Environment

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Sustainable Agriculture: Advanced Projects — APA4170.01

Instructor: Kelie Bowman
Days & Time: TH 8:30am-12:10pm
Credits: 4

This course is for students who are doing advanced work in Sustainable Agriculture or community engagement work. Students will create an individual project developing project management skills that include planning, research, development, and implementation. The students will have the opportunity to collaborate with a community partner and will present their completed

Sustainable Chemistry in the Modern World — CHE2116.01

Instructor: Amber Hancock
Credits: 4
Chemistry is everywhere. It is necessary for processes and products that sustain our existence. Because energy and production demands are always increasing to support our expanding population, the way in which we carry out these essential chemical processes is more important than ever. This course will establish the societal importance of green chemical practices and provide

The Animal that therefore I am — POL4243.01

Instructor: John Hultgren
Credits: 4
Near the beginning of a ten-hour long (!) address, philosopher Jacques Derrida famously described standing naked in front of his cat and suddenly feeling embarrassed. Wondering why he felt such strong emotions when faced with the gaze of his feline companion, Derrida was provoked to examine the relationship between humans and animals. This course proposes to follow his lead,

The Bible and the Environment — MOD2254.03

Instructor: Michael Cohen
Credits: 1
This module will analyze the environmental dimensions and lessons of the Bible with a primary focus on the books of Genesis and Psalms. Through the use of ancient and contemporary commentators the environmental messages of the Biblical texts will be examined as a means to confront and explore our relationship to the environment. The course will also examine the scores of

The Bible and the Environment — MOD2254.03

Instructor: Michael Cohen
Credits: 1
This module will analyze the environmental dimensions and lessons of the Bible with a primary focus on the books of Genesis and Psalms. Through the use of ancient and contemporary commentators the environmental messages of the Biblical texts will be examined as a means to confront and explore our relationship to the environment. The course will also examine the scores of

The Bible as a Key to Environmental Thought — MED2120.01

Instructor: Michael Cohen
Credits: 1
This survey course will analyze the environmental dimensions and lessons of the book of Genesis and other books of the Bible, and at times from other traditions as well. Through the use of mostly contemporary commentators the text of the Bible will also be read as an environmental text. The course will also examine the scores of references to nature and the environment with an

The Book of Deuteronomy and the Advancement of Society — MED2114.03

Instructor: Michael M. Cohen
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 1
The Book of Deuteronomy stands apart from the first four books of the Bible as a retelling of what previously occurred according to the text. In that retelling changes were made to so many relevant topics and issues essential for the advancement of public well being. This class will explore those areas ranging from humans the environment, the setting up a judicial

The Death and Life of Ash Trees: Emerald Ash Borer on the Bennington Campus — ENV2210.01

Instructor: Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
Days & Time: TH 3:40pm-5:30pm
Credits: 1

The ash trees on campus are dying from an introduced beetle. Ash trees make up about 8% of Vermont’s forests and their foliage contributes to our iconic fall colors. They are culturally important trees with deep connections to art from Indigenous basket making to Beyonce’s Louisville slugger in Lemonade. The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) beetle

The Economic Mind — PEC2207.01

Instructor: Lopamudra Banerjee
Credits: 4
A set of questions keeps on bugging the economic mind. They run from the smallest immediate ones, such as, do I buy this salad or that sandwich for my lunch today, to the more solemn ones, such as, do I accept this job or the other one? Other profound questions arise as well. Why does the economy not grow continually over time, but rather, economic upsurges are marred by

The Herbarium: Research, Art & Botany — BIO4441.01

Instructor: Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie
Days & Time: TU,FR 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 4

An herbarium is a museum of pressed plants, a record of flora following a system that dates back to the 16th century. Large herbaria at institutions like D.C.’s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Chicago’s Field Museum, Cambridge’s Harvard University, and London’s Kew Gardens contain millions of specimens, collected from

