present moment.

What is action? What is character? What is an “event”? What are gestures, timing, rhythm and stakes? How do actors, playwrights, and directors collaborate to create an experience/event in space and time? How do illusion and anti-illusion collude and compete to make the representation “real?” This workshop/seminar offers theater artists the chance to examine their craft from the inside out. Tuesday afternoons we meet in a 4-hour block to allow for in class rehearsals and showings.

Throughout the course everyone participates in all exercises and assignments. We tell stories, we act, and those who have never directed direct. We begin by exploring the energy in the body, focusing on stillness and release. We continue with physical exercises from both the eastern and western traditions leading into improvisation as a method for tapping the source of impulses. We touch on the Viewpoints as a tool for creating kinetic compositions spontaneously in space. In the text analysis section, we study the expression of action through structure, dialogue, and the importance of “events.” We consider both external and internal action, subtext, and freeing up the voice. By mid-term, everyone directs a short scene from one Chekhov play. In the second half of the term, students choose one contemporary play from which they will direct individual scenes. Directors and actors will work together to direct, rehearse, design, and present a public performance of scenes from one play of the students’ choosing.

Following the example of Lynn Hernandez, I practice presenting materials and activities, and invite the students to present materials and activities, that respect equity, inclusion, and diversity. This embraces gender identity, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, nationality, religion, and culture.

This course is for students who have moderate experience in playing drum set, but also for novice. Students who have some background in playing drum set will have an opportunity to fine-tune their fundamentals by working on rudimentary stick control and overall drum set technique, which includes grooves (beats) and drum fills. Students who are new to the drum set will begin with basic coordination on the set, but also learn simple drum set notation to assist in the learning process. Listening, viewing, critiquing, and reviewing drummers who have contributed to the innovation of and art of the drum set is a weekly part of our class experience. Using two drum sets in class to demonstrate an exercise or assignment, students are expected to participate in this classroom practice. You are encouraged to learn grooves (beats) from a variety of genres including, but not limited to Blues, Funk, Rock, Progressive Rock, Metal, Fusion, Jazz, and Hip-Hop. Homework assignments include: Recording 10 to 15 minutes of your assignment practice, playing with other musicians if possible, attending music workshop, and learning how to maintain the drum set practice space and equipment in the DCB attic, Fireplace room, and practice rooms.

Forest ecosystems regulate climate, store and filter water, provide food and fiber, and serve as recreational areas and sacred spaces. These ecosystems are undergoing dramatic changes — climate change, deforestation, management — with important ecological, economic, and social consequences for the future of ecosystems and society. Vermont is among the most forested states in the U.S. today, but it’s history since deglaciation includes dramatic changes in forest composition, Indigenous management, devastating deforestation by settler-colonists, rapid human population decline, forest re-growth, and conservation writing and work foundational to western conservation ethics. Vermont supports more than 90 different natural communities and lands protected by federal, state, and non-profit conservation work. In this class, students will hone their field and analytical methods in ecosystem science to explore how forest ecosystems are changing and how that influences the value we derive from forests. We will read peer-reviewed papers and visit local forest ecosystems to understand the relationships between forest composition and structure, ecosystem processes and function, and forest management and restoration in Vermont and beyond.

In this course, I will be working with a small group of students to learn what it takes to write a comedy pilot for television. We’ll be reading and watching pilots from some of the best comedies of the last decade or so (Community, What We Do In The Shadows, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, etc.) to learn how pilots function. Each week students will share their work for feedback from myself and the group at large. This is a process oriented class where students will be encouraged to swing for the fences. By Week 14, writers will have an outline for their pilot and a draft of their completed comedy script. Screenwriting software (Final Draft, Fade In, WriterDuet, etc.) is required for this course. Writing duos will also be given full consideration. This course is hybrid. PLEASE NOTE: Some of the material in this course is provocative (sometimes deliberately so) and not for the faint of heart, so to speak. I believe in freedom of expression and not censoring an artist’s impulses so if you are easily upset by content (or jokes), this may not be the class for you.

Shakespeare not only inspires radical staging approaches, but has also provoked contemporary playwrights to reimagine, refashion, and retell his stories to include, as Sarah Mantell puts it, “Everything that Never Happened.”

In this course we will dive into some of Shakespeare’s classics and read them alongside contemporary adaptations that plunge us into worlds that are both Shakespearean and beyond what he could imagine. We will be working with Patsy Rodenburg’s techniques, what she calls “a simple manual to start the journey into the heart of Shakespeare.” We will commit to contemporary approaches of fluid casting in which anyone can play any character.

“Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “King Lear,” and “The Merchant of Venice,” will be read along with James Ijames’ “Fat Ham,” Jiehae Park’s “Peerless,” Young Jean Lee’s “Lear,” and Sarah Mantell’s “Everything that Never Happened.”

We will practice text analysis as well as how to speak and perform Shakespeare in a way to bring the words to immediate life. In this seven-week course, we will explore how to unlock a text in terms of language, imagery, form, structure, rhythm, and sound. Through exercises we will work to expand the actor’s physical and vocal instrument, as well as emotional and dramatic power. We will practice listening, unpacking thoughts, and playing actions. Working on monologues and scenes from a variety of plays, actors will be encouraged to play any role they choose.

Why would a forest ecology course include an assignment to knit a wool hat? In this class we will explore the lasting impact of sheep on the Vermont landscape, from the earliest settler-colonizers through today’s small batch fiber mills and second growth forests studded with stone walls. Sheep, and especially a 19th century boom in merino sheep, radically altered Vermont’s forests and inspired early writing on conservation and sustainable land management. We will hone our field ecology and natural history skills to recognize signs of past land use in the forests today, learn to knit with local wool and explore botanical dyeing, and consider the impacts of our fiber and clothing choices on the environment today. No knitting experience required.

For the first one hundred and fifty years after its introduction, calculus saw an explosive development in its applications to mathematical and physical problems, defeating old problems thought of as insoluble, and solving new problems no-one had even thought to consider before. At the same time, it was under a cloud of suspicion: it rested on vague arguments about quantities becoming “infinitely” small or “infinitely” numerous, and though it usually gave correct answers in the end, it was far from the model of logical clarity provided by Euclid’s Elements. In this class, you will prove everything that was taken for granted in introductory calculus, starting from first principles. Aside from providing logical certainty, these techniques of proof provide insight as to the real meaning of “infinitely” small, “infinitely” many, and “limiting” value. These techniques are used almost universally in higher mathematics, and a course in Analysis is the central building block of an undergraduate mathematics degree. In addition, the techniques are also essential to theoretical computer science, so students interested in that field should take this course as well.

This course covers the breadth of university calculus: differentiation, integration, infinite series, and ordinary differential equations. It focuses on concepts and interconnections. In order to cover this much material, computational techniques are de-emphasized. The approach is historically based and classical, following original texts where possible. Further techniques and applications, which would normally be covered in a first calculus sequence, will appear in following mathematics courses, such as Differential Equations and Non-Linear Dynamical Systems, Ordinary Differential Equations, and Fourier Analysis and Partial Differential Equations. This is an advanced course; Calculus AP or IB cannot be used as substitutes for it. On the other hand, this is at the same time an introductory course on calculus: the course treats the concepts in a logically independent way, so if the other prerequisites are met, no prior experience with calculus is required.

This course is an introduction to copper plate Intaglio. We will explore various techniques to prepare our plates including hand working and acid etching with materials such as rosin resists and sugar lifts. By the end of term, we will be printing in color. Ultimately, the overall goal of our endeavors will be to begin a dialog about artistic production in a contemporary context while also exploring the unique history of the intaglio process.

This advanced level course is also an introduction to lithographic processes. Students will start by processing and printing images from limestone and end the semester by exploring the possibilities of making positive films to expose lithographic plates. This studio class is structured around a number of projects, each one ending with a group critique. Students should find the parameters of these assignments broad enough to allow for customization to their own artistic interests and are expected to bring additional content to their work from outside the classroom. The print studio is also focused on its community as part of its practice.

Besides creating work, we will look at a diverse range of historical and contemporary perspectives and sources to help inform our work. These will include looking at original works at the Clark, as well as reading artist writing, historical articles and other research. At the end of the term, students will have the skills and visual vocabulary to continue making lithographs as well as refine their work generally.

How does one resist the imperative to tell a neat, digestible story about racial identity? What new stories become possible when poets conduct, in Haryette Mullen’s words, “an open-ended investigation into the possibilities of language?” In this advanced literature seminar, we will read works by BIPOC writers who employ innovative methods to question, disrupt, and reimagine narratives of race, with a focus on Black and Asian American experimental traditions. Beginning with Jean Toomer’s 1923 hybrid-genre bookCane,we will travel through a brief history of innovative writing by American poets of color in the 20th Century, before reading some of the genre-defining (and defying) collections of the last few decades, including Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’sDictee,M. NourbeSe Phillip’sZong!,and Bhanu Kapil’sHumanimal.This is an upper-level course with an expectation of substantial previous work studying 20th and 21st Century poetry and/or BIPOC literature. Reading requirements will include an average of one full poetry collection and 1-2 critical essays per week. Students will turn in three response papers and an 8-10 page final essay, with the option to employ experimental or cross-genre methods in said essay.

In this course we will focus on translating from French into English as well as from English into French. We will work on developing a mindfulness about language use as well as a comparative eye focused on English and French’s stylistic and structural preferences. Grammar and lexical development will also be on offer and will highlight points where the two languages converge and diverge. Thematically, we will examine questions surrounding translating race/class and gender as we focus on translation as a form of cultural mediation. Introduction to translating film through subtitles and, if time permits, an introduction to interpretation. Workshops will allow us to share our work and develop new strategies. Advanced level.

In his 1906 work, “Why is there no socialism in the United States?,” German sociologist Werner Sombart famously mused that American socialism had been ship-wrecked “on reefs of roast beef and apple pie.” While the relative affluence of American workers certainly impacted Leftist organizing at that time, there is a storied history of socialist thought and practice in the United States that nonetheless warrants attention. Grounded in the writing of American socialists, but opening a window into international socialist praxis, this course will explore the shifting grounds of socialist thinking and activism from the mid-19th century to the present. We will engage with a wide-range of debates over: political strategy (e.g. ‘reform versus revolution’); the emergence of fascism; the revolutionary agent(s); the linkages between oppression and exploitation; the relationship between production and social reproduction; the nature of the state; and the realities of imperialism and colonialism. By the end of the term, we will aim to provide an updated answer to Sombart. Or, perhaps, to reframe his question.

This course will explore American environmental politics, from the late 1800s to the present day, with a focus on understanding the actors, institutions, and structural power dynamics that impact environmental struggles. We will proceed by engaging with a variety of historical and contemporary case studies related to clean air and water, forests, energy, public lands, and climate change. These cases will provide insight into major theories and concepts relevant to American politics; the historical evolution of American environmental policy; the ways in which various interest groups seek to influence environmental policy; and the role played by social movements that operate outside of formal political institutions.

This course introduces a variety of materials, techniques and approaches to working with oil paint. Emphasis is placed on developing and understanding of color, form and space as well as individual research and conceptual concerns. The daily experience of seeing, along with examples from art history and contemporary art, provide a base from which investigations are made. Formal, poetic, and social implications within paintings both from class and from a wide-ranging selection of practicing artists are examined and discussed. Students complete work weekly. There are regular group critiques and individual reviews, reading assignments and lectures by visiting artists. A high degree of motivation is expected.

Although students will be asked to respond to questions presented in class, and specific assignments will be given throughout this course, it is the objective of this class to provide the skills necessary for the student to confidently pursue self-designed projects.

Chromophilia, a term coined by contemporary artist David Batchelor, refers to intense passion and love for color. What is it about color that has the power to induce reverie, and conversely to manipulate, or disgust? How does color work? What is the role of color in painting? In language? How do we understand and respond to color from phenomenological, poetic, philosophical, and societal vantage points? How as artists can we become effective stewards of our passionately-loved and yet ever-shifting chroma?

In this class, we look carefully at and discuss the work of many artists, primarily painters, and the implications of color in their images. Wide-ranging readings from literature, philosophy, and cultural criticism, serve as a base for discussion and artistic response.

Visual work for the first weeks of class consists of intensive color problems using cut paper; in subsequent weeks, students solve problems presented in class using painting, or any other color-abled media.

Reading and written responses are assigned weekly. Class time is primarily used for discussion of texts, critique of visual work, and student presentations of research. Assignments are given throughout, however, it is the objective of this class to provide the skills necessary for the student to confidently pursue self-designed projects. A high degree of motivation is expected.

This introductory seminar will consider and juxtapose the 19th century British Romantic poet John Keats and the 20th century American modernist poet Wallace Stevens, both of whom were rigorous craftsmen, provocative thinkers, and aesthetic theorists who argued fervently for the supremacy of the imagination, the interconnectedness of truth and beauty, and the importance of mystery and uncertainty in poetry. Alternating between Keats and Stevens, reading both poets each week, we will consider their poetry and critical prose and look for common threads, both in their writing and artistic sensibility. We will write two short critical essays, memorize and recite one poem by each poet. and together engage in intensive close readings of their poetry.

This two-credit course involves working on selecting and editing the content of Bennington’s national print literary magazine, Bennington Review. Students will serve as Editorial Assistants for the magazine, studying and practicing all aspects of magazine editing. The course will also engage students in discussions of contemporary print and digital literary culture, and of the history of literary magazines. Students will be selected in part based on their familiarity with contemporary literature, as well as for prior experience in editing or publishing. Students should anticipate plenty of work for two credits, as well as an immersive, hands-on, professional experience.

This poetry workshop focuses on the ways writers deploy language to achieve precision, vividness, sensory richness, singularity, and emotional resonance. We will begin by developing an understanding of the difference between a detail and a visual image, and the distance between the abstract concept of a thing and the sense of the concrete thing itself. We will go on to explore how narrating an experience is different from enacting it on the page, and what we can do to get our readers to successfully enter and inhabit the worlds we create in our poems. We will experiment with adding color and texture to our drafts, as well as with making individual gestures and actions feel cinematic in the ways we render them. Considerable attention will also be devoted to the ways metaphor and metonymy function in poems. We will also explore ekphrastic poetry and visit local art museums for source material for our work. We will turn in a new poem each week and our discussions will be augmented by considering the work of Rick Barot, Elizabeth Bishop, Cynthia Cruz, Mark Doty, Ross Gay, Jorie Graham, Denis Johnson, Mark Levine, Cate Marvin, Matthew Rohrer, Natasha Trethewey, and William Carlos Williams.

Montaigne considered conversations as the “most fruitful and natural exercise for our minds.” From 17th-century French salons to the current social debates, conversations reflect and shape our lives. This natural penchant for causeries not only continues to permeate the whole society, it also impregnates other forms of representation. Magritte’s “Art of conversation” where stone letter blocks spell out a capital “RÊVE,” is reminiscent of a political utopia conversation embodies. In this course, students will both study and practice the French art of conversation. Monday classes will be devoted to the study of conversation as an object of cultural and philological inquiry, while Thursday classes will allow students to exchange with students of the Université des Antilles, around pre-selected topics. Intermediate-high. Conducted in French.

Viewed from the outside, the French-speaking world offers enticing images of beauty, pleasure, and freedom. From the inside, however, it is a complicated, often contradictory world where implicit codes and values shape the most basic aspects of daily life. This course will give you an insiderʹs perspective on a cultural and communicative system whose ideas, customs, and belief systems are surprisingly different from your own. Together, we will examine how daily life and activities (friendship and family relationships, housing, leisure, work, and food culture) reflect culturally specific ideologies and values. We will also focus on questions of gender and the French language, including inclusive language, as well as French society’s coming to terms with the realities of its colonial past and the multi-racial Francophone world. Emphasis will be placed on developing ease, fluency, and sophistication in oral and written expression. Class will be conducted in French and revolve around authentic materials from the Francophone world (video, music, advertisem*nts, literary texts). Introductory level.

This beginning-level dance course requires no previous dance training and welcomes absolute beginners who would like to start a day with physical practice and body attunement. Students are introduced to some basic principles of dancing by learning various movement patterns, choreographed sequences and by engaging in improvisational and compositional movement practice. As early-morning is the most important and critical time of a day that helps determine how to spend and live that day, this course also offers a mindful yet vivid transition from a state of yin (asleep) to yan (awake).

This beginning-intermediate level course is designed and recommended for students who have some dance experience or equivalent physical training in any movement forms. Anyone who would like to recultivate, reactivate, improve, deepen, expand, develop or break the relationship to their own body and commit to consistent physical learning, are welcomed.

In order to have our minds and bodies relaxed as a default modality, the class offers somatic practice and warm-ups drawn from Water Body Movement (or Noguchi-taiso) and release techniques. Students are also introduced to various movement forms, practice and sequences fluidly one to another not necessarily with categorization and distinction, on the premises that a body is like a black hole, which absorbs and internalizes everything while constantly forming and renewing its own logic.

By exposing a body to various movement languages, rhythms and flows, we will cultivate motor skills, coordination, spatial recognition, phrase learning ability and physical logic making while diving deeply into the process of embodied learning.

This advanced level intensive course is designed for students who have prior experience of making a work around a body, especially (yet not limited) in dance, theater and visual arts contexts. Inspired by butoh-based movement practice, Buddhism and French post-structuralism philosophies, students will seek a way of liberating a body from a socially pre-conditioned self.

While studying particular breath, somatic and movement practices sourced from butoh, students will delve into slippery philosophical concepts such as “pure becoming” “Body without Organs” “state of absence” and “outside-ness within self” through experiential and physical inquiry, paired with group discussions. Ultimately, each student is encouraged to question any pre-existing conceptual frames that have been defining self, and search for alternate ways of being.

Many polities in the world today, particularly in the global South, lack durable, legitimate and effective political institutions and governmental systems. These countries are in the throes of wrenching political transitions and crises that compound weak governance institutions with economic malaise, social polarization, cultural‐territorial fragmentation and/or state disintegration. This course analyzes some of the basic issues and challenges associated with the struggles to create viable political institutions and modern states. Topics to be explored include: theories of political development; the historical lessons of state and nation‐building since the Industrial Revolution; the legacies of colonialism; the role or influence of non‐democratic or pseudo‐democratic regimes; political corruption, clientelism and patronage; political order and political decay; and the struggles to achieve political accountability and the rule of law.

The prevention, management and resolution of African conflicts is a major challenge for the international community and the continent’s peoples. Africa accounts for the largest and highest number of United Nations’ peacekeeping operations, but these “stabilization” missions have mostly failed to stabilize the continent, and large segments of the African population continue to live in deadly conflict zones. This course will explore the African conflict resolution experience from a comparative perspective. Topics will include conflict resolution theory and the African experience, the complex roots of African conflicts, the institutional designs and performance of the continent’s domestic and international conflict resolution mechanisms, and positive and negative comparative lessons from intermediation in selected major African conflicts.

As an interactive process between leaders and their followers or supporters, political leadership is a socially ubiquitous, yet analytically elusive and normatively contentious, concept. This exploration of the qualities of political leaders and the process of political leadership will accomplish five things: (1) Survey contributions to studies of political leadership from various theoretical and philosophical traditions and social science disciplines, including positivism, constructivism, feminism, political science, psychology, and anthropology; (2) Analyze different taxonomies and models of political leadership, including so-called transactional and transformational leadership types; (3) Examine patterns and norms of political leadership across regions of the global north and south, and in various contexts, including democracies and autocracies, presidential and parliamentary regimes, national and international organizations, and formal and informal spaces; (4) Undertake analytic case studies of a selection of iconic and not-so-iconic political leaders; and (5) Reflect on, and reimagine, the future of political leadership as an institution and a field of inquiry.

This is a basic course, covering most of high school mathematics, and will be accessible to all interested and willing students. It is appropriate for students who do not feel confident in their high school mathematics background. Students may proceed from this course to other 2000 level mathematics courses. Mathematics is inherent across all disciplines and undertakings. It is necessary for building structures, assessing risk in everyday life, mixing paint for specific shades, creating business models of growth and decay, setting traffic lights, and can even help assess the correct time to propose. This course will show how math has evolved from counting to the combination of abstract symbols and numbers it appears as today. Covering algebra, geometry, ratios, patterns, series, graphing, probability, and more, we will focus on the foundations of mathematics and the basic skills and reasoning needed for mathematical success. Our goal will be to become conversant in the language of mathematics and understand how it affects our specific disciplines and work as well as strengthen our mathematical skills.

This course is designed for students to research/complete a project in their field of study/interest. In order to take this course, students are required to write a proposal of their project that must be accepted by the instructor.

In this sixth term Japanese course, students will examine how Buddhism influenced Japanese thought on the after-life and analyze how Japanese views on the relationship between life and death are depicted in Japanese films. In the first seven weeks of the course, students will examine and discuss the history, beliefs, and deities of Buddhism and their influences on society. In the second half of the term, students will analyze how death and a common theme, reincarnation, are depicted in different genres of Japanese films such as love stories and fantasy. Throughout the course, students will develop both their linguistic skills and cognitive skills by discussing their understanding of Buddhist beliefs and analyzing Japanese perspectives on death and reincarnation. Individual projects are required. Conducted in Japanese. Intermediate Level.

This fourth term Japanese course is designed for students to create digital books which will teach Japanese children how to embrace cultural differences. First, students will read short stories for Japanese children and watch Japanese animations to examine how Japanese children are expected to behave and communicate with others. Students will also analyze social and cultural values in Japan, how those values are taught, and how gender differences are depicted in children’s short stories and animations. As they analyze the short stories and animations, students will continue to develop their skills by interacting in Japanese through stating and supporting their opinions during discussions that focus on narrative texts. As a final project of the course, students will write their own digital book stories which teach children to embrace cultural differences based on their analyses and understanding of social and cultural values in Japan. Their digital book stories will be read by Japanese children at the Albany Japanese Language School, Schenectady, New York. Approximately 60 new Kanji characters will also be introduced. Conducted in Japanese.

In this second-term Japanese course, students will examine Japanese cultural values and create digital books which will teach Japanese children how to embrace cultural differences. Students will read Japanese children’s books and watch children’s TV shows to explore and analyze how social and cultural values are represented and taught. Based on their analyses and understanding of social and cultural values in Japan, students will write their own digital book stories which teach children to embrace cultural differences as a final project of the course. Their digital book stories will be read by Japanese children at the Albany Japanese Language School, Schenectady, New York. Students will continue to develop their linguistic skills by learning about Japanese stories and interacting in Japanese through stating and supporting their ideas and opinions during discussions that focus on narrative texts. Approximately 60 new Kanji characters will also be introduced. Conducted in Japanese.

The Scriptorium, a “place for writing,” is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing. As we write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a persuasive, well-supported thesis statement, we will also revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style. We will strive for clarity, concision, and expressiveness as we read and respond to a range of historical and contemporary texts.

This Scriptorium focuses on found families. Found families, also called chosen families, refer to forms of kinship and closeness that go beyond one’s immediate biological relations. Because found families highlight non-traditional ways of building community and overcoming shared difficulties, they have become an increasingly important and visible aspect of marginalized communities. This course will focus on found families in a variety of contexts, including queer literature and culture, neurodiversity, feminism, and migration. Our readings and media may include primary works by Leslie Feinberg, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, Stephanie Burt, Casey Plett, Lianka Finck, Alison Bechdel, Ash Kreis, Hayao Miyazaki, Viet Thanh Nguyen, TJ Klune, Rebecca Sugar; and critical works by Eve Sedgwick, Elizabeth Freeman, Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Cárol Mejía, and Kath Weston.

The Scriptorium, a “place for writing,” is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing. As we write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a persuasive, well-supported thesis statement, we will also revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style. We will strive for clarity, concision, and expressiveness as we read and respond to a variety of historical and contemporary texts.

This Scriptorium is about world-building: multiverses, utopias, dystopias, alternative realities, dreamscapes. Why have so many creators—not just in our time but across the centuries—been drawn to the idea of world-building? What do fictional worlds say about our own? Conversely, what do they offer that cannot be found anywhere else? We will voyage across worlds portrayed in novels, short stories, films, and video games. Our readings and media may include primary works by Ursula Le Guin, N.K. Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jonathan Swift, Jason Roberts, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Samuel Johnson, Alice Munro; and critical texts by Jenny Odell, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Benedict Anderson, Lauren Berlant, and Dora Zhang.

In this course, we will focus on developing the statistical skills needed to answer questions by collecting data, designing experimental studies, and analyzing large publicly available datasets. The skills learned will also help students to be critical consumers of statistical results. We will use a variety of datasets to develop skills in data management, analysis, and effective presentation of results. Emphasis will be placed on gaining a solid conceptual understanding of the big ideas in statistics, a solid working knowledge of the main statistical tests, and practical skills for conducting data analysis in a statistical software package called R. We will use R to do all computational and graphical aspects of data analysis and visualization and there will be minimal use of formulas in this course. Key statistical tests covered will include randomization simulations, chi-square, ANOVA, and linear and logistic regression.

This is a 2000-level course because there are no formal prerequisites. No prior experience with statistics or computer programming is required but you must be willing to work hard and to engage deeply with the course materials and in the research projects. This is a rigorous and challenging course, which provides participants with practical and widely applicable skills in data analysis.

This course serves as an introduction to rhythms, chants, and musical practices from Africa, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, and the African Diaspora. Using indigenous percussion instruments from these territories, students will use their hands, mallets, and sticks to learn and play traditional folkloric rhythms and melodies. Additional conversations reveal history, culture, language, and dance. This class serves the greater Bennington community in the spring by partnering with the Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, Bennington Project Independence, and the Village School of North Bennington. Near the end of term students will share their work in celebration with these organizations. Weekly practice is expected.

This course is for dancers and musicians interested in working on the performance of improvisation. For musicians, specific attention is given to creating rhythms and sonorities which can then be manipulated and developed while interacting with dancers in the moment. Once a week dancers will have a class with musicians in collaboration on improvisational structures. Musicians will meet separately on another day to explore improvisation concepts, readings, and discussions on the history of improvisational forms and its development. Musicians are expected to have basic skills on their instrument(s) and be able to create while conveying a sense of form to other musicians.

SUN RA…SPACE IS THE PLACE unfolds the life of Herman Poole Blount, (May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993) founder and creator of the Sun Ra Arkestra. Considered a prolific composer of jazz and a pioneer of electronic music, Herman Blount, aka Le Sony’r Ra, better known as Sun Ra, was quite controversial for his electronic music and unorthodox lifestyle. He claimed he was of the “Angel Race” and not from Earth but from Saturn after experiencing an alien abduction. Sun Ra’s music touched on the entire history of jazz, from ragtime to swing, bebop to free jazz, electronic to space music. This course examines Sun Ra’s musical timeline with a focus on song lyrics, poetry, and his early beginnings and influences. Students will view landmark and related Sun Ra films for its poetic content, as well as present midterm and final projects inspired from the collection. Readings from the book; “Space Is The Place, The Lives And Times Of Sun Ra”, written by John F. Szwed, and “SUN RA Interviews and Essays”, Ed. by John Sinclair, are essential for class discussions.

Nature is the best chemist. However, building biological active molecules using synthetic organic chemistry enables researchers to produce enough material to allow for thorough scientific investigation. To this end, synthetic chemistry remains a key step in drug discovery. A good synthetic strategy builds complexity quickly from simple commercially available starting materials. Through surveying the litreature, students will learn about classic organic synthesis, such as the synthesis of the best sellling natural anti-cancer agent taxol, as well as more recent developments like the synthesis of paxlovid for the treatment of mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. Additionally, students will be challenged to design, execute, and fully characterize small molecule intermediates using NMR spectroscopy.

This course explores how photographers work with the materiality of the medium to create representations of desired realities and interrogate “official histories,” especially those connected to colonization, migration, and gender. The course will look at techniques for intervened photography and photo-collage and apply them to creating photobooks. Students will be encouraged to think of photography as an object and to consider the audience’s experience with the materiality of photography through photobooks. Class time will engage group discussions based on reading assignments from photography theory, gender studies, and visual anthropology and the work of different LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC artists. Students will complete in-class and weekly assignments, group critiques, and a final self-directed project to produce a photobook.

InDesign, Photoshop, and Lightroom will be available on all 12 workstations in the Photo Digital Lab. Students will be required to have a Mac-compatible external hard drive and inkjet photo paper to complete assignments.

An environmental policy class which closely examines the environmental and public health implications of the production, use and disposal of plastics. The class is taugh on zoom and there are many communty people from around the country who audit the class, which results in a nice exchange of ideas between Bennington students and community people who love to learn. Climate change, environmental justice and health will be fully explored. The class is based in CAPA and there is a heavy focus on public action. This is a class for students who want to learn about the issue and roll up their sleeves to reverse the growing problem of plastic pollution.

How did premodern culture understand the human body? How did it work? Where did it fit in the Great Chain of Being, and what differentiated men from women? Medicine has always been a hybrid of thinking, seeing, knowing, and doing. But what defined medicine in the past? Was it a science, an art, or merely a collection of practices? Between the age of Hippocrates and the age of Enlightenment, medicine very slowly detached itself from philosophy to become empirical and experimental. Using documents, art, and images, we follow patients and practitioners over two millennia – and, as we trace the history of healing, we chart changing perceptions of the body in the premodern world.

What is magic? What is a witch? Who is a witch? And in the increasingly rational culture of Europe after the Renaissance, how and why did nearly 100,000 people – predominantly women – come to be tried for the crime of witchcraft? In many ways, the investigation of these questions hangs on another question: how do we differentiate science, magic, and religion? In premodern Europe, there were no clear boundaries separating these ways of knowing. This course investigates these questions, mapping them onto the interplay of old and new ideas about magic, alchemy, gender, the heavens, and the occult in premodern Europe.

The course is for intermediate to advanced students.
Students are expected to practice daily (minimum of 30 minutes). End-of-semester performance is required.

Students who are familiar with the basics of holding the instrument and the bow and have played for at least 1 semester. Individual 25-30 min. long lessons.

Daily practice (about 15-20 min.) is expected. End-of-semester performance is required.

“The search for love continues even in the face of great odds.”

What is love? When we talk about love are we perceived as weak and irrational? We are living in the times where learning to love gets shadowed by a culture of narcissism.

In this class we will analyze bell hooks’s “all about love”, then embody written material through rigorous movement practice, breath work, sound exercises, and physical endurance practices. Through embodiment of hooks’ text via partnering work we will explore the ability to trust, take risks, respect while being vulnerable, striking mind and heart at the same time, using the power of love as a transformative force for change.

In moments when disappointment is hidden behind cynicism, and honest discussions about love are replaced with fantasy, we will use sensorial wisdom to grow our capacity to feel, inspire, provoke, sense, recognize in order to build a path to healing for the individual and the community. We will explore how “Love informs decisions, strengthens our understanding of community and keeps us together”.

“Face one another as we really are stripped of artifice and pretense, naked and not ashamed”.

quotations from bell hooks “all about love”

In this course, students will focus on composition in both writing and in dance with a particular focus on editing. This course is designed for students interested in excavating and investigating their patterns and tendencies and interested in the rigor of crafting a work for public reception. We will explore the effect of removing materials. What space is created through omission? How can practicing loss serve our work?

Students are expected to make new movement and written material during classtime, teach some of the work to others, and, in return, learn material from others. They will show their studies regularly and respond to the work of classmates. We will learn respectful modes of communication and feedback and expect all members of class to be gracious in both giving and receiving feedback.

This course will introduce students to physical fundamentals often utilized in Western contemporary dance techniques. This class will attend to the physical structure of the body—including its commonalities and idiosyncrasies—to build the strength and range required to move horizontally and vertically, with gravity and against it, with momentum and in stillness.

We will work towards proprioception, wherein the student is aware of their body through sensation and able to make choices and changes according to comfort and desire. Together, we will explore initiation, momentum, and dynamic. This class is designed for students who are curious to better understand their physical form—its tendencies, its structures, its patterns—to work with their body as it is and easefully guide their body towards sequences and spatial patterns that prioritize ease, efficiency, and innate power. No prerequisites required. This class is open to motivated non-dancers and courageous beginners.

Graduate Teaching Fellows in Dance are integrated into the dance program as teaching assistants. In consultation with their academic advisors and the dance faculty, MFA candidates develop an assistantship schedule of approximately ten hours weekly; the courses they develop and teach are listed in the curriculum. All Teaching Fellows bring their own professional histories and contribute their own manners of teaching. Outside of listed class times, TBD, the Teaching Fellows will meet to discuss their courses, with the designated faculty and with each other. Furthermore, they will play an active role in the weekly meetings and events of the Dance Program.

