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The Body Politic — POL2105.01; section 1

Fall 2015

Instructor: Crina Archer

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

From Plato to the present, the human body has served as a compelling metaphor for political community and the nation state. This course interrogates the mechanisms of this metaphor in its various articulations across ancient, modern, and contemporary Western political thought. In the first half of the course, we read works of political philosophy to ask whether and how the

Society Culture and Thought

The Body Politic — POL2105.02; section 2

Fall 2015

Instructor: Crina Archer

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

Society Culture and Thought

The Body Politic — POL2105.01

Fall 2016

Instructor: Crina Archer

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

From ancient Athens to the present, the human body has served as a compelling metaphor for political community and the nation state. This course interrogates the mechanisms of this metaphor in its various articulations across classical, modern, and contemporary Western political thought. We will read works of canonical and contemporary political theory to ask how the

Society Culture and Thought

The Body Remembers: Embodiment, Representation, and the Racial Imaginary — APA4240.02

Spring 2017

Instructor:

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This course will engage the socio-historical processes and technologies through which the gendered and racialized black body circulates in the public realm. Toggling between the present, past and future, students will engage with specific visual and material representations of black bodies and their attendant consumption, including “runaway slave” listings; the Clarence Thomas

CAPA

The Body Speaking — DAN2352.01

Spring 2025

Instructor: Levi Gonzalez

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This class incorporates speaking, language, sounding and scoring as activities that can be integrated with movement in complex and novel ways, through both structured and improvisatory practices. Through these practices, we will access the expressive and artistic possibilities of sound and language as an extension of the body. Additionally, we will look at the work of

Dance

The Book of Deuteronomy the Book of Jonah — MED2122.01

Fall 2021

Instructor: Michael Cohen

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

The Book of Deuteronomy and the Book of Jonah are two pivotal books of the Bible. The former 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 many relevant topics and issues essential for the advancement of public well being. We will explore those areas ranging from

CAPA

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

Fall 2015

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

CAPA Environment Modules: Transferable Approaches

The Business Side of Music — MHI2322.02

Spring 2022

Instructor: Michael Wimberly

Days & Time:

Credits: 1

The business side of music, from contracts to audio distribution platforms, is an important component of an artist’s life which cannot be ignored. Kyoko Kitamura – musician, former journalist, former executive director of the arts organization Tri-Centric Foundation – will share real life examples and analyses, starting with the pandemic and the force majeure clause, its impact

Music

The Business Side of Music — MHI2322.02

Spring 2023

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 1

The business side of music, from contracts to audio distribution platforms, is an important component of an artist’s life. Kyoko Kitamura – musician, former journalist, former executive director of the arts organization Tri-Centric Foundation – will share real life examples as well as cover various topics of interest including the effects of the pandemic, music

Music

The Camp Aesthetic — DRA2167.01

Fall 2019

Instructor: Maya Cantu

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Sometimes seen as gaudy, perverse or excessive, camp is a sophisticated and consummately theatrical style, doubly viewing life as theater and gender as performance. Camp’s essence “is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and exaggeration,” as Susan Sontag argued in her epochal and controversial 1964 essay “Notes on Camp.” Developing historically as a language of the closet,

Drama

The Camp Aesthetic — DRA2167.01

Fall 2023

Instructor: Maya Cantu

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

An elusive sensibility that defies definition, camp is everywhere in 2023, as fueled by the worldwide juggernaut success of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” Sometimes seen as gaudy, perverse or excessive, camp is a sophisticated and consummately theatrical style, doubly viewing life as theater and gender as performance. Camp’s essence “is its love of the unnatural: of artifice and

Drama Literature Society Culture and Thought

The Chemistry of Drugs and Natural Remedies — CHE2201.01

Fall 2019

Instructor: Janet Foley

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

We hear about new drugs all the time: on TV, in the news, the opioid crises, etc. There is also lots of advertising for alternative treatments for illness or well-being. People have many questions about how drugs, plants, or supplements work and how do you tell if they are effective. These and other questions are considered in this introductory course, open to all students. No

Science and Mathematics

The Chip Instrument — MCO2124.02

Spring 2017

Instructor: Nicholas Brooke

Days & Time:

Credits: 1

Arduino interfaces have increased exponentially the ability to create stand-alone instruments and installations that have a visual immediacy while avoiding the use of outboard computers. We’ll learn Arduino code and the possibilities of small scale physical computing, from running solenoids and relays on mechanical instruments to turning the Arduino and other small circuits

Music Visual Arts

The Choreography of Poetics : The Poetics of Choreography — DAN2018.01

Spring 2024

Instructor: Camille Guthrie

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This course is intended for dancers, poets, writers, and anyone else interested in interdisciplinary work. Through the exploration of the works of various poets and choreographers/dance-makers, we aim to show the connections and subversions between these two fields, be they thematic, formal, historical, theoretical (and so on). We will examine work across a broad and diverse

Dance Writing (BFA)

The Comedy of Manners — LIT2207.01

Fall 2014

Instructor: brooke allen

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

An examination of a number of English comedies of manners, mostly novels but also a few plays, within their social contexts. Authors we study might include Jane Austen, Anthony Trollope, Elizabeth Gaskell, Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, Aldous Huxley, P.G. Wodehouse, Barbara Pym, and Henry Green.

Literature

The Coming Community: Migration, Inclusion, and Obligation in the 21st Century — POL2204.01

Spring 2018

Instructor: John Hultgren

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

What is the basis for granting someone membership within a political community? What obligations do we have toward those who are not formally members of our political community? Is “the nation” - today's dominant form of political community - capable of meeting the ethical challenges of a globalizing world? Is an alternative form of political community possible and/or desirable

CAPA Society Culture and Thought

The Concentrated Moment: The Art of Auditioning — DRA4103.01

Spring 2014

Instructor: Jenny Rohn

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Auditions are an opportunity to develop your artistic voice and your confidence in that voice through self-critique. In this class we will work to demystify the process of auditioning and understand how to prepare and present work under challenging circumstances. We will cover cold readings, monologue and prepared scenes, with an in depth look at each step of the process, from

Drama

The Costumes of "Wolf Hall" — DRA4121.01

Fall 2014

Instructor: charles schoonmaker

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

This course will focus on an examination of Hilary Mantel's novel "Wolf Hall" from the vantage point of clothing. The novel details a dynamic period in history when King Henry VIII of England was attempting to annul his first marriage and marry Anne Boleyn. We will have the opportunity to study Tudor costume from both a historic and dramatic vantage point, and examine how this

Drama

The Courtly World: Lady Shonagon and Lady Murasaki — LIT2379.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Anna Maria Hong

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Written in eleventh century, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu is