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Rakugo: Art of Storytelling — JPN4505.01

Fall 2019

Instructor: Ikuko Yoshida

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Rakugo is one of the traditional Japanese art and storytelling entertainment which became extremely popular during the Edo period (1603-1868). Rakugo is a rather unique storytelling performance because a storyteller sits on a seat on the stage called “kooza” and tells humorous stories without standing up from the seat. Moreover, the storyteller narrates and plays various

Cultural Studies and Languages

Rakugo: Art of Storytelling — JPN4505.01

Fall 2020

Instructor: Ikuko Yoshida

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Rakugo is a traditional Japanese art and storytelling entertainment which became extremely popular during the Edo period (1603-1868). Rakugo is a rather unique storytelling performance because a storyteller sits on a seat on the stage called “kooza” and tells humorous stories without standing up from the seat. Moreover, the storyteller narrates and plays various characters by

Cultural Studies and Languages

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man — LIT2277.01

Spring 2023

Instructor: Benjamin Anastas

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Before Donald Glover donned prosthetic whiteface for the “Teddy Perkins” episode of Atlanta, before Get Out flipped the contemporary horror movie on white audiences, Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel Invisible Man turned the bildungsroman, a realist staple since the 18th century, into a wild phantasmagoria about structural racism in the U.S. and the experience of Black Americans. “All

Literature

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man — LIT2277.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Benjamin Anastas

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

“All novels are about certain minorities,” Ralph Ellison insisted in a 1955 interview with The Paris Review. “The individual is a minority," he went on. "The universal in the novel–and isn’t that what we’re all clamoring for these days?–is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance.” If this assertion is still to be believed, then the the

Literature

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man — LIT2277.01

Spring 2018

Instructor: Benjamin Anastas

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

"All novels are about certain minorities," Ralph Ellison insisted in a 1955 interview with The Paris Review. "The individual is a minority. The universal in the novel--and isn't that what we're all clamoring for these days?--is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance." If this is true, then the enduring power of Ellison's Invisible Man

Literature

Rape/Culture: Sexual Violence and the Visual Arts, from Giambologna to Kara Walker — AH2405.01

Spring 2017

Instructor:

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

“Heroic rape” is no stranger to art history. Under this rubric, students have been introduced to the field and its concerns via crisp photographs of canonical works in which Roman foundation legends, etiological myths, and political absolutism are prescribed and perpetuated via the trope of (eroticized) sexual violence. The existence of a ‘rape culture’ in modern life in

Visual Arts

Rare and Common: Advanced Reading in Conservation and Ecology — BIO4321.01

Fall 2024

Instructor: Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Quantifying and monitoring the abundance of particular organisms is often the major endeavor in conservation and ecology research. We work to protect endangered species, facilitate the recovery of threatened species, reduce invasive species, and restore historically present species, but we also understand that even absent human pressures, some species are more rare than others.

Science and Mathematics Environment

Rawls and Justice — PHI4132.01

Spring 2024

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

John Rawls (1921-2003) was one of the most important political philosophers of the twentieth century. His first major work, A Theory of Justice (1971) transformed the field of political philosophy and his ideas and arguments remain at the center of the philosophical debate on the question of justice. This course consists of a careful study of the main arguments in his early and

Society Culture and Thought

Rawls and Justice — PHI4132.02

Spring 2026

Instructor: Paul Voice

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

Credits: 2

John Rawls (1921-2003) was arguably the most important and influential political philosopher of the twentieth century. His first major work, A Theory of Justice (1971) transformed the field of political philosophy and his ideas and arguments remain at the center of the philosophical debate on the question of justice. This course consists of a

Philosophy

Re-Creating the Classics — LIT2318.01

Spring 2015

Instructor: Marguerite Feitlowitz

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

"Why read the classics?" Italo Calvino famously asked. What does it mean to be "contemporary"? Why is it that our meditations on, and debates with, these landmark works never seem to be "settled"? Why is it that some of our most deeply experimental, politically combative, and visionary writers continually find inspiration in canonical works? In our exploration of these

Literature

Re-Creating the Classics — LIT2318.01

Fall 2017

Instructor: Marguerite Feitlowitz

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Literature

Re-Creating the Classics — LIT2318.02

Fall 2020

Instructor: mfeitlowitz@bennington.edu

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

A contemporary drama critic recently wrote: “Whenever you return to something—to a play, a song, a scene—you bring your past with you. And not just what you’vebeen through and figured out, but what your culture has been through and figured out too, and what you are both still going through.” How is it that a work written hundreds or thousands of years ago can resonate so

Literature

Re-thinking History: Critical Perspectives on Modern and Post-modern Dance — DAN2409.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Levi Gonzalez