This course is designed to assist graduate students with the research and development of their new work. The weekly format is determined with the students. In class, they show works-in-progress, try out ideas with their colleagues, and discuss issues involved in their creative processes. Though the class meets only once a week, students are expected to spend considerable time each week in active, ongoing creative research; their independent projects will be presented to the public, either formally or informally, by the end of the term. All MFA candidates bring their own professional histories and contribute their own artistic voices.

This is a studio class for any discipline intended to deepen the understanding of your own moving body. We will be studying kinesthetic anatomy by approaching the material through visual, cognitive, kinesthetic, and sensory modes. Class time will be divided between discussion of anatomy and kinesthetic concepts, and engagement with the material experientially through movement, visualization and touch. Movement exercises will be designed to integrate the anatomical information by increasing somatic awareness (strengthening body-mind connection). Various body systems will be examined: skeleton, organs, muscles, nerves, and fluids.

We will study the parts of each, then how each system relates to the whole, providing support for an integrated, healthy, as well as artistically interesting movement practice and general well being. Class will be rooted in somatic movement approaches to movement education. We will read and discuss writings from key developers of the field, many of whom have had a major influence on contemporary dance.

Tools such as drawing and writing will become the building blocks for making clear and concise anatomical awareness as well as serving to create a vehicle for the full and rich expression of the body and mind.

In this class we pose the questions: How do we create or utilize movement that is meaningful and essential to our dance making? and How does our movement evolve and how do we work with it and direct its potential? We will consider the relevance and importance of how depth and continuity of practice in our various forms can be the basic framework for our evolution as movement makers. We will explore methods of practice that expand the understanding of our instrument, our body, and in turn our movement potential. The relevance and importance of depth and continuity of practice expands the dancer’s technique, compositional capacity, and experience. We will consider how we let go of embedded movement patterns that get in the way of allowing new ones to unfold.

This course will deepen students’ understanding of the Alexander Technique and Ideokinesis in relation to dance, the practice of performance, and everyday movement. It is both a movement and somatic class. This is a more advanced study of the Technique and its application. The Alexander Technique opens up the possibility of finding new balance, efficiency, strength, direction, and perspective. It makes your physical capacity more available, as well as your performative intelligence, and it improves everyday function.

Some classes will include the application of the Alexander Technique and performance practice principles when moving or dancing, and some classes will focus on the study of the skeleton in order to understand the fundamentals of the body. The instructor will guide and support students into a more optimal balance and freedom. Alexander Technique challenges the student to wake up and notice what it is they are doing in their day to day lives and performance work. This shift in awareness and attention aims to stimulate and enhance better function all around.

In this course we will create a new dance project together. The ensemble work will allow participants to engage in a rigorous approach to the practice of performing.

Each performer is invited to bring what they know with them to the project, yet leave room for each to express a complex and indefinable range of experience through the humor, intelligence and emotional engagement of the dancing body. Performers will also be invited to include voice as part of this project, considering it as part of the whole body. The material will be triggered by image or character-based movement directives. Performers will work with un-prescribed movement in most situations throughout the process, allowing the structure of the dance to unfold.

Daoism and Buddhism hold a significant place in the daily lives of most Taiwanese people. These philosophical traditions influence spirituality, meditation practices, and ethical values. Many Taiwanese incorporate elements of these philosophies into their daily lives to reduce stress and improve mental wellbeing, and so can you.

Students will be introduced to central concepts of Buddhism and Daoism through modern Mandarin interpretations of classic quotes, poems and stories. Students will explore these concepts and their relevance to modern life while building on their competencies in listening, speaking, reading and writing Mandarin Chinese. Students will be given a packet of influential classic Buddhist and Daoist writings translated into modern Chinese along with a vocabulary list and grammar points for each reading. Students will be expected to read a section and prepare to discuss it in Chinese with the teacher and classmates during the next class meeting.
Outcomes

In this course we will explore the ways in which modern and contemporary Chinese culture is expressed in music. Using authentic materials, such as popular songs, music videos and music articles as springboards, students will communicate about current events and culture in China. Each class or every other class, students will be given a different song, video or article with a vocabulary list and grammar points for that material. Students will be expected to prepare to discuss it in Chinese with the teacher and classmates during the next class meeting.

Mahjong 麻将／麻雀 (pinyin: majiang) is a very fun game that originated in China and it is common to see groups of Chinese people playing Mahjong in parks, tea shops, bars or just by the side of the street. Mahjong utilizes white tiles with Chinese characters and symbols. It is similar to the western card game of Rummy and is a game of strategy, calculation and chance. It is a game of patience but easy to learn. This class is designed to be a fun way to learn about Taiwanese culture and acquire some Chinese/Mandarin language. We won’t play for money, but maybe for some snacks. This class is conducted in English.

While the language of classical Chinese poetry is practically inaccessible to even today’s native speakers of Chinese, the poetry of the five contemporary poets studied in this course is written in the vernacular and serves as a rich source of authentic texts for this course, which integrates language learning with poetry study. The five poets, all born after 1980, each offer a unique perspective into the changing society and culture of modern China. Each lesson or two, students will receive a packet with poems and information on the poet along with a vocabulary list, and grammar worksheets. Through reading and discussing these poets as well as writing their own poems in Chinese, students will gain insights into the changing culture of modern China, while building on their competencies in listening, speaking, reading, and writing Mandarin Chinese.

Building on structural and reactivity insights developed in Chemistry 1, this course delves into molecular structure and modern theories of bonding, especially as they relate to the reaction patterns of functional groups. We will focus on the mechanisms of reaction pathways and develop an understanding for how those mechanisms are experimentally explored. There will be numerous readings from the primary literature, including some classic papers that describe seminal experiments. Particular attention will be paid to the development of thermodynamic principles and their relevance to understanding reactivity patterns.

What is a more valuable piece of matter? String, cotton-balls and rubber bands may be what should be affixed to your unique prosthetic to complete a given task…

This course will cover information and techniques related to body casting, wire rope rigging, fabrication, and other building processes.The students will be asked to keep a journal which will be the most important document for this class. This is a project based performance course where the student will be given problems set to define and complete. The found solutions will be evaluated on how thoroughly they analyze the task. Each student will be encouraged to reach deep into the prompts of each project to find personal connections to support an active inquiry. Their work practice will search for clear definitions through experimentation. Their intent and efforts will consistently be represented through prototyping, drawing and showing works in progress. Part of the class practice will be designed around space visits both on campus and off, in building or out in nature. Honing our sensory associations from class to class will allow for fruitful class discussions breaking down the metrics at which we evaluate each other’s work.

Individual private piano lessons for more advanced students. Audition required. A weekly hour-long lesson time is arranged with the instructor.

This course is intended for students with some playing and reading experience, who have passed Piano Lab I or its equivalent. The goals of this course are to gain ease and dexterity at the keyboard, further developing a confident piano technique, musical expression, and the skill of reading musical notation. Students will expand upon a repertoire of scales and chords. They will study and learn to perform selected compositions.

Though this course is called a Piano Lab, students are taught individually. Each lesson is approximately 30 minute-long.

Have you been thinking about learning to play the piano? Perhaps you have a little experience from childhood and want to get back into it? Do you want to learn to read sheet music and understand the basics of music theory? Maybe you are completely new to playing an instrument, and want to give it a try?

If you answered yes, then Piano Lab I might be right for you.

Lessons are given on a one on one basis. Each lesson is 20-25 minute-long.

In this transcultural, transhistorical upper-level course, we will study the crucial phases and practitioners of early modern Netherlandish art—-from Jan Van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden to Clara Peeters plus Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and de Hooch. Then—we’ll recalibrate and look at the ways in which modern and contemporary artists of color, particularly Black artists, e.g. Mickalene Thomas, Kerry James Marshall, Romare Bearden, Roy DeCarava, Toyin Odutola, Fabiola Jean-Louis—and Nina Simone—are in formal and conceptual conversation with characteristically Northern genres and aesthetics such as portraiture, genre painting, and still life—-but also reflection, materiality, and figuration. Race, gender, and intersectionality will abound. Short paper and long paper and a final presentation. You will learn how to look, read, and write closely using both traditional and experimental art historical methods + critical race theory and Black feminism.

This course examines philosophical debates concerning war. In particular, we will look at the distinction between just and unjust war, as well as moral issues concerning the use of military technologies such as drones, and questions of moral responsibility for war.

Season One of Westworld, HBO’s “science fiction western thriller” series, drives a broadly-conceived visual studies/cultural theory course in which we identify and analyze various themes, tropes, and genres, histories and visions, typologies and allegories on screen and off; both inside and outside the show’s narrative. Possibilities include: feminism, sexploitation, artificial intelligence/cyborgs; Afrofuturism; immigration, remakes; tv westerns; queerness and speculative fiction; revolution; AI rights, etc. We will read history and critical theory closely and deeply in this class; watching the series before the course starts is recommended.

In this introductory course you will read a wide range of political philosophers and theorists who rethink and reimagine society. Beginning with the “masters of suspicion”, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, and Freud, we will explore radical social visions from thinkers such as Rosa Luxumburg, Herbert Marcuse, Franz Fanon, Steve Biko, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Chantel Mouffe, and Kimberle Crenshaw, among others. This course is reading intensive and you will be required to write two papers as well as complete a midterm examination.

The pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer writes, “In the first place, no man is happy but strives his whole life long after a supposed happiness which he seldom attains, and even if he does it is only to be disappointed with it.” What is the right attitude to the human condition? This advanced level course examines this question through the writings of philosophers who directly confront our vulnerability and the precariousness of our existence. Among others we will explore writings by Arthur Schopenhauer, Soren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, Gabriel Marcel, Simone Weil, Elaine Scarry, and David Benatar.

This discussion-animated, readings-based seminar provides art historical, cultural, and critical contexts for the Visual Arts Lecture Series (VALS). In addition to our ongoing interrogation of the public lecture as such, students present their own work (in any field) and analyze the technical and stylistic aspects of structuring an effective and engaging ‘talk.’ The course provides unique opportunities for interaction with visiting artists, curators, critics, and historians. Consistent participation and a formal presentation of work/research is required, as are visits to local and regional museums and archives. Not recommended for first and second-years unless they have an advanced body of work to present.

Each term, Bennington Visual Arts offers a program of 4-5 lectures by visiting arts professionals: artists, curators, historians and critics, selected to showcase the diversity of contemporary art practices. Designed to enhance a broader and deeper knowledge of various disciplines and issues in the Visual Arts and to stimulate campus dialogue around topical issues in contemporary art and culture, these thematically curated presentations offer students the opportunity to engage with art by emerging and internationally-known artists from underrepresented backgrounds. Students registered for this series must attend all lectures on Tuesday evenings at 7:00pm as well as gallery exhibitions, and are responsible for taking notes and completing a one-page essay-questionnaire for each event to be submitted via Populi.

