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Academics
 Curriculum and Areas of Study
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Bennington’s new Design Labs invite you to change the world—right now
What if your college education didn’t end with the phrase “Now go out and change the world,” but rather began there? What if—on your first day of college—you could join with others to start doing the things you most love to do, and start solving the problems the world most needs to have solved? * * * Design labs go beyond the bounds of a typical course. They are hands-on, change-the-world workshops—learning communities grounded in complex thought and concrete action. A new kind of course at Bennington, three inaugural design labs were taught in the fall 2007 term, with more—covering a broad range of topics—planned for fall of 2008. It works like this: In your first term at Bennington, you and a small group of other students and faculty come together to grapple with one particular, urgent, real-world problem. For example: How does public education in the U.S. need to change? How could the College reduce its ecological footprint? How do you forge treaties in the face of deeply entrenched conflicts?
Together, you assemble the tools to stake out, scour, and otherwise plumb the depths of your question, asking even more questions along the way. Collaboratively, you use these tools to dream up new solutions that are both principled and pragmatic. In a “Collaboration and Conflict” Design Lab, for example, you undergo 20 hours of mediation training, hear about international conflicts from faculty members who witnessed them firsthand, and work with visual arts faculty members to map the structure of conflicts. You choose an actual conflict or conflict-related issue to address; you propose and critique solutions. Design Labs have one foot in the world as it is, and one foot in the world as it could be. They pull together the intellectual power, passion, and boldness of our students and faculty and apply these resources to pressing world problems. And the world talks back: The Bennington faculty who lead the labs tap into the work of visiting academics and practitioners, including business and political leaders, journalists, and social activists whose lives and work have been devoted to these very problems. At the end of the term, you present your work to interested parties outside the College, who offer you feedback and suggestions. Course descriptions for this fall’s design labs, now in progress:
Green Projects: Community and Campus How much energy could you generate by putting solar collectors on the roof of Dickinson? Would it make sense to use low volume hydrogenerators on streams in the area? Should vehicles on campus use ethanol for fuel? Is it feasible for the dining hall to buy local food and produce? What are the values, assumptions, and judgments that propel these inquiries? As a group we will analyze how these predispositions shape thinking about environmental issues in general and about specific proposals. What, exactly is “green”? How do individual notions of (or emphases on) “greenness” differ, and how should such differences be understood and addressed? Additional faculty consultants will include Donald Sherefkin and Geoffrey Pigman. Students, working in small groups, will identify a question of interest bearing on the environmental “footprint” of the College, and develop a focus for detailed inquiry and development within that area of interest. They will frame the question in the context of larger environmental issues, do appropriate background research, assess information acquired, identify problems and the issues and, ultimately, develop a practical proposal for institutional action concerning their question. Projects can be focused on the campus or in the larger Bennington community. Each group should embed their ultimate proposal in the context of the larger community - through interaction with existing groups, agencies or a local business; by joint projects with high school classes; through surveys directed at the general population about attitudes concerning food, solar energy, ethanol; or via other vehicles. Student groups will produce a proposal based on their research and analyses. The proposal will be presented both as a web-based paper and as a poster presentation. * * * Susan Sgorbati, lead instructor Are we doomed to fight each other forever in wars? Is it a hopeless situation for our future, based on the intractable conflicts around the world and the scarcer resources due to environmental shifts? Can Nelson Mandela and the former leaders of South Africa provide us with examples for how to participate in significant change? This Design Lab will focus on four questions: What is the nature of conflict? How do we describe conflicts? How might we visualize conflicts? How can we restructure conflicts by inventing new models and training ourselves in new skills? We will begin the course with a twenty-hour Mediation and Negotiation training lab that will help us understand the differences between neutrality and advocacy, aid us in working through our biases, and train us in group facilitation. By analyzing three case studies of specific treaties/agreements from Iran, South Africa, and Kosovo, students and faculty will begin to understand the similarities and differences of specific conflicts. Visual/digital arts consultants will introduce tools that will enable us to visualize analyze and map conflicts. These activities, along with written work, will enable students to develop different conflict resolution models. Working collaboratively, students will have the opportunity to utilize their new mediation skills to work effectively in teams. By looking at the restructuring of seemingly intractable conflicts, this design lab will integrate three components: the practice of negotiation and mediation skills, the study and analysis of conflict (via case studies) and the development of visual mapping projects. At the end of the term, we will invite outside guests to view and discuss our work. These professionals will help us evaluate our visual/digital mappings. Lead instructor: Susan Sgorbati Assisted by seniors: Jessica Alatorre and Suzanne Brundage Faculty and staff collaboration and participation: Mac Maharaj, Mansour Farhang, Geoff Pigman, Daniel Michaelson, Robert Ransick, Sue Rees and Oceana Wilson * * * Elizabeth Coleman, Ken Himmelman Note: This course is designed to encompass the full 07-08 academic year including Fall Term, Field Work Term, and Spring Term, but students may opt to participate in the Fall Term portion only, or join the class in the Spring Term. Over the last twenty years, the United States has dropped in the global education rankings in comparison with many other developed nations. While many of the problems with the US educational system seem obvious, the causes and solutions to those problems are less so. Few areas have been more examined or better examined, yet little changes for the better. Many students find school to be narrow and stultifying, a simple means to an end rather than a window to real learning. Why is this? Students in this design lab will work over the course of the academic year, incorporating field work term, to understand issues such as educational philosophy, systems design, youth development, and effective social policy. The goal of this design lab is to deepen understanding and enhance students’ skills to enable them to take effective action to improve education in America in some way. The year will progress roughly as follows: First Term The first term will be spent examining key ideas in education and education reform. The first portion of the semester will include readings, discussions, site visits to schools and organizations, and invited guests working in the field. Topics to be covered will include: education, human development and psychology, teacher and principal training, effective learning environments, governance structures, curriculum and standards, international approaches to education, and more. Readings will include Plato, Dewey, Erikson, Whitehead, and others, as well as major studies on educational reform. During this term, students will begin developing their own perspective on the question of educational reform and identifying particular problems they feel need to be addressed. The final project for the term will be a proposal demonstrating their understanding of the issues studied as well as a proposal for field work term and for what particular problem they would like to work on during the second term. Field Work Term The instructors will establish relationships with organizations and institutions such as schools, foundations and activist organizations across the country that are willing to take student interns over Field Work Term. Students may also find their own placements with the approval of the instructors. The reflection essay will put the student’s experience in the wider context of what is being studied in the course. Spring Term During the first third of spring term, we will share and reflect as a group upon the FWT experience. In addition, time will be spent taking the first term papers and transforming them into proposals for action projects. These proposals will then go through a selection process and the remainder of the term will be spent working collaboratively in teams on the selected proposals. Teams will set up roles and responsibilities and be evaluated on their effectiveness in these roles as well as on the final project itself. Evaluation will be done by the instructors and outside evaluators who have experience working on education reform issues in the world. Class will meet regularly to to share ideas and give feedback on projects, as well as to discuss shared readings suggested by all participants throughout the term. We will invite continual involvement from a range of Bennington faculty as well as outside visitors during the course. * * * Curious? Want to learn more? Click here to request more information about Bennington College. More:
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