Society Culture and Thought

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Term
Time & Day Offered
Level
Credits
Course Duration

Of Disasters — PEC2103.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Eileen Scully
Credits: 4
This seminar is concerned with the disaster phenomenon. It examines disasters as deviations from norms. Deviations are observed in nature as extreme conditions realize in people’s physical environment (for example, extreme temperature, immoderate rainfall, and violent earth movements), and deviations are experienced in people’s lives as the natural extremes bring
Environment Society Culture and Thought

On the Question of Violence: Inquiry, Movement, and Rupture — APA4253.01

Spring 2023
Instructor: David Bond
Credits: 4
We live in a violent world. It seems that everywhere we look, humans and other living (and non-living) beings are engulfed in overwhelming cyclones of intimate and catastrophic violence. In corners of the globe, wars have continued unabated for generations while new conflicts erupt on every continent. Elsewhere neoliberal regimes flirt with coercion as a more reliable basis of
Advancement of Public Action Society Culture and Thought

One Day in New York City — HIS2271.01

Spring 2018
Instructor: Eileen Scully
Credits: 4
January 25, 1929 - this was not a day of any grand consequence in the scheme of time and history. What was this lived day like for ordinary residents of New York City? In what ways were the day's demands and experiences shaped by one or another individual's birth, gender, race, age and heritage? What changes in daily routines and ways of thinking did the decades after 1929
Society Culture and Thought

One Day in New York City — HIS2271.01

Spring 2023
Instructor: Eileen Scully
Credits: 4
January 25, 1929 – this was not a day of any grand consequence, but as a microcosm, it takes us into more significant topics and longer timelines. What was this day like for an individual living in New York City? What difference in that day’s demands and experiences arose from the fact of this individual’s gender, race, age, heritage, and location in the city? How were these
Society Culture and Thought

Other People's Worlds — ANT4129.02

Fall 2020
Instructor: MPrazak@bennington.edu
Credits: 4
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century a European based world-economy came into existence. Fueled by the philosophy of mercantilism, traders followed, and sometimes were, explorers seeking riches in the lands discovered in the search for trade routes. The resulting contact between cultures led to fundamental transformations of all the societies and cultures involved.
Society Culture and Thought

Other People’s Worlds — ANT4129.01

Fall 2017
Instructor: Miroslava Prazak
Credits: 4
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century a European based world-economy came into existence. Fueled by the philosophy of mercantilism, traders followed, and sometimes were, explorers seeking riches in the lands "discovered" in the search for trade routes. The resulting contact between cultures led to fundamental transformations of all the societies and cultures
Society Culture and Thought

Other People’s Worlds — ANT4129.01

Spring 2024
Instructor: Miroslava Prazak
Credits: 4
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century a European based world-economy came into existence. Fueled by the philosophy of mercantilism, traders followed, and sometimes were, explorers seeking riches in the lands discovered in the search for trade routes. The resulting contact between cultures led to fundamental transformations of all the societies and cultures involved.
Society Culture and Thought Black Studies

Outsiders Within: Pariahs, Parasites, and Other Others — POL4208.01

Spring 2016
Instructor: Eileen Scully
Credits: 4
Who counts--and who does not count--as a rights-bearing member of a community? What criteria do communities rely upon to determine membership? These questions about inclusion, exclusion, and membership are familiar to students of the social sciences. In this course, we will move beyond the familiar categories of insiders and outsiders to investigate the “outsiders within,”
Society Culture and Thought

Paganism — HIS4107.02

Fall 2015
Instructor: Stephen Higa
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 2
When the Roman Empire became Christian early in the 4th century, traditional Greco-Roman religions as well as the various local and indigenous religions of Europe and the Mediterranean were all lumped into one new category of difference and otherness:  the pagan.  In this seven-week course, we will examine the creation of "paganism" by the early medieval Christian
Society Culture and Thought

Paris to Ars Nova — MTH4104.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Kitty Brazelton
Credits: 4
Begin with the Notre Dame School composers in Paris at the end of the 12th century. Construct a narrative for the shape of musical thought as it progresses into the ornate musical experimentation of the French Ars Nova in the late 1400s. Study (and sing!) works by Pérotin and teacher Léonin, then compare our findings to the more contemporaneous theories of the prolific monk
Society Culture and Thought Music

Performance, Gender, and Sexuality in the Middle East — MET4103.01

Fall 2025
Instructor: Joseph Alpar
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