The Ocean, The Creek, The Lake: Writing Water — LIT2405.02

Instructor: Akiko Busch
Credits: 2
As water—through floods and droughts alike—continues to reshape the geography of the world around us, this course will look at waterscapes as written by women: Rachel Carson’s The Edge of the Sea, Annie Dillard’s A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge. Science, poetry, and ideas of conservation converge here. As a marine biologist, Carson wrote with

The Political Economy of the American Coast: Past, Present, and Future of a Dynamic Landscape — ENV4111.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski
Credits: 4
How and why has the coast become so central to American cultural and economic life? Who has benefited from the rapid growth of coastal development over the last century, and who has been excluded? What does the future hold for coastal landscapes and communities, and what can be done to address emerging inequalities and vulnerabilities? This course will examine the past, present

The Post-Pandemic House — ARC4402.02

Instructor: DSherefkin@bennington.edu
Credits: 4
The rapid and profound disruption to life prompted by COVID-19 will have lasting impacts on architecture and the built environment. Houses have become sites for both economic production and the education of children. We will examine alternative forms of domestic architecture from history, and from other cultures where multiple generations and multiple programs have co-existed.

The River, The Forest, The Glacier: Classics of American Environmental Literature — LIT4139.02

Instructor: Akiko Busch
Credits: 2
How to take measure of place is a question that has long resonated in the American imagination, and this course considers both the geography and the voices that provide the foundation for current environmental writing. The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons by John Wesley Powell, The Maine Woods by H. D. Thoreau, and Travels in Alaska by John Muir offer occasion

The Romantic Poets — LIT2249.01

Instructor: mark wunderlich
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 4
Toward the end of the 18th century, writers, thinkers and artists began to react against the rationalism of the Enlightenment, the coming Industrial Revolution and the political claustrophobia of Europe, and they set out on a new path. The result was the Romantic movement, and it gave us some of the most enduring poetic works. In this course, we will look at both the German and

The Social Life of Crude Oil — ANT4118.01

Instructor: David Bond
Credits: 4
Crude oil keeps the contemporary in motion. This basic fact has become as bland a platitude as it is an unexamined process. From plastic bags to electricity, from synthetic fertilizers to the passenger plane, from heat for our homes to fuel for our cars, our world is cultivated, packaged, transported, and consumed in the general momentum of hydrocarbon expenditures. These well

The Social Natures of Crude Oil — APA4127.01

Instructor: David Bond
Credits: 4
Crude oil keeps the contemporary in motion. This basic fact has become as bland a platitude as it is an unexamined process. From plastic bags to electricity, from synthetic fertilizers to the passenger plane, from heat for our homes to fuel for our cars, our world is cultivated, packaged, transported, and consumed in the general momentum of hydrocarbon expenditures. These well

The Village Privileges of North Bennington — APA4153.01

Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Credits: 4
In earlier years one had to obtain a Privilege in order to use the public waterways. That term has since been changed to “License” which has changed our perceptions; thus devaluing in name the right that comes with access to our most precious resource as a species. Through this course, entrepreneur, innovator, businessman and Bennington alum Bill Scully will collaborate with

The World Ocean — ENV2205.01

Instructor: Chelsea Corr
Credits: 4
Covering 70% of Earth’s surface, it is no surprise that the ocean is an important component of the natural Earth system. However, what might be surprising is that the role of the ocean extends well beyond sustaining the global water cycle and marine ecosystems. For instance, the uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide by the surface ocean is the first step to moving carbon to long

Toward a Just Transition — ENV2121.01

Instructor: John Hultgren
Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm
Credits: 4

How do we transition to a low-carbon economy in a manner that doesn’t reinscribe the social and environmental injustices that have plagued our fossil-fueled economy? On one hand, the continued burning of fossil fuels is producing environmental crises that threaten to destabilize the very foundations of collective life, with poor and historically

Understanding Food Insecurity in Bennington 2 — APA2253.01

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

Understanding Food Insecurity in Bennington 3 — APA2442.01

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

Understanding PFOA in Our Water — APA2158.01

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

Understanding PFOA: Science and Policy — ENV2173.01

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

Understanding PFOA: Science and Policy — ENV2173.01

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