Society Culture and Thought

Anthropology of Art — ANT4212.01

Instructor: Miroslava Prazak

Credits: 4

This course is an exploration of art as defined and practiced in different cultures. We will look at how peoples of diverse world cultures create, use, manipulate, conceptualize, exchange, and evaluate objects of material culture. We will look at how material items are considered to be artistic or aesthetic in some fashion, and think of how and if we can translate those values

Society Culture and Thought

Anthropology of Art — ANT4212.01

Instructor: Miroslava Prazak

Credits: 4

This course is an exploration of art as defined and practiced in different cultures. We will look at how peoples of diverse world cultures create, use, manipulate, conceptualize, exchange, and evaluate objects of material culture. We will look at how material items are considered to be artistic or aesthetic in some fashion, and think of how and if we can translate those values

Society Culture and Thought

Anthropology of Science and Technology — APA2352.01

Instructor: David Bond

Credits: 4

This course introduces students to the anthropology of science and technology, with fieldtrips taken into adjacent fields of inquiry like STS and the history of science. This course approaches science and technology as a history of the present; that is, as an unfolding set of epistemic deployments that is actively shaping the texture and significance of social life in the

CAPA Society Culture and Thought

Approaches to Afghanistan — SCT2144.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Credits: 4

Too much of how the international media portrays Afghanistan is based on stereotypes and cliches that ignores some of the deep, rich scholarship of the country over recent years. What are the different ways that scholars attempt to make sense of Afghanistan? What can we learn from studying these approaches? What does it teach us about Afghanistan and the world more broadly?

Society Culture and Thought

Augustine's Confessions — HIS4113.01

Instructor: Stephen Higa

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 2

It has been said that St. Augustine's Confessions--the spiritual autobiography of an Amazigh bishop from Roman North Africa--was a formative event in the history of subjectivity. Here we find an early and influential enunciation of many of the major themes that would come to preoccupy Western writers, philosophers, and theologians for centuries to come: memory,

Society Culture and Thought

Aural History — HIS2144.01

Instructor: Stephen Higa

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 2

From religious chant to village bells to elevator muzak to noise pollution, sound has played a major role in human cultures and human experience since time immemorial. In this 2-credit course, students will approach and engage critically with sound, listening, hearing, and aurality as categories of historical analysis. In the first part of the course,

Society Culture and Thought

Authenticity and Modernity — PHI4107.01

Instructor: Eileen Scully

Credits: 4

“Just be yourself”: there is perhaps no piece of advice so trite and yet so confounding. We have all given and received the injunction to be our “true” selves, as if there were such a thing; we have criticized poseurs and pretenders; we have all stood in line for tickets to see a favorite artwork or performer up close and in person. We value

Society Culture and Thought

Autobiographical Memory — PSY2246.01

Instructor: Anne Gilman

Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm

Credits: 4

What do we remember about our lives, and how do these memories contribute to our sense of self? This course will begin with an introduction to the scientific study of human memory to better understand how autobiographical memory brings episodic, semantic, and other types of memory together. We will then explore what autobiographical memory has revealed about the

Cultural Studies and Languages Linguistics Psychology

Battle of the Bands — MHI2115.01

Instructor: Kitty Brazelton

Credits: 4

Bands of today have a deep American ancestry. Minstrel bands in blackface snapped their banjos to the backbeat, clicked bones in swing-time and ran gags that begat shtick. Regional pride was embedded in every town's homeboy brass band, decked out in gold braid uniforms, mustaches, and the latest European harmony, these outdoor musical armies broadcast more than tunes - sex,

Society Culture and Thought Music

Beauty — PHI4111.01

Instructor: Catherine McKeen

Credits: 4

The purpose of education is to bring us to love beauty. This, at least, according to Socrates in Plato’s Republic (403c5-6). The Greek word Plato uses for ‘love,’ here is ‘erotika,’ that is: erotics: passionate, intense desire such as one has for a lover. It is this kind of love that Plato insists we should have for the beautiful (the fine, to kalon). What does it mean to

Society Culture and Thought

Bennington Past and Present — HIS2408.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Credits: 4

We explore the history of Bennington County, including Bennington College, in the broad context of political, social, and environmental history across several centuries. Readings and online materials situate students in the vibrant enterprise of local history, often defined as “the study of the everyday struggles and triumphs of ordinary people,” recognizing “that our lives are

Society Culture and Thought

Bennington Past and Present — HIS4408.01) (cancelled 12/19/2022

Instructor: Eileen Scully

Credits: 4

We explore the history of Bennington County, including Bennington College, in the broad context of political, social, and environmental history across several centuries. Readings and online materials situate students in the vibrant enterprise of local history, often defined as "the study of the everyday struggles and triumphs of ordinary people," recognizing "that our lives are

Society Culture and Thought

Beyond Plastic Pollution — APA2334.02

Instructor: Judith Enck

Credits: 1

This is an action-packed public policy course that addresses the root problems of the plastic pollution crisis and what students and citizens of the world can do to address it. There is no text book, but multiple reading requirements and lectures focused on the production, use and disposal of plastics. There will be a sharp focus on plastics impacts on:

CAPA Environment Society Culture and Thought

Beyond Plastic Pollution — APA2334.01

Instructor: Judith Enck

Days & Time: WE 7:00pm-8:50pm

Credits: 1

Plastic pollution has emerged as a significant environmental issue in the past few years, particularly on how plastics affects health, environmental justice, climate change and water quality. This is an environmental policy class iwth a focus on public action. This class will explore the dimensions of the production, use and disposal of plastics and the need for

Advancement of Public Action Environment Politics

Beyond Plastic Pollution — APA2334.01

Instructor: Judith Enck

Days & Time: WE 7:00pm-8:50pm

Credits: 1

This is an environmental policy course with a focus on public action. The class will explore the dimensions of the production, use and disposal of plastics, including climate change impacts, alternatives to single-use plastic packaging, and the need for innovation. There will also be a focus on environmental justice.

Advancement of Public Action Environment Political Economy

Beyond Story — FV2129.01

Instructor: Mariam Ghani

Credits: 2

“Forms are ethical, political, and cultural commitments in their own rights,” as Alexandra Juhasz and Alisa Lebow wrote in their 2018 “Beyond Story” manifesto. The documentary form is also known by another name: “non-narrative.” But over the past two decades, documentary has been increasingly dominated by “story,” in the sense popularized by mainstream fiction films. Stories

Visual Arts Society Culture and Thought

Beyond the Stage: Anthropological Approaches to Performance(cancelled 4/27/2023) — ANT2213.01

Instructor: Steve Moog

Credits: 4

From wayang shadow-puppetry in Java, to kabuki theater in Japan, to Italian opera, there is a clear connection between culture and performance. Anthropologists have long noted so-called ‘cultural performances’ are often imbued with and reflective of beliefs, values, and logics, making them invaluable tools for analyses of culture. Performance theorists have also made the

Society Culture and Thought

Black Music: Black Music Division - Reimagined — MHI2238.01

Instructor: Michael Wimberly

Credits: 4

CAPA Dance Music Society Culture and Thought

Blackness, Fugitivity, and Visual Culture — MS4108.01

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Credits: 4

This course explores the ways in which visual culture in the United States has mobilized Blackness and fugitivity for the purposes of both liberation and capture. Starting in the 19th century we will trace the abstraction and the materiality of Blackness and fugitivity through print, photography, and film ending in the vortex of the digital. Our inquiry will be

Society Culture and Thought

Borders and Border Crossings — ANT2209.01

Instructor: Laura Nussbaum-Barberena

Credits: 4

Why do people create borders? Are there borders we perceive but do not acknowledge? How do borders shape the ways we see each other, within and across borders? In what ways do borders influence the way people interact with those they encounter within and across borders? In this course, students will examine borders in a global perspective. The course will begin by discussing

Society Culture and Thought

Broken Promises: Crime, Punishment, and Social Contract Theory — POL2112.01

Instructor: Crina Archer

Credits: 4

In liberal democratic states, an important component of justification for punishing criminals is drawn from the social contract theory tradition of Western political thought. The state has a right to punish the lawbreaker, social contract theory tells us, because the state’s enforcement of the laws is authorized by a mutual promise that lies at the basis of all political

Society Culture and Thought

Capital Punishment — PSY4223.01

Instructor: Ronald Cohen

Credits: 4

Capital punishment is the state‐sanctioned killing of a person convicted of committing a crime. Its existence as public policy requires the approval or acquiescence of individual citizens and social groups, and its implementation requires the approval, acquiescence, and participation of a wide range of individuals and institutions. Attitudes toward capital punishment ‐ as

Society Culture and Thought

Cartographies of force: bugs and media — MS4110.01

Instructor: Maia Nichols

Credits: 4

This course will focus on visual evidence such as maps, graphic diagrams, drawings, and site records in relation to animals, bugs, pests, and plagues. How were insect plagues managed in various regions? How are bugs portrayed in different kinds of media? Our focus will be on historical instances of plague, natural disaster and political upheaval that overlap with the presence

Society Culture and Thought

Chance — PEC4104.01

Instructor: Eileen Scully

Credits: 4

What is chance? Why are some events seemingly more random than others? How do such events affect the economic world? And, what implications do chances have for the decisions that people take in their economic life and the outcomes they experience? This seminar will be concerned with these questions. It will explore certain grand theories of probabilistic thinking

Society Culture and Thought

Child Development — PSY2212.01

Instructor: Emily Waterman

Days & Time: MO,TH 10:00am-11:50am

Credits: 4

It is trite but true: kids grow up so fast. In this course we will discuss the incredible growth of infants, toddlers, and children in multiple domains (physical, cognitive, emotional/social). We will discover how growth in each domain affects the others. We will explore enduring topics of discourse in child development, such as nature and nurture,

Education Psychology