Students in this advanced level course will engage in research through both texts and images. Reflective writing and constructive peer critiques will expand their critical thinking and expand their photographic practice. Individual feedback by the instructor will be geared towards the progressive development of the student’s semester long project. By the end of the semester, students will produce work that is representative of their creative exploration over the course of the term.

Photographywas used for scientific purposes and a tool of imperial colonializationduring the early years of its invention. These two things have helped shaped its historyof representation of the human figure. Marginal groups of individuals when they wererepresented inphotographywere often presented in a visually limiting and oftenstereotypical manner. The contemporary mugshot and the passport photo can tracetheir origins to earlier modes of visual representation such as the colonial postcard. Thiscourse will offer students an opportunity to examine this history but also to reimagineand reconstruct representation of it through both text and images.

In this intermediate-low level course, we will study the representation of the city of Paris on film in order to examine modernityʹs challenges to tradition. In particular, we will focus on the question of how urban communities and city dwellers react to increasing disconnectedness, anonymity, and solitude. We will also examine contemporary urban planning and the repercussions of its creation of a de facto racial and economic segregation. Films will include Playtime, La Haine, Chacun cherche son chat, Paris, je tʹaime and others. Class discussions, activities, written assignments, and oral presentations will allow students to improve their linguistic proficiency and analytical skills. Conducted in French. Intermediate‐low level.

Revolutions in transportation across the nineteenth century wrapped a “girdle of steam around the world,” giving people a sense of wider horizons in a shrinking universe. Indeed, Frederick Douglass’ newspaper spoke in the 1850s of “walls…giving way before the physical, mental and moral pressure of a world, whose business by land and water, is shot over its surface by steam, and whose daily history, progress, and improvements, in everything, are told almost everywhere, and at the same time, by lightning.” In this mix, people came to see “loco-motion” as their birthright, meaning “the power to change [one’s] situation, to move one’s person to whatever place one’s inclination might direct.” This course is an opportunity to explore this long-ago yet very familiar world on the move, focusing on people who “disappeared,” such as runaway slaves, absconding debtors, eloping spouses, disoriented immigrants, abducted children, and so on. Using online materials, including historical newspapers, censuses, vital records, digitized maps, and augmented reality tools, we will compile and develop fact-driven narratives of individuals who in their own time were lost, exiled, or on the run. Expectations for students include short weekly challenges and culminating projects, such as podcasts, fictive diaries and related documents), videos, animations, and various other wonderful possibilities students may suggest.

In this course, students will work in Adobe Illustrator on text and layout specific projects. Starting with the foundations of Illustrator, the course will progress to basic and advanced functions of the typographic interface. The use of artboards and layer management, pen tools and path-finders, text and type formatting, color management, and printing will be practiced through projects focusing on type and type formatting. Students will use the knowledge and skills they gain to create unique printed matter using the Risograph printer.

Processing and Making in Rhino 7 is an introductory course in Digital Fabrication using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) equipment. This course will explore the use of 3D Printers, CNC Laser Cutters, and CNC Routers to create custom objects modeled in Rhino 7. The course will cover the necessary workflows and parameters used for each machine, as well as general maintenance, material management, and best practices. This course aims to build technical skills and consider aesthetics, functionality, and design concepts. Its ultimate goal is a feedback loop between conceptual development, workflow, and the generation of 3D Fabricated Models. This course will culminate in a project that leverages each of the outputs taught in this class.

In this course we will explore spiraling in and out of the floor. This is a rigorous movement class that focuses on traveling through space, using the spirals embedded in the body and exploring how these will help us to separate from the floor and come back to it. We will create movement sequences and phrases sourced from postmodern dance techniques and Flying Low (movement practice developed by David Zambrano that investigates moving fluidly in and out of the floor).

Starting from simplicity and leading towards complexity, we will gradually explore speed, phasing, rhythm, spatiality, and expression.

This course is intended for students with little to no previous experience with dance and movement-based practices who wish to deepen their understanding and experience of dynamic movement that relates to gravity and complex movement patterns.

After successfully completing the environmental action fellowship during Field Work term, students will review the fellowship experience and what they learned. Class time will be spent helping each student prepare for a high level presention on their individual fellowship. There will be continued focus on sharpening advocacy skills and learning about and discussing contemporary environmental policy issues facing the world.

Introduction to VR will cover the basics of VR hardware, 360 video acquisition, and content production for 3D environments. No experience is required; we will evaluate VR experiences, and design and test our created experiences. Unity and Adobe software will be used to build prototype immersive experiences. While not focusing on game development, this course will explore virtual interaction and immersion through hands-on experience.

“Facture refers to the manner in which a painting, drawing, or object is made. It is the combination of brushstrokes, marks, material, and the texture of the surface. Facture is critical to the success of any object. Much of the fascination that accrues to all manual media comes from what can be observed at close range. That distance reveals the foundation, the touch, the sensuality, and the understanding of the material that gives art objects their essential character.” -Kit White, 101 Things to Learn in Art School

Behind the impulse to put paint on canvas is a search for meaning. As an artwork comes into being, its meaning(s) evolve concurrently. Concentrating on the establishment of a rigorous artistic practice, this course will focus on the relationship between facture and meaning in painting. Sharpening practical and critical skills, assignments will investigate the processes and methods of painting from practical and theoretical perspectives. Questions to be considered might include: What are the material properties of paint? How does the painter’s knowledge of craft inform the way they paint? What is the role of labor in artmaking? Readings, critiques and studio projects will serve to create a constructive and lively dialogue in the classroom.

1. Conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.
2. Rational judgements repeat rational judgements.
3. Irrational judgements lead to new experience.
4. Formal art is essentially rational.
5. Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically.

-Sol LeWitt, “Sentences on Conceptual Art” 1969

Shying away from the static, resolved, or finished image, this course will explore drawing as a process of ongoing inquiry. It is intended to foster an experimental and experiential approach to making art, generally eschewing personal expression in favor of developing an open-minded approach. Students will engage with various techniques and processes to make drawings that document experience as well as create an image. Topics to be considered include: artistic intent, ambition, noise, happenings, failure, and chance. Class time is used for drawing, technical demonstrations, discussion and critique. Relevant artists include: Marcel Duchamp, John Cage, Yvonne Rainer, Allan Kaprow, David Hammons, Milford Graves, and Yayoi Kusama.

This class will participate in a deep investigation of the body. In the beginning, we will work from a live model to produce life size clay representations for understanding the body as a form as well as entertain complicated questions that pertain to the space between the observer and the reference model.

In the beginning the goal is for each student to clone this body accurately. We will draw and refine the clay again and again. From here we will move to other materials and project prompts that ask questions specifically related to the parameters of the body and the perceptions of the space that determine when objects begin and end. This gray area between you and me is a dynamic space to acknowledge and investigate as it expands and decreases. The project prompts will provoke specific questions about individuality and your perceived boundaries.
We will use materials such as but not limited to wood, steel, plaster, wire mesh, alginate, cardboard and clay, as well as non toxic glues and hardware and fasteners. The students will become knowledgeable of safety procedures and understand how to use the woodshop’s basic hand and stationary tools efficiently as well as the C02 laser. The class will have four directed project prompts over the period of the term. Each student will be responsible for keeping a journal/drawing that is split up per project. In addition each student will consistently propagate an organized digital folder that will contain websites, images and inspirational findings as well as documentation of their work. This practice will act as a reference for student responsibilities as well as open conversation around portfolio building. There will be regular project related presentations that will complement group critiques.

This course asks each student to work in a self-directed way among a community of critical thinkers. Finding one’s voice, as a maker, requires research sources of influence and inspiration. Students are expected to undertake a significant amount of work outside of regular class meetings. At this point in your Visual Arts Education you must be able to represent serious attention and dedication to your work, and prove that you can manage your time and energy towards advanced inquiry. The goal is for students to become fully versed in issues that define traditional and contemporary sculpture. Regular individual and bi-monthly critiques with visitors will be complemented by student presentations pertaining to their work. Students will produce a visual presentation that highlights their interests, influences, and exploration. Each student will be required to propagate a visual journal as it pertains to their generative studio practice and be able to talk about how their work might be viewed in current worldly events. There will be a minimum of 4 readings that will require written or visual responses throughout the term as well as a field trip to encourage students to engage with work beyond the institution.

This course will discuss practices and ethics around digital photography and experiment with foundational tools and techniques, aiming to create space for students to develop their own interests within the possibilities of the medium. Classes will combine practical exercises, discussions mostly around the work of contemporary LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC photographers, and readings on the development of digital photography and its impact on society. Materials will intersect photography theory, interview with artists, current debates on photography technology, ethics, andgender studies. We will address photography in manual mode, experiment with composition and light, organize, develop, and manipulate digital image files using Lightroom and Photoshop, and experiment with finalizing work for the screen and for inkjet prints. Students will practice analyzing, creating, discussing, and writing about photography through in-class and weekly practical assignments, feedback rounds with their peers, self-directed final projects, readings, and journaling.

Digital SLR cameras will be available from the college for students to use throughout the term. Photoshop and Lightroom will be available on all 12 workstations in the Photo Digital Lab.

Students will be required to have a Mac-compatible external hard drive and inkjet photo paper to complete assignments.

Have you ever wanted to understand how to safely build some of the most basic things and not know where to start?

The course is developed for students who want to learn the fundamentals to operate the many tools and machinery the Bennington woodshop has to offer. Students will undertake many tasks that will help develop technical skills and how to utilize the woodshop as a resource in supporting other classes in Visual Arts. This course is open to all that are curious!

Processes such as joinery, shaping, routing and sanding will be covered, as well as basic construction methods. We will undertake these methods by learning how to properly and safely use equipment and tools.

Using shop tools with respect and understanding of safety procedures is required. This course is project-based and students will be evaluated on their ability to use shop tools with proficiency and respect as well as understand safety procedures.

This 4-credit course is a collaborative music creation experience for composers and singers.
The course will be taught in two sections (Section 1: Singers, & Section 2: Composers) which will meet separately and as a combined group on a weekly basis.

It will be co-taught by Virginia Kelsey and Allen Shawn.

Composers and singers will work together over the course of the semester to create new music for solo voice and small vocal ensemble using various collaborative practices to highlight and celebrate the individualistic nature of the voice. Singers will receive technical vocal instruction and coaching to optimize their interpretation of these new works, and explore a wide range of vocal color and extended techniques. Composers will learn about composing for–and working with–singers, about how to notate their vocal music effectively, about both historical and current approaches to vocal writing, and about effective text setting. Topics covered will include functionality and demystification of the singing voice, analysis of successful and innovative vocal works throughout history, and orchestration for the voice and vocal ensemble.

The course will culminate in a performance and recording of the finished works

This course is intended for those who want to learn about Bach’s music, whether or not they read music or have studied music before. Those who can study the musical and theoretical aspects of Bach’s beautiful work will be encouraged to do so, and those who can approach it from historical, philosophical, scientific, or poetic point of view will be encouraged to do that. Accordingly there are no prerequisites. The intention is for everyone to learn more about music.

The structure of the course is roughly chronological, with the first classes providing an overview of Bach’s life and times, and the remaining classes emphasizing important works from his different phases. There are weekly listening assignments and a number of readings. The students are expected to keep a journal in which they record concise responses to them. Over the course of the term they are also expected to prepare brief assigned oral presentations on subjects related to Bach that are not covered in the readings (for example Baroque instruments, or composers who influenced Bach such as Vivaldi, Telemann, or Buxtehude) and to write two six-page papers. In the final classes the students perform or present small original creative projects inspired by Bach.

This production course introduces students to the fundamentals of working in video and the language of film form. Drawing on the energy, intensity and criticality of avant-garde film and contemporary video art practices, students will complete a series of projects exploring dimensions of cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound design before producing a final self-determined project. Concepts crucial to time-based media such as apparatus, montage and identification will be introduced through screenings, discussions and texts by a diverse range of artists, filmmakers, and theorists. Emphasis on technical instruction, formal experimentation, and critical vocabulary is balanced in order to give students a footing from which to find their own stakes in the medium.

This course will explore translation, maps and movement through embodied practice.

Translations:

The sessions will be structured in such a way that daily practice is established between movement, speaking, writing, and touching, changing from one task to the other without interruption. The participants will have the possibility and freedom to explore and establish these relationships and face impossibilities and hybridizations (speaking in unknown languages, drawing as a way of writing or moving, touching without touching, etc.)

Maps:

To bring this to creative practice and site-specific work, we will approach it from a topographic perspective and time frame to structure the experiences and the materials generated within. Practices, actions, and maps will be combined, either individually or collectively to integrate the notion of scales and intensities in the management of these principles and combinations in space and time.

Movement:

Using the body with its inherent properties and conditions, we will take these practices to the extreme, leading us to confront and question the possibilities of styles, techniques, the body, unwritten rules, and expression. Through these practices we will generate the production of unexpected results applicable to composition and artistic creation in the realm of devised art and related systems used in interdisciplinary performing arts.

This course is intended for students from multiple disciplines who wish to explore language, embodiment and site as part of their artistic research. Students will be expected to engage fully in class practices and to develop their own creative research projects based on class concepts.

Chavela Vargas has often been called “la voz de México”. An iconoclastic figure, a publicly queer woman singing rancheras and comporting with radical artists and activists, her life is a study in refusing to submit to social norms and embracing the power of art as an act of solidarity, resistance and love.

In this course, students will participate in a rehearsal process that will result in a dance performance work anchored in the music, history and impact of Chavela Vargas. This course is an opportunity to engage in the active creative research of the instructor, to learn technically demanding movement material, and to explore improvisation and other means to contribute to the process of making work. Through this course we will create an original dance work that will be performed in the Works in Progress dance concert towards the end of the term.

This course is intended for students who want to engage with physically complex and rigorous dancing, who are interested in improvisation, who want to further explore the creative process in making dance work, and who have some experience in the translation of technical and aesthetic ideas into performance.

IMPORTANT: This course may include movement material that involves touch and weight sharing with partners. If you have any concerns about this aspect of the course, please reach out to the instructor prior to enrolling to discuss.

This course will combine theory and practice to explore representations of non-normative bodies and corporeal difference. This class is designed for students interested in the intersections of embodiment, art, activism, and critical theory.

Employing concepts from Disability Studies and queer theory as a lens, we will consider some of the paradigm-shifting propositions in these powerful fields of study, with a particular emphasis on the intersectionality of marginalized identities. We will learn to recognize and critique the circulation of normative standards of bodily comportment and image which permeate contemporary culture, and consider the various strategies that scholars, activists, and, in particular, dance and performance artists, employ to create space for more inclusive representations of body and self. Guest artists will share their work throughout the course, and movement/embodiment practices will occasionally be incorporated (prior dance or performance experience not necessary).

In this class, we will engage with scholarly, activist and theoretical texts as well as artistic and practical applications of concepts, with the expectation that students will do a considerable amount of reading, writing and viewing of work outside of class hours. Some formal writing will be required, as well as a final independent research project in which students will apply course concepts to their own academic and/or artistic research.

This is a dance class that incorporates speaking, language and sounding as activities that can be integrated with movement in complex and novel ways, through both structured and improvisatory practices.

Through these practices, we will access the healing, expressive and artistic possibilities of sound and language as an extension of the body. Additionally, we will look at the work of contemporary artists who engage with language and body-generated speaking and sounding as part of their artistic work. This course presents an opportunity for students interested in movement, acting, singing and other forms to explore this rich area of artistic research in an interdisciplinary context. Lastly, the course considers how written language, the voice and the body create meaning in distinct ways, and thus offers tools to utilize these resources with increased sensitivity, nuance and depth. All levels of experience with moving, speaking and sounding are welcome.

Students are expected to participate fully in class sessions and discussions. As a primarily practice-based class, attendance is particularly important. Some video viewings and light readings will also take place outside of class time, and students will produce a final creative project employing course tools and concepts at the end of the course.

This course is for students with prior experience in dance making who wish to create new work for performance or senior work. We will share our work regularly, explore different feedback modalities, and reflect on our own individual artistic approaches and concerns. Attention will be given to the elements involved in composition, production, collaboration and presentation. Students are expected to show their work throughout all stages of development, complete their projects, and share them formally or informally by the end of the term.

This course is designed to teach the student the many steps involved in creating a finished garment from a simple idea, piece of research, or sketch. Students will learn the basics of draping, flat patterning, and fitting. Construction of a final garment will allow them to explore and employ sewing skills beyond the fundamentals.

Dive into the ancient world of fashion in this comprehensive class of making and meaning. Together we will explore the history of early textiles, weaving, and draping across multiple continents before working with some simple versions of those techniques ourselves.

This course will be broken down into four sections:

1. Researching the history of how indigenous and early civilizations clothed and fashionably adorned the human body.
2. An intro to natural dye and its history with a practical hands on component.
3. History of weaving and an intro to finger weaving and hand looms.
4. Draping and building a rudimentary T-shaped garment.

Students can choose a combo of any two of the practical sections to use as the basis for their final project. Meaning either a combo of: dyeing and weaving, dyeing and draping, or weaving and draping. Or, for students with previous experience in two or more sections, all three areas can be included.

This class includes practical hands-on elements. It is recommended that students have familiarity with sewing, either by hand or machine. It is also suggested that students have hand craft experience or at least willing curiosity.

NOTE: Course will include a fee for materials.

Part performance, part design, part construction, this class will center around the creation of characters, fabricating them, and then bringing them to life.

We will also explore an overview of the history and use of puppets in storytelling and different forms of puppet performance. We will also look at different Puppetry practitioners practicing today.

Although we will discuss large scale, mixed media design work and practitioners, this class will center around soft goods, smaller scale puppetry

The class will culminate with students presenting a 1-2min performance with their created character/puppet.

Grading will be on class participation, design and execution, and how the student works to be able to bring their puppet to life.

Course includes a fee.

This class explores how to make fine art black and white and color inkjet prints from digital files. Students will learn how to edit digital media with Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom by using non-destructive workflows to preserve the integrity of their files. The course will emphasize developing technical proficiency along with making meaningful decisions on when, why, and how images get printed. Sample papers will be provided in class, but students can expect to purchase their own papers, including different proprietary sample paper packs, for their final portfolio. Digital files can get exponentially larger when edited in a non-destructive format, so an external harddrive to store work is required.

Have you been thinking about learning to play the piano? Are you completely new to playing an instrument and want to give it a try? Do you have a little experience from childhood and want to get back into it? Are you a singer, songwriter, producer, or composer who wants to know how to accompany themselves, learn to read sheet music and chord symbols, and understand the basics of music theory?

If you answered yes, then Piano Lab I might be right for you.

This section of piano lab will be scheduled as weekly 20 minute individual lessons with the instructor.

One to two hours per week of individual practice is expected.

This course applies the concepts of mechanical physics to practical engineering and environmental problems. Any structure, be it a building, a nuclear reactor, a dam, an embankment, or a natural hillside, must be able to withstand the stresses that are placed on it by its environment without failing in order to ensure people’s safety. You will learn how forces cause stress within solid materials and how to map the three-dimensional state of stress through a material. We will apply concepts of material science to predict how the stress state of a material causes it to deform and predict how, and at what load, a structure will fail.

To study a planet’s climatic variation over geologic time we must look for subtle clues in the sedimentary rock record. We are currently doing this on two planets, and scientists have their sights set on more planetary bodies around the solar system. At the same time, the James Webb telescope is offering an unprecedented glimpse of what planets may look like outside of our solar system. This advanced seminar will focus on the methods for studying Earth’s environmental change over deep time, and speculate on the uniqueness or non-uniqueness of our solar system based breaking new data. Students will be assessed primarily on independent investigations and making positive contributions to class discussions. Class discussions will be supplemented by field trips that require light physical activity.

This is an introductory course on the theory and practice of analyzing and displaying geo-spatial information. The methods that students will learn have wide-ranging applications in the natural and social sciences. Students will learn how to utilize mapping and spatial geographic information systems software to analyze patterns within spatial datasets and communicate information through maps. Students will be expected to develop their own work and are encouraged to use data from other classes or projects.

In the last thirty years, the study of life beyond our own planet has gone from science fiction to legitimate science. The course will initially focus on how stars form and evolve, starting from the formation of the universe, and continuing to a discussion of stars as both the synthesizers of heavy elements and the central energy source for stellar systems. From there, we will discuss current planetary formation theories, planet detection techniques, and the explosive discovery of planets outside our solar system in the past fifteen years. Finally, we will examine the conditions under which we think life evolves and whether any of the glut of planets we’ve discovered recently may support life.

The microscopic world is fundamentally different from the macroscopic one we encounter on a daily basis. The classical view of particles, mass, and even location break down at the smallest scales. The development of quantum mechanics as a field in the 1920s was a fundamental leap forward for our understanding of atomic physics. Countless current technologies and scientific disciplines rely on the principles predicted by the quantum model. Despite this, quantum mechanics is deeply weird. Particles do not exist solely as particles, but also as waves. Fundamental physical properties such as position, momentum, energy, and time are subject to uncertainties that have nothing to do with measurement precision and everything to do with fundamental universal limits. In this course, we will discuss atomic physics, the wave-particle duality, the uncertainty principle, the application of Schröedinger equation, and quantum mechanical models of atoms. While this course is intended as an upper level physics course, students with significant Chemistry backgrounds may find the material interesting and valuable.

Classical physics describes the motions of large things moving at slow speeds. That description of the universe, which physicists used to describe the motion of objects from apples to planets for hundreds of years, does not hold for objects moving very fast. In this class, we will look at how traveling close to the speed of light affects the physical properties of objects. Amazingly, simple quantities such as length, time, and mass change dramatically when an object is traveling a significant fraction of the speed of light.

This class will focus on the art of songwriting. What makes a strong melody? What makes an effective chord progression? How do lyrics bring a simple song to life? What are the other elements of a song that can make it a compelling piece of music?

