Advancement of Public Action
Student as citizen
International conflict and leadership, the environment, incarceration reform, a regenerative economy, an educated and emboldened citizenry—imagine an education where the world's most urgent issues are your subject matter and doing something about them is your aim.
Through coursework and fieldwork, students develop capacities essential to taking effective action in the world, whether that means identifying stakeholders and building coalitions and collaborations, honing problem-solving skills, learning the techniques of effective mediation, understanding how to effect policy decisions by lawmakers, or the myriad other components of making meaningful change in the world.
In these efforts, students work with faculty who defy categorization, people who draw on Bennington's deep artistic and analytic resources to collaborate with public and private organizations and leverage the classroom as a new kind of laboratory for creative problem-solving—work that converges in the Center for the Advancement of Public Action.
At Bennington, students work closely with faculty to design the content, structure, and sequence of their study and practice—their Plan—taking advantage of the College's resources both inside and outside the classroom to pursue their work.
Faculty
Your faculty will be your mentors, challenging you to ask the most interesting questions and to find the most meaningful answers to the problems you’ve chosen to tackle.
Field Work Term
During the annual Field Work Term, you bring your work to the world, confronting the challenges of implementation firsthand and refining your questions to further shape what you'll do when you get back to campus.
- The 52nd Street Project
- Bard Prison Initiative
- Berkshire Community Action Council
- California Coalition for Women Prisoners
- Center for Peacebuilding
- Hope of Children and Women
- Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice
- The Leadership Institute at The New York Open Center
- Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City
- NARAL Pro-Choice America
- The Northwest Workers Justice Project
- Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington
- Presidential Secretariat of Sri Lanka
- Mediation and Applied Conflict Resolution Studies, Champlain College
- Quantum Leap
- Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights
- Suncokret Center for Community Development
- Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
- Urban Justice Center Mental Health Project
- Vermont State Legislature
- China Institute
Alumni
Bennington has always built deep connections between doing and knowing, action and reflection, the classroom and the world. Our alumni have long put that spirit into practice, playing leading roles.
Feminist writer whose work was a lightning rod for the debate on pornography and censorship in the United States
First United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues and former executive director of Global Rights
Leading American philanthropist and fierce advocate for research into the causes and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
Cofounder of Change.org and Coworker.org, transforming the way workers in today’s economy organize
Cardiologist and advocate for women’s health, heart disease prevention, and diversity in healthcare
Co-founder of RYOT News and Oscar-nominated filmmaker whose work fuses social justice activism with virtual reality technology
Trailblazing attorney who has spent a career working to highlight issues of gender bias in the legal profession
Pilot who learned to fly during her freshman year at Bennington, graduated early to become a WASP in World War II, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 2010
Founder of Voices UnBroken, a nonprofit dedicated to giving vulnerable young people opportunity for creative self-expression
Composer, writer, and director who fashioned a unique style of socially engaged musical theatre
Founder and former head of school of the Northwest School who has been recognized as a Changemaker by Global Washington for her current work as executive director of the International Leadership Academy of Ethiopia
Founder of Bibeksheel Nepali, a populist political party founded in the wake of Nepal’s 2015 earthquake
Former deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Borough president of the New York City borough of Manhattan who formerly served as a member of the New York City Council and as director of the Office of Federal Relations in the Dinkins administration, among her other positions in a long career of public service
Author of Gender Trouble, one of the most important works of philosophy and gender theory of the postmodern era
Principal design director for Xbox who is implementing a radical vision for Microsoft
Leader in the development of sustainable business models, brands, and social movements