This course will explore the construction and experience of gender and sexuality in the Middle East through a performative lens. Drawing on research in ethnomusicology, queer and gender studies, anthropology and Middle Eastern history, the course will examine performance (music, dance, theater, poetry and more) as a process of representation, assertion, and sometimes

Ethnomusicology Music History Society Culture and Thought Anthropology

Persons, Groups, and Environments — PSY2141.01

Fall 2015
Instructor: Ronald Cohen
Days & Time: TBA
Credits: 4
We spend much of our time in the presence of others, and all of our time in particular spaces. This course will examine several psychological and sociological perspectives on social interaction– how people think, feel, and act in the presence of others–and how the particular spaces in which interaction occurs affect it. We will focus on the following issues 1. obedience,
Environment Society Culture and Thought

Pessimism, Despair, and Hope — PHI4245.01

Spring 2025
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 4
The pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer writes, “In the first place, no man is happy but strives his whole life long after a supposed happiness which he seldom attains, and even if he does it is only to be disappointed with it.” What is the right attitude to the human condition? This advanced level course examines this question through the writings of philosophers who directly
Society Culture and Thought

Pessimism, Despair, and Hope — PHI4245.01

Spring 2023
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 4
The pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer writes, “In the first place, no man is happy but strives his whole life long after a supposed happiness which he seldom attains, and even if he does it is only to be disappointed with it.” What is the right attitude to the human condition? This advanced level course examines this question through the writings of philosophers who directly
Society Culture and Thought

Pessimism, Despair, and Hope — PHI4245.01

Spring 2021
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 4
The pessimist Arthur Schopenhauer writes, “In the first place, no man is happy but strives his whole life long after a supposed happiness which he seldom attains, and even if he does it is only to be disappointed with it.” What is the right attitude to the human condition? This advanced level course examines this question through the writings of philosophers who directly
Society Culture and Thought

Philosopher Queens — PHI2118.01

Spring 2020
Instructor: Rotimi Suberu
Credits: 4
Various stories of women philosophers in antiquity have come down to us. In Plato’s Symposium, for example, Socrates quotes a long speech on love by Diotima of Mantinea, who Socrates describes as a “wise woman” and his teacher. We also have accounts of Aesara, Arete, Aspasia, Hipparchia, Hypatia, and Theano. However, these accounts are all filtered through male-authored texts.
Society Culture and Thought

Philosophical Problems — PHI4239.01) (cancelled 2/14/2024

Spring 2024
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 2
This course invites students to research and write a paper on a philosophical topic of their own choosing. Students will be required to clearly state the philosophical problem they want to research, construct a detailed bibliography, and write a paper that explains the problem, engages with the philosophical literature, and advances an argument.
Society Culture and Thought

Philosophical Problems — PHI4239.01

Spring 2022
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 2
This course invites students to research and write a paper on a philosophical topic of their own choosing. Students will be required to clearly state the philosophical problem they want to research, construct a detailed bibliography, and write a paper that explains the problem, engages with the philosophical literature, and advances an argument.
Society Culture and Thought

Philosophical Problems — PHI4239.01

Spring 2025
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 2
This course invites students to research and write a paper on a philosophical topic of their own choosing. Students will be required to clearly state the philosophical problem they want to research, construct a detailed bibliography, and write a paper that explains the problem, engages with the philosophical literature, and advances an argument.
Society Culture and Thought

Philosophical Puzzles — PHI2105.01

Spring 2024
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 2
This class invites students to analyze and assess a number of philosophical puzzles, paradoxes, and thought experiments including experience machines, the trolley problem, zombies, and the original position. You will read and discuss the original source and some of the critical literature.
Society Culture and Thought

Philosophical Puzzles — PHI2105.01

Spring 2023
Instructor: Paul Voice
Credits: 2
This class invites students to analyze and assess a number of philosophical puzzles, paradoxes, and thought experiments including experience machines, the trolley problem, zombies, and the original position. You will read and discuss the original source and some of the critical literature.
Society Culture and Thought

Philosophical Reasoning — PHI2109.01

Fall 2020
Instructor: Catherine McKeen
Credits: 4
What is the difference between belief and knowledge? What is truth? What is the good? These are some of the questions this first course in philosophy asks. It has two aims: To introduce you to the methods and procedures of philosophical argument and, second, to engage you in a critical dialogue with three central problems in philosophy - knowledge, metaphysics, and meaning in
Society Culture and Thought