We will study the music of great songwriters and compose pieces in the style of these great musicians. We will also work on bringing our own songs to their fullest potential. Be prepared to write music weekly and share the music you write in class.

Weekly private instruction in jazz piano to be arranged with instructor. Explore and develop skills and knowledge required to effectively play non-classical piano repertoire. Styles covered: blues, pop, folk, salsa, bossa-nova and jazz. Create bass lines, chord voicings, stylistic rhythms, melodies and improvised solos.

Previously titled Set the Table: Tableware Design; Eat, Drink and Be Merry: Designing Pots for Utility and Serving is a new course. In this class we will explore similar pottery forms while broadening our understanding of where these pots function beyond the western cultural idea of the “table”. Throughout history, pots for utility and serving have expressed a specific time and place. In this way utilitarian objects embody the ideas that define culture. For this class intermediate and advanced ceramic students will produce prototypes that are a thoughtful response to this problem. The emphasis will be on designing compelling pots rather than producing many matching sets. Students will combine throwing, coil building, slab building and simple molds to make their pieces. Discussions will address formal and conceptual issues in the work including design and functionality. The culmination will be a feast at the end of the term where each student brings food appropriate for the pots that they designed.

Food, place and politics. This course investigates food in the globalized world considering political economy, history of colonialism and cultural identity. Focusing on various geographical locales, we examine the economic factors, socio-political structures and cultural implications behind what determines a crop’s value based on power relationships and global trade strategies. The class investigates how the cultivation of commodity food crops, such as corn and tropical fruits, have reshaped landscapes from the era of early colonization by the Europeans and the ways that the subsequent establishment of the globalized industrialized food systems have affected environments, national sovereignty, labor, economic and human rights, cultural heritage and identity. This is a research-based course which incorporates transdisciplinary approaches, including visual arts methodologies (drawing sculpture, photography, performance, video) to render diagrams and create maps to visualize the intricacies and obscure relationships that are found in contemporary foodscapes.

Conducted through research that focuses on the development of Japanese subcultures in the Post World War II period, this course poses various critical inquiries about the effects of nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on contemporary global consumer society and the production of art. We will also bring into focus the trauma revisited up on us by the more recent nuclear disaster of f*ckushima. Research projects will be focused on the cultural and socio-political underpinnings of manga, anime, consumer goods, and fashion etc. This is a cross-disciplinary studio art class. Students are required to develop an independent project that includes a visual arts component based on reading and extensive research material collected throughout the term.

Manga or Japanese comic book and Anime images have become integrated into the global contemporary art context. While investigating the social codes that can be found in the various genres of manga and trends within the cultural specificities of Japan from 1945 to today, this course explores the influences of Manga/Anime on Fine Art and contemporary context of art making. This is a research-based studio art class, therefore requirements include weekly readings on the history of Japanese subcultures of the Post World War II era, their socio‐political context, and Japanese contemporary art theory, such as Takashi Murakami’s Superflat Manifesto. Various studio assignments also focus on composition, serial image making, movement and narrative, performative work, collage and assemblage, and use of text. Please note that this is not a manga making technique class.

For students of varying levels of singing ability. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed. Group warm-ups and vocalizations will incorporate exercises to develop breath control, resonance, projection, range, color, and agility. The fundamental concepts of singing will be explored in the preparation of specific song assignments. Personalization of text and emotional expression will be addressed. Students will study and perform classical song literature (including early Italian songs, 17-18th century arias and repertoire in several languages) to strengthen and to facilitate technical growth before moving on to other contemporary styles of their choice. Students should have previous voiceexperience and/or study, and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Class will be taught in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every other week to work on repertoire.

For students of varying levels of singing ability. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed. Group warm-ups and vocalizations will incorporate exercises to develop breath control, resonance, projection, range, color, and agility. The fundamental concepts of singing will be explored in the preparation of specific song assignments. Personalization of text and emotional expression will be addressed. Students will study and perform classical song literature (including early Italian songs, 17-18th century arias and repertoire in several languages) to strengthen and to facilitate technical growth before moving on to other contemporary styles of their choice. Students should have previous voiceexperience and/or study, and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Class will be taught in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every other week to work on repertoire.

Vandercook Proofing Presses were once a vital aspect of the printing industry and have been adopted widely by artists for letterpress printing and book arts. Bennington College is fortunate to possess three Vandercooks, housed in the Word and Image Lab.

Using type-high plywood and linoleum blocks and oil-based, non-toxic, water-soluble inks, we will examine different approaches to mark-making: from graphic and angular to painterly and gestural. We will cover color mixing, experimenting with transparencies, printing in multiple-colors and producing multiples/editions.

Students will learn image preparation and transfer methods, sharpening and care of tools, wood carving methods, ink and paper preparation, hand-inking and rolling techniques, printing on the Vandercook proofing press and by hand.

Printing on the Vandercook presses will entail learning basic lock-up techniques, inking, paper registration and cleaning/press care.

Additional areas of experimentation may include using stencils, layering color and a variety of monotype techniques and embossment. Introduction to printing with wood type will also be an option, if students demonstrate the interest and alacrity.

Experienced and beginning woodcutters/relief printmakers are welcome to join us.

For students of varying levels of singing ability. This course will teach fundamental concepts of healthy voice technique that can be applied to singing in any style. Students will work towards individual goals through regular practice of warmups, vocalizations, and awareness exercises, and progress will be assessed by preparation and performance of specific song assignments. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed, as well as personalization of text and emotional expression. Students will study and perform at least one classical art song or aria to strengthen and facilitate technical growth, as well as explore repertoire in other vocal styles that move a student towards their individual performance goals (as determined with guidance from the instructor).
Students should have previous singing experience and/or study and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Sections will meet weekly in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every week to work on repertoire.

Along with intermittent textual analysis and some socio-historical context, the intention is to obsess over the ideology of that most lauded of genres, the Latin American short story, from modernismo to its contemporary forms. Students will develop their oral and written skills, progressing from paragraph-level exposition to imitation to an initial defense of ideas. The course should also provide contextual support for future studies in Spanish, not to mention other fields. Low-intermediate level. Conducted in Spanish.

This course will chart the development of identity within the postcolonial Latin American city. The latter will be read both literally and as a guiding metaphor, as a reality ordered by ideas. We will use interdisciplinary theoretical models as discursive markers, selected from architecture, politics, philosophy, literature, and photography, in order to problematize urban design, the site of real dystopia, as the organizer of symbolic space, and vice versa. Spatio-cultural discussion will focus on the dominant narratives of public topography, most notably that of capitalism, and private, individualized responses to them. Advanced level.

Advanced studies in theory relating to performance. Students must be enrolled in Bass with Bisio (MIN4417) simultaneously, no exceptions. This class is only for advanced students and by permission.

Beginning to advanced lessons in bass technique and appropriate theory.

This course explores the broad field of sustainable farming and food systems. Through work at the Purple Carrot Farm students will learn hands-on skills such as food cultivation, preservation, processing, techniques for propagation, and design of annual and perennial production systems. We will further explore sustainable food systems by meeting with a cross-section of local agriculture businesses ranging from producers-traditional organic vegetable farm, mushroom cultivation, livestock, flower farms; to distributors- farm stands, markets and restaurants. Other field trips could include non-profit organizations working on community food insecurity, ecological landscape design and pollinator restoration and to partner organizations of the Bennington Fair Food Initiative, the Southwest Tech Vocational Program and the Vermont Veterans Center. Through these field trips, readings, and in class discussion, students will explore pathways to creating sustainable careers within the food system, and how to create systems and practices that best support community and ecological resilience.

An actor honors and bears witness to humanity by embodying and giving voice to the human element in the landscape of theatrical collaboration. Investigating the impulses and intuitions that make us unique as individuals can also identify that which constitutes our shared humanity. Through exploration of the fundamentals of performance, students address the actor’s body, voice, and imagination as instruments for creating drama, conflict, action and story. Course work includes: relaxation techniques, improvisation, basic sensory and imagination exercises, character analysis, and beginning text work. We will read and discuss several plays throughout the term, as well as theory.

Students develop original and/or primary source material and explore its shape, arc and thematic whole in a performance medium that can involve text, movement, characterization and personal observation / examination. We may reference the work of solo performance artists. Students write, edit, rewrite multiple drafts and perform original memorized material. Class work will be tailored around the specific challenges facing individual participants and will culminate in a final showing of an original solo performance piece approximately ten minutes in length.

Work is developed through repeated presentation in class and in individual meetings. Be prepared to present every week. Be prepared to respond to the work of your classmates in a productive and respectful manner. The class should be a valuable resource for the development of everyone’s piece.

The cell is the fundamental organizational unit of all living organisms on Earth. In this class we will investigate cell structure and function, learn about DNA replication and transcription, find out how proteins are synthesized, folded, localized, and regulated, ultimately coming to understand how interfering with cell biological processes can result in disease. In the lab, students will gain experience with tools and methodologies pertinent to cell biology concepts, as well as techniques used in research.

Why do humans have precisely 5 fingers and toes? How does a bone know to stop growing when it reaches the appropriate length? What controls our gender? While the human genome successfully encodes the information required to produce a “normal” human being, genetic variation dictates the subtle and not so subtle differences that make us each a unique individual. “Mutant” humans throughout history have provided insights into how genetics underlie development by showing us what can happen when the delicate balance of genes and their proper expression is perturbed. This course will focus somewhat on the history, but more on the biology, behind various human “mutant” conditions including conjoined twins, dwarfism, giantism, albinism, and progeria (rapid aging), to name a few.

Using the novel as ethnography, this course examines world cultures through literary works of authors from various parts of the world. We explore the construction of community in precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial times; independence movements; issues of individual and social identity; and the themes of change, adaptation and conflict. Student work includes an analytical essay, contribution to an extensively researched, group class presentation on contextual material, a research based essay, and a final piece of fiction writing.

Globalization has transformed the way we live. The world is experiencing an unprecedented interaction of people, ideas, images, and things that continues to intensify. Communication technologies link people instantaneously across the globe. Economic activities challenge national boundaries. People are on the move within and between countries. The complexities of the global economy and the connections it facilitates among people, states, and corporations reveal both the potential to create links and to divide, giving rise and expression to imbalances and inequalities. How do people make life choices in this complex web of constraints and opportunities? What are the dynamics by which differential access to resources and opportunities is determined within societies and between them? Has the world become hom*ogenized or do societies and cultures continue to differ in significant ways? What are the structures within which power is negotiated, and what are the factors that shaped them historically and in the present? Through ethnographies reflecting anthropology’s unique research strategies, analytical methodologies, deep commitment to the project of cross-cultural understanding and engagement in attempts to make the world a better place, we will explore the animating forces of today’s world—globalization, democratization/authoritarianism, capitalism, migration, social movements, as they shape the constraints and opportunities open to citizens of specific countries and communities.

