Course Listing by Term | Bennington College

Total Theory — HIS4215.01

Spring 2015

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher

Credits: 4

Whether we love theory or hate it, rejecting it on the basis of a lack of understanding of its esoteric hermeneutics or jargon isn’t really a viable position, and certainly not an excuse. It’d be nice to know why, thus debating it on its own terms and perceiving its implications in all manner of contexts beyond them. The plan is to give at least an introduction to historicism,

Social Science Literature

Transformations of the Self — PSY4130.01

Fall 2014

Instructor: erin johnston

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

This course investigates the phenomenon of self-transformation from a variety of angles and theoretical perspectives. We will examine common forms of self-change (including religious conversions, political transformations and lifestyle changes), how individuals construct stories of personal transformation, as well as popular and academic understandings of if, when and how self

Social Science

Turbulent Transitions — PEC4122.01

Spring 2015

Instructor: Robin Kemkes

Credits: 4

This course will explore some of the major economic transitions throughout history with a particular focus on the pre-conditions underlying the changes and the resulting socio-economic developments. The course will span a broad time period across several regions of the world. First, we will study the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe. Next, we will pursue the

Social Science

Waste, Disgust, and the Body: Thinking in Social Science — PSY2110.01

Spring 2015

Instructor: Ronald Cohen; Karen Gover

Credits: 4

We all do it multiple times a day without giving it a second thought. Everyone has to go. But while easy access to a private, safe toilet is simply taken for granted in our part of the world, two-thirds of the world's population do not have adequate sanitation. 2.6 billion people living today do not have access to a toilet. As a result, millions of people die every year because

Social Science

What Comes After the State? — ANT2114.01

Spring 2015

Instructor: Noah Coburn

Credits: 4

Particularly since the treaty of Westphalia the state has been the dominant feature of the international system. In almost every case its sovereignty is assumed. Yet from unauthorized US drone strikes in Pakistan to the European Union, there are examples of ways in which the power of the state as an organizing concept is beginning to erode. This course will look at

Social Science CAPA

What Was Critique and What Comes Next? — APA4207.01

Spring 2015

Instructor: David Bond

Credits: 4

If progressive scholarship holds anything sacred, perhaps it is critique. Over the past century, critique has become not only the guiding commitment of radical scholarship but also the unflappable identity of the public intellectual. Yet a number of unfortunate assumptions have been built into this manner of engaging the world. Among them, that intellectuals have privileged

CAPA Social Science

Witchcraft and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe — HIS4104.01

Spring 2014

Instructor: Carol Pal

Credits: 4

What is a witch? Who is a witch? And in the increasingly rational culture of Europe after the Renaissance, how and why did nearly 100,000 people, predominantly women, come to be tried for the crime of witchcraft? In many ways, the investigation of these questions hangs on another question: how do we differentiate science, magic, and religion? In pre-modern Europe, there were no

Social Science

Women in Science: Ancient Greece to Enlightenment — HIS4110.01

Fall 2013

Instructor: Carol Pal

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

Long before the existence of a discipline we would recognize as 'science,' there were women working with men in the pursuit of 'scientia'. Scientia embraced a mixture of philosophy, medicine, religion, literature, and knowledge of the natural world a mixture that would eventually devolve into the separate disciplines we know today. But who were these ancient Greek female

Social Science