Advancement of Public Action

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Transformative Justice: Changing Ourselves and the World — APA2252.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Alisa Del Tufo
Credits: 4
Transformative justice is a set of theories and practices that offers a new approach to changing systems and institutions. These methods reflect the values of  restorative practices generally: accountability, empathy, positive communication and healing. In this era of challenging culture cultural expressions Transformative Justice offers us ways to strengthen and maintain
CAPA

Tuesday Soup-er Club Intensive: Bennington Foodscape — APA2168.02

Spring 2020
Instructor: Yoko Inoue
Credits: 2
This is a trans-disciplinary course that investigates local food sovereignty. Incorporating activities such as collective soup making to intersect with academic research and theoretical reading, this course aims to enhance our overall understandings about the modern day food chain (i.e. industrial food production and systems of distribution). The Soup-er Club will create
CAPA

Tuesday Soup-er Club: Cooking is Power — APA2168.01

Spring 2019
Instructor: Yoko Inoue
Credits: 2
This is a transdisciplinary course that investigates local and global food sovereignty. Incorporating activities such as collective soup making to intersect with academic research and theoretical reading, this course aims to enhance our overall understandings about the modern day food chain (i.e. industrial food production and systems of distribution). Through collaborative
CAPA

Understanding Food Insecurity in Bennington 2 — APA2253.01

Fall 2020
Instructor: tatianaabatemarco@bennington.edu
Credits: 4
As part of the Mellon Foundation grant addressing Food Insecurity in Bennington County, this class will engage with last year's overview of the programs currently being offered in Bennington, the best practices in our area and afar, and new projects that have been developed moving forward. Understanding Food Insecurity in Bennington County 2 will develop and sustain current
CAPA Environment Society Culture and Thought

Understanding Food Insecurity in Bennington 3 — APA2442.01

Fall 2021
Instructor: Tatiana Abatemarco Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 4
As part of the Mellon Foundation grant addressing Food Insecurity in Bennington County, this class will engage with the last two years’ overview of the programs currently being offered in Bennington, the best practices in our area and afar, and new projects that have been developed moving forward. Understanding Food Insecurity in Bennington County 3 will develop and sustain
CAPA Environment

Understanding Food Insecurity in Bennington County 1 — APA2173.01

Fall 2019
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 4
The issue of food insecurity has long been on the minds of those who live in Southern Vermont. In fact, Bennington County has been identified by the USDA as a “food desert”, meaning significant portions of its residents have limited access to healthy or locally-produced food. This course, the first in a sequence of three, will explore and review past initiatives, best practices
CAPA

Understanding Media — APA2443.02

Spring 2025
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 2
Understanding Media is a critique and analysis of media including television, radio, film, social media and the internet, focusing on contemporary popular genres, such as movies, talk shows, news programs, children’s programs, and advertisements. There will be a strong focus on corporate media consolidation and its impact on content, uses, functions, and audiences. Students
CAPA

Understanding Media — APA2443.01

Fall 2021
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 2
Understanding Media is a critique and analysis of media including television, radio, film, social media and the internet, focusing on contemporary popular genres, such as movies, talk shows, news programs, children's programs, and advertisements. There will be a strong focus on corporate media consolidation and its impact on content, uses, functions, and audiences. Students
CAPA

Understanding PFOA in Our Water — APA2158.01

Fall 2016
Instructor: David Bond
Credits: 2
In 2014, the chemical Perfluorooctanoic acid (C8 or PFOA) was discovered in the drinking water in the Village of Hoosick Falls, NY. As concern over this groundwater contamination grew, other communities began testing their water for PFOA. As of March 2016, PFOA has been discovered in the groundwater of Petersburgh, NY, Merrimack, NH, and in North Bennington, VT (the public
CAPA Science and Mathematics Environment

Understanding PFOA: Science and Policy — ENV2173.01

Spring 2020
Instructor: Tim Schroeder
Credits: 2
The water supply of Hoosick Falls, NY, Bennington’s western neighbor, has been contaminated with Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) by past industrial activity. PFOA is an “emerging contaminant” that is correlated with a range of health problems. This course will investigate the social and physical aspects of this ongoing disaster, from how the regulation of chemicals in the US
CAPA Environment

Understanding PFOA: Science and Policy — ENV2173.01

Spring 2018
Instructor: David Bond and Janet Foley
Credits: 2
The water supply of Hoosick Falls, NY, Bennington’s western neighbor, has been contaminated with Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) by past industrial activity. PFOA is an “emerging contaminant” that is correlated with a range of health problems. This course will investigate the capdavidjanetsocial and physical aspects of this ongoing disaster, from how the regulation of chemicals
CAPA Environment