This course will explore the ceramic medium through the format of tile. Given this as a parameter, we are presented with an exciting opportunity to explore clay in two dimensions and low relief. Students will be introduced to historic and contemporary tiles as examples of both architectural elements and art objects. This general survey of ceramic tiles will include many cultures and time periods. Projects will be made using various building methods, including making simple plaster press molds, slab building, and other hand-building techniques. Assignments will incorporate building in relief, repeated pattern, interlocking forms, surface imagery, and glazing techniques (color). Slide lectures, individual research, and critiques will provide historical references and peer perspective on the projects. Please note that this course will require additional materials to be purchased by the student.

This class is an introduction to using the potter’s wheel as a tool for generating clay forms with an emphasis on pottery making. While focusing on throwing skills, students will explore various possibilities for assembling wheel-thrown elements and experiment with functional and non-functional formats. Students will be introduced to the whole ceramic process from wet working to glazing and finally firing. Historical and contemporary ceramic vessels will be shown and discussed; this general survey of ceramics will include many cultures and time periods. Beginning Wheel Throwing is a physical class; students will be expected to lift 25 lbs. of clay regularly. Please note that this course will require additional materials to be purchased by the student.

What is the difference between restorative and transformative justice? How can the concepts of transformative justice be used in campaigns for social justice? Can transformative justice be used to replace or supplement the criminal legal system in the United States? These are all questions we will explore in this 4000 level course. We will explore the reasons why the transformative justice movement has evolved from restorative justice, the values and practices at the foundation of transformative justice and how these principals offer an antidote to the current way we use the police and prisons in America. Students will do deep reading and reflection as well as develop a transformative justice project

This 4-credit course is a collaborative music creation experience for composers and singers. Composers and singers will work together over the course of the semester to create new music for solo voice and small vocal ensemble using various collaborative practices to highlight and celebrate the individualistic nature of the voice. Singers will receive technical vocal instruction and coaching to optimize their interpretation of these new works, and explore a wide range of vocal color and extended techniques. Composers will learn about composing for–and working with–singers, about how to notate their vocal music effectively, about both historical and current approaches to vocal writing, and about effective text setting. Topics covered will include functionality and demystification of the singing voice, analysis of successful and innovative vocal works throughout history, and orchestration for the voice and vocal ensemble.

The course will culminate in a performance and recording of the finished works.

This course will be taught in two sections (Section 1: Singers, & Section 2: Composers) which will meet separately and as a combined group on a weekly basis. The Singers section will be taught by Virginia Kelsey, and the Composers section will be taught by Allen Shawn.

This project-based class is for designers doing intermediate or advanced level work in lighting design, scenic design and/or stage management, those developing and implementing theatrical designs, as well as stage managers of faculty or student directed projects being produced on campus. In a studio atmosphere, students will share work in process each week, from inception through realization of their respective production projects. Particular attention will be placed on collaboration and communication between members of design/production teams. All participants must have already taken at least one course in the project area. Those interested in taking this course must make arrangements with the instructor for an appropriate spring term project prior to registration. A class meeting time will be arranged based on schedules of enrolled students.

Lighting design has the powerful ability to shape the experience of an audience. Its practice incorporates elements of artistry and craft, and should interest those working in all aspects of visual and performing arts. In addition to hands-on work with theatrical lighting equipment in and outside of class, awareness of light, play analysis and conceptualization, color, angle, composition and focus are explored in class demonstrations and in a series of individual and group projects. Some reading (including two plays) and short writing assignments are also included, as is an introduction to lighting design documentation. Because many class sessions will involve hands-on work with lighting equipment that cannot be made up, students are expected to be present and participate fully.

The basics of cello, part two. In a small group or one-on-one, students will learn how to play cello, with an emphasis on performance at the term’s conclusion.

Studio instruction in cello. There will be an emphasis on creating and working towards an end-of-term project for each student.

This course offers a continuing introduction to the history and development of world theater and drama. We will experience the vibrant pageant of theater history through an exploration of its conventions and aesthetics, as well as its social and cultural functions. Starting in the nineteenth century, we will read representative plays ranging from the advent of stage Realism and Naturalism with Ibsen and Strindberg, through modern and contemporary drama (from the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa). As we study theatrical movements including Symbolism, Expressionism, Epic Theater, and Theater of the Absurd, we will also read key critical and theoretical texts illuminating the plays. Looking at theater history as “living theater,” the course encompasses not only the study of plays as dramatic texts, but also their contexts of theater architecture and stagecraft, performance conventions, debates of art and commerce, shifting relationships to the audience, and questions about expanding the canon. Through an interdisciplinary study of theater history, students will also learn to connect theatrical traditions and conventions to contemporary practices in diverse forms and cultures.

The dramaturg serves as a powerful medium in the theatre. They bridge the past and the present, the creative team and the audience, while providing critical generosity and historical and literary insight. In this course, we will learn about the history and practice of dramaturgy, while learning how the critical and research skills of the dramaturg can apply to a wide array of theatrical and artistic disciplines. Through a varied blend of weekly readings, discussion, small-group activities, and independent projects, students will engage with various tools and methods of dramaturgy. These include script analysis, research skills, exploring the archive, new play development, and theatrical translation. Introduction to Dramaturgy is recommended for theater practitioners—actors, directors, designers, and playwrights—as well as for students with an interest in literature, history, and criticism. Participation in this course also prioritizes admission into Advanced Dramaturgy: the course into which Introduction to Dramaturgy continues.

The purpose of this course is to create a platform for students to express themselves through theatrical performance. We are interested in projects that are inclusive and allow for and celebrate diversity. All applicants must be interested in developing their project while investigating what it means to create a supportive, inclusive community that regularly engages in group sharing and feedback sessions centering the artist. We will foster the growth of your proposed project through supervised rehearsals and weekly feedback sessions. The work will be performed at the end of the term though some projects may be designed for digital creation rather than live performance. The project itself can be collaborative and involve more than one creator, though it is fine to propose a solo project, and can take the form of a staged reading, a one-person show, a devised piece of theater, a fully staged production, a radio play, or zoom theatrical piece. All design elements will be minimal, shared light plot, pulled costumes and props although it will be possible to work with a designer as co-creator. There will be a small budget for necessary purchases. You will be limited to 8 hours a week of outside rehearsal time and in-class time of 4 hours a week. Students in the class will be required to attend a weekly community meeting that will take place during the 4 hours of class time, and will receive 4 credits. In some cases, smaller projects may be considered for lesser credit. Project collaborators( actors/designers and etc) will be assigned credits, as appropriate, on a project by project basis depending upon assumed hours of participation in each case. Projects will cast in the Spring Drama Auditions.

Clay responds directly to touch, retains memory and is forced through the dynamic process of firing to fix a point in time. This class will introduce students to a variety of hand-building techniques to construct sculptural and/or utilitarian forms. Students will develop their skills by practicing techniques demonstrated in class. Through making, students skills will increase, granting more confidence, and allowing more control over the objects they wish to realize.

This course will look into the use of the kiln as an integral tool and part of the creative process in ceramic art. We will explore various different kilns andfiring techniques, learning the roles of fire and atmosphere in transforming glaze components into desired surfaces. We will also discuss the history of kiln technology and how it has influenced the development of wares, kiln building, and the theoretical basis for kiln design andfiring. Students will be expected to develop and produce work independently outside of class time for use in the firings.

In this course students will learn to use social science statistics to test their own research questions, while becoming more educated consumers of statistical analyses presented in research and news sources. Students will employ various inferential statistics techniques commonly used in social science, such as confidence intervals, t-tests, chi-square testing, correlation, ANOVA, and regression. Students will manage and analyze data using the Stata statistical software package. Throughout the course of the term students will pose their own research question for which they will find and analyze data, culminating in a final research report and presentation of the results. This course is strongly encouraged for sophom*ores and juniors considering advanced work in social science with quantitative research components. Because we will primarily focus on the application of statistical techniques (not the mathematical formulas behind them), no math beyond high school algebra is required for this course.

In this advanced acting class, students will learn some of the basic techniques of film acting, creating short form projects which will allow them to gain experience working for the lens rather than for the stage. Students will work with the book: Acting For Film by Cathy Haase, and using various selected monologue and scene material, will create and present short videos which will be shared and discussed throughout the term with a focus on acting for the camera film techniques. We will also look at selected examples of great film acting over the years, and reflect critically on this work as inspiration.

Extensive out of class rehearsal will be expected, and there will be some reading and writing involved in addition to the shot exercises assigned during the term.

A performance-based course for folks interested in this medium. It is not necessary to have elaborate skill in sound design and editing, though students with this interest are welcome to enroll. All students will perform as actors in each other’s projects. Each week the class will listen to examples of current Radio Play and Theatre Podcast content, writing up play reports and discussing these weekly listenings. Material read and performed will be drawn from a diverse canon of plays written for this form, such as The War of the Worlds, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, content from Play At Home, the radio plays of Samuel Beckett, Caryl Churchill among others. Individual as well as group projects will be assigned or created and students will be cast in various projects throughout the term which will be recorded on Audio. All projects being worked on during the term will be read and discussed by all of the students in the class so that there is a shared context for this performance/collaborative class format. Individually, students will concentrate on exploring their vocal instruments through reading and vocal exercise work, as well as developing a regular practice of reading out loud daily. Students will also have access to recording/editing software that will allow them to experiment and explore sound design and editing for their projects if desired. Course work will involve extensive outside of class listening to examples of Radio Theatre and Podcast Theatre, reading, individual research and rehearsal, and maintaining a rigorous daily vocal practice. Each week students will have the opportunity to work individually on their own, in rehearsal with others, and regularly in group sessions where work in development is shared and critiqued by the class.

Students will propose and create a final Independent Project, which may be original, adapted material, or drawn from a pre-existing canon.

This will be a condensed class concerned with projecting images, and mapping these onto a variety of forms. The content will be created in a number of programs. How this interacts with a location/space, a surface, an object, a performer, a body will be explored in the class, as well as and how this brings further information to a form and shift the viewers reading or understanding.

Instruction on Qab and Madmapper will be included and used for the tests along with other software. Additionally, if time permits live interactions with the projections will be experimented with utilizing Isadora and other programs, as well as performers.

The catalysts for the projects will range from imaginary spaces to the immediate. A series of short experiments and tests will occur.

This course introduces students to the basic language of 3D animation and modeling. Students will be expected to become familiar with the basic principles of the MAYA program. A series of modeled objects placed in locations will be created. The emphasis will be on becoming proficient with modelling forms, texturing using Arnold Renderer, adding lights and cameras.
Additionally, during the course we will print forms, utilizing 3D printers.

The course will be for sustained work on an animation or design project, and should be a space for both experimentation, ambition and a consistent endeavor. Students will be expected to create a complete animation, a series of experiments, projection or interactive project. The expectation is that students will be fully engaged in all aspects of the class from critiques, to experimenting with ideas, undertaking research and being present. Locations may be explored for showing of work including investigating digital projections on different surfaces and forms, VR/AR delivery projects.

A public showing will be required.