Advancement of Public Action

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Historical Grievances and Retrospective Redress — APA2124.01

Fall 2015
Instructor: Eileen Scully
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 1
Using readings and role plays focused around a case study involving Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, we will explore and develop successful mediation strategies for working with parties in conflict over contested memories and historical grievances. Students will become familiar with mediation fundamentals, and test out ideas and approaches in the emerging field of historical
CAPA Modules: Transferable Approaches

Housing in America, Housing in Bennington — APA4171.01

Spring 2025
Instructor: David Bond
Credits: 4
Housing has become a crisis for many Americans, but how it is a crisis is still poorly understood. This class takes housing as an urgent question, and aims to use the classroom as a critical research hub to better grasp the national and local dimensions of the current housing crisis. Students will be expected not only to participate in the academic study of housing in America
CAPA Society Culture and Thought

How Do You Know: The Culture of Information — APA4106.01

Fall 2013
Instructor: Erika Mijlin
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 4
On a daily basis, we each define a relationship to information, as a bearer of truth, evidence, authority, timeliness, social leverage, insight, etc. Part seminar and part workshop, this course will attempt to make that complex relationship visible. We will first focus on a history of knowledge, and the various ways in which it has been used to organize the world. We will then
Advancement of Public Action

How to be a Radio DJ — APA2315.01

Fall 2017
Instructor: Thom Loubet
Credits: 1
Webcasting radio and podcast are relatively new art forms that are transforming the way that people across the globe share ideas, music, and discourse.  This class focuses on the skills required to successfully communicate through live audio production. This will include discussions on how to: speak on a microphone, create a successful playlist, mix live from multiple
CAPA

How to Collaborate: Threeing — APA2214.03

Fall 2019
Instructor: Caroline Woolard, MFA Teaching Fellow
Credits: 2
If group work is both the most necessary and the most difficult endeavor of our time, what methods are necessary for collaboration in the visual arts? In this seminar and studio, students will focus on a method for group work that was developed by the video-artist (not politician) Paul Ryan between 1971 and the end of his life, in 2013. Threeing is "a voluntary practice in
CAPA

Human Mobility and Human Rights — MOD2167.03

Spring 2018
Instructor: Andrea Galindo
Credits: 1
Human mobility has been an inherent human condition throughout history. From earliest human history, people have migrated in search of a better life, to populate other places on the planet, or to escape and survive human-made or natural dangers. However, it was the creation of the concept of modern State that established geographic boundaries, and enabled States to exercise
CAPA Modules: Transferable Approaches

Human Rights and Covid-19 — APA2344.03

Spring 2021
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 1
States are not responsible for COVID-19, but they are responsible for how they respond to it. The virus cannot be used as an excuse to roll back on fundamental human rights. Human rights are universal legal guarantees that protect individuals and groups against actions that interfere with fundamental freedoms and human dignity. Under international human 
CAPA

Human Rights in Action — APA2349.02

Spring 2026
Instructor: Andrea Galindo
Days & Time: WE 10:00am-11:50am & WE 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 2

In 1948, Elanor Roosevelt, instrumental for the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said “In a true sense, human rights are a fundamental object of law and government in a just society. Human rights exist to the degree that they are respected by people in relations with each other and by governments in relations with their

Advancement of Public Action

Human Rights in Action — APA2349.02

Spring 2025
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 2
In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt, instrumental for the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said “In a true sense, human rights are a fundamental object of law and government in a just society. Human rights exist to the degree that they are respected by people in relations with each other and by governments in relations with their citizens.” We have come a long way
CAPA

Human Rights in Global Politics — POL2111.01

Fall 2018
Instructor: Rotimi Suberu
Credits: 4
Human rights are universal in principle, but often they are systematically violated in practice, especially in developing countries of the global south. This introductory course explores the international politics of human rights, with a particular focus on the developing world. Topics to be examined in lectures, written assignments, discussions, presentations, simulations and
CAPA Society Culture and Thought

Human Rights in Global Politics — POL2111.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Rotimi Suberu
Credits: 4
Human rights are universal in principle, but often they are systematically violated in practice, especially in developing countries of the global South. This introductory course explores the international politics of human rights, with a particular focus on the developing world. Topics to be examined through lectures, written assignments, discussions, presentations, simulations
CAPA Society Culture and Thought

Human Rights in Global Politics — POL2111.01

Fall 2023
Instructor: Rotimi Suberu
Credits: 4
Human rights are universal in principle, but often they are systematically violated in practice, especially in developing countries of the global south. This introductory course explores the international politics of human rights, with a particular focus on the developing world. Topics to be examined in lectures, written assignments, discussions, presentations, simulations and
CAPA Society Culture and Thought

Human Rights in Global Politics — POL2111.01

Fall 2016
Instructor: Rotimi Suberu
Credits: 4
Human rights are universal in principle, but often they are systematically violated in practice, especially in developing countries of the global south. This introductory course explores the international politics of human rights, with a particular focus on the developing world. Topics to be examined in lectures, written assignments, discussions, presentations, simulations and
CAPA Society Culture and Thought

Ideas Arrangements Effects — APA2178.02

Spring 2021
Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 2
How do we come to understand what we are doing when attempting to change or interfere with a messy complex social problem? How can we know if the thing we want to do to improve a social problem will work or backfire? There are many lessons from psychiatrists like RD Laing to cultural heroes like Hermès on this topic. Ideas Arrangements Effects will overview several lessons from
CAPA

Ideas Arrangements Effects — APA2178.02

Fall 2019
Instructor: Kenneth Bailey, MFA Teaching Fellow
Credits: 2
How do we come to understand what we are doing when attempting to change or interfere with a messy complex social problem? How can we know if the thing we want to do to improve a social problem will work or backfire? There are many lessons from psychiatrists like RD Laing to cultural heroes like Hermès on this topic. Ideas Arrangements Effects will overview several lessons from
CAPA

Identità e cucina: Food in Italian Regional Cultures — ITA4216.01

Spring 2020
Instructor: Barbara Alfano
Credits: 4
In Italy, regional cuisine is an essential component of local identities and a crucial element to understand diversity in the national context. This course focuses on the food practices and typical dishes of Italian regional cultures as the students advance in the study of the language. This course is offered at the elementary level and conducted in Italian. The class will
CAPA Cultural Studies and Languages

If Only There Were a Mediator Between Us: The Book of Job and Conflict Resolution — MED2119.01

Spring 2018
Instructor: Michael Cohen
Credits: 2
The Book of Job is one of the great philosophical books of the Bible which addresses many relevant issues including, but not limited to, justice, friendship, responding to life's trials. Written as a series of dialogues between Job and his friends its pages address conflict through many forms and issues. We will read and discuss its pages as we explore the process of resolving
CAPA

Imagining Our Futures: Conflict and/or Peace? — APA2284.01

Spring 2026
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Days & Time: WE 2:10pm-5:50pm
Credits: 2

This class will examine interesting thinkers about our future.  Artists, anthropologists, afro futurists, writers, scientists and philosophers have all thought about what we are facing in our futures. Books and essays such as “The Fourth Turning” by Neil Howe, “The Dawn of Everything” by David Graeber, “The End of History” by Francis Fukuyama, 

Advancement of Public Action

Imagining the Future of the Arts in America — APA4155.02

Fall 2016
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 2
Demographic and technological changes are challenging institutions, organizations and practices that traditionally have supported artists in their contribution to American culture. What would it mean to radically rethink the future of arts and culture in America?  This course will include a review of the traditional models that have supported American artists historically
CAPA

Immortal Media — MS2106.01

Spring 2019
Instructor: Brian Michael Murphy
Credits: 4
In this introductory course, we will analyze media preservation projects that attempt to create immortal media—artifacts that last beyond the end of the world. From the Depression to the digital age, preservationists have responded to the social, cultural, technological, and ecological crises of their moment by projecting fears about their own mortality onto media artifacts,
CAPA Society Culture and Thought

Impediments to the Growth of Democracy in the Middle East — APA2358.02) (cancelled 9/6/2024

Fall 2024
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 1
This course covers the domestic and international challenges facing the struggle for democracy in Middle Eastern countries, with particular emphasis on Iran. It will focus on the historical and sociocultural underpinning of the democratic concept and examine the causes of democratic success and failure. The struggle for democracy in Iran began in the early 20th century, but
CAPA Society Culture and Thought

Improvisation for a Catastrophe: Complexity and Resilience — APA2351.01

Fall 2024
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 2
This class will examine the principles of complex systems, improvisation and resilience. Concepts such as self-organization, emergence, pattern recognition, adaptation and non-linear structures will be introduced. Ordinarily, we think of order and form as externally imposed, composed or directed. In this class, however, we will consider new kinds of order, not because they are
CAPA

Improvisation, Indeterminacy and Art Intervention — APA2141.01

Fall 2016
Instructor: Susie Ibarra
Credits: 4
This course explores art intervention in cities and rural environments that utilize methods of improvisation and indeterminacy to address social and environmental issues.  The class will examine the relationships and dialogue between traditional and contemporary practices of problem solving in communities. The class will work on collaborating on the design and
CAPA Music