Unfair distribution: Poverty, inequality and deprivation — PEC4128.01

Fall 2016
Instructor: Lopamudra Banerjee
Credits: 4
Poverty [defined as absolute deprivation] and inequality [defined as relative deprivation] are the two key concepts that allow us to talk about unevenness in income distribution and the unfairness in distribution of economic goods and economic opportunities amongst people.  This course traces the roots of these two key concepts in welfare economics, and asks: What causes
Society Culture and Thought CAPA Environment

Upside/down 2.0: Business in the 21st Century — APA2156.01

Fall 2018
Instructor: Charles Crowell
Credits: 4
We have all unknowingly adsorbed business startup mythologies in our culture as fact – like the viability of starting in a garage or basement, starting small, and with little capital, as well as whatever clickbait faux news (“Young Billionaires!”) we read in the newest online forum dedicated to start-up culture. These success stories are all wrong, or “upside /down”, for the
CAPA

Upside/down: Business in the 21st Century — APA2300.01

Fall 2016
Instructor:
Credits: 4
We have all unknowingly adsorbed business startup mythologies in our culture as fact - like the viability of starting in a garage or basement, starting small, and with little capital, as well as whatever clickbait faux news (“Young Billionaires!”) we read in the newest online forum dedicated to start-up culture. These
CAPA

Urban Disasters: Economics, Risk, and the City — PEC2286.01

Spring 2026
Instructor: Lopamudra Banerjee
Days & Time: TU 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 2

Catastrophic events—droughts, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and landslides—are growing in frequency and intensity around the world. As more of the global population concentrates in urban areas, the nature and consequences of these natural hazards are taking on a distinct and often violent shape in today’s metropolises and megacities. This course investigates how urban

Advancement of Public Action Environment Political Economy

Uses and Abuses of Statistics — MAT2103.01

Spring 2016
Instructor: Hugh Crowl
Credits: 4
This course will attempt to answer the question "What is valid data -- and how do you know?" By looking at real life data sets, we will work on reading, assessing, and producing statistics as they relate to different fields. We will work to locate the source data, understand statistical language, and look at how the visual representation of data can change how we perceive facts
CAPA Science Mathematics and Computing Society Culture and Thought

Voices of Our Time — APA2198.01

Spring 2026
Instructor: Brian Campion
Days & Time: TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 2

In this course, students will document the lived experiences of individuals during this immensely challenging period in American history. Students will receive training in the methods of oral history, interviewing techniques, historical ethics, and archival work. They will conduct interviews of classmates and community members. These narratives will then be preserved in

Advancement of Public Action

Volatile Futures/Earthly Matters — APA2275.01

Spring 2017
Instructor:
Credits: 2
Where and when does the Anthropocene come to matter? Looking at inundated low-lying islands, the melting Arctic, or the coastal wrath of super storms, many suggest such contemporary moments prophesy the future that awaits us all. Others, returning to the ecological fallout of the colonial plantation, hydrocarbon imperialism, or nuclear weapons, suggest our impending unraveling
CAPA Society Culture and Thought Environment

Water Dialogues: Conflicts Over Our Most Valuable Resource — APA2220.01

Spring 2016
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 2
Water is our most important resource in the world. Without it, human, animal and plant life cannot exist for very long. Where we live in the eastern United States,  water is plentiful.  We take it for granted that we can drink it freely, wash ourselves when we feel like it, and use it for industry and recreation. But in our own country (western U.S.) and other parts
CAPA Environment

Water Dialogues: Conflicts Over Our Most Valuable Resource — APA2220.01

Fall 2018
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 2
Water is the essence of life. Access to Clean Water for drinking, fishing, irrigation and sanitation are basic human rights. In this course, we will use two texts: "Written in Water: Messages of Hope for Earth's Most Precious Resource" edited by Irena Salin and Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization by Steven Solomon. Water as a source of conflict for
CAPA Environment

Water Dialogues: The Future of Civilization — APA2016.01

Fall 2023
Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 4
This course fundamentally will address the following questions: How do we move out of the historical period of industrial waste and big dams to Water Systems that address climate change, water scarcity, water pollution and clean up, hydropower as a renewable resource and building new infrastructure? How does water affect our personal lives through health, sanitation, and
CAPA

Water: First Home of Life  — APA2148.01

Fall 2018
Instructor: Burcu Seyben
Credits: 4
Water is the source of life. Scientists search for water in the universe to discover if there is life out there. Civilizations of the ancient world flourished near water. Over the centuries, we have established relationships with water other than merely using it to survive. How has our relationship with water been changing, and how has this affected water? What role do
CAPA Environment