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This course is open to any student who wishes to explore the complicated ways in which histories form around discourses of the body, culture, aesthetic philosophy, and power. We will examine the aesthetic principles of modern and postmodern dance history; explore the artistic work of key and neglected figures from this history; and place this work within a larger social,

Dance

Re-Thinking Society: Radical Visions — PHI2161.01

Spring 2023

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In this introductory course you will read a wide range of political philosophers and theorists who rethink and reimagine society. Beginning with the “masters of suspicion”, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, and Freud, we will explore radical social visions from thinkers such as Rosa Luxumburg, Herbert Marcuse, Franz Fanon, Steve Biko, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Chantel Mouffe, and

Society Culture and Thought

Re-Thinking Society: Radical Visions — PHI2161.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In this introductory course you will read a wide range of political philosophers and theorists who rethink and reimagine society. Beginning with the “masters of suspicion”, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, and Freud, we will explore radical social visions from thinkers such as Rosa Luxemburg, Herbert Marcuse, Hannah Arendt, Franz Fanon, Steve Biko, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Chantel

Society Culture and Thought

Re-Thinking Society: Radical Visions — PHI2161.01

Spring 2025

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Society Culture and Thought

Re-Thinking Society: Radical Visions — PHI2161.01

Spring 2027

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm

Credits: 4

In this introductory course you will read a wide range of political philosophers and theorists who rethink and reimagine society. Beginning with Marx we will explore radical social visions from thinkers such as Rosa Luxumburg, Herbert Marcuse, Franz Fanon, Steve Biko, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Chantel Mouffe, and Kimberle Crenshaw, among others. This course is

Philosophy

Re-Thinking Society: Radical Visions — PHI2161.01

Spring 2024

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In this introductory course you will read a wide range of political philosophers and theorists who rethink and reimagine society. Beginning with the “masters of suspicion”, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, and Freud, we will explore radical social visions from thinkers such as Rosa Luxemburg, Herbert Marcuse, Hannah Arendt, Franz Fanon, Steve Biko, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Chantel

Society Culture and Thought

Re-Thinking Society: Radical Visions — PHI2161.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In this introductory course you will read a wide range of political philosophers and theorists who rethink and reimagine society. Beginning with the “masters of suspicion”, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, and Freud, we will explore radical social visions from thinkers such as Rosa Luxumburg, Herbert Marcuse, Hannah Arendt, Franz Fanon, Steve Biko, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Chantel

Society Culture and Thought

Reader's Theater Ensemble — DRA2247.01

Fall 2015

Instructor: Dina Janis

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

In this performance-based course we will investigate the Reader's Theater form. Students will concentrate on beginning vocal techniques and training, as well as the practice of reading out loud in performance. Individual as well as group projects will be developed and performed during the term. Corequisite: Dance or Drama lab assignment.

Drama

Reader's Theatre Ensemble — DRA2247.01

Fall 2016

Instructor: Dina Janis

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In this performance-based course we will investigate the Reader’s Theater and Radio Theater formats. Students will concentrate on beginning vocal techniques and training, as well as the practice of reading out loud in performance. Individual as well as group projects will be developed and performed during the term.

Drama

Reading Writing Fiction: ESLit — LIT4594.01) (day/time updated as of 5/10/2024

Fall 2024

Instructor: Mariam Rahmani

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Reversing the typical shame around so-called "ESL" speakers, this course explores the rich history of modern and contemporary Anglophone literature written by authors who learned English as a second language or within a bi/multilingual context. This rigorous reading list is then used as a springboard for cultivating diverse voices and stories in the classroom. The course’s

Literature

Reading Writing Fiction: Plot and Suspense — LIT4144.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Manuel Gonzales

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

What is plot? What are stakes and how are they raised and can a story or a novel still compel a reader with small or smaller stakes? What is dramatic tension and what are the other ways a writer can build tension into a short story or a chapter? What, in other words, keeps a reader turning pages through a story or a novel and what happens when these same tools are applied to

Literature

Reading Writing Multilingual Texts: When One Language Isn't Enough — LIT4539.01

Fall 2022

Instructor: Marguerite Feitlowitz

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Cultural Studies and Languages Literature

Reading Writing Poetry: Revision as Play — LIT4593.01

Fall 2024

Instructor: An Duplan

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

The point of revision, we’re told, is to make our writing better. No wonder (framed this way) the idea of revision can often provoke annoyance, boredom, or even fear. But what if the revision process was closer to John Cage’s “chance operations,” a completely spontaneous and open-ended experience of creativity? Or, what if, through revision, we could explore yet-undiscovered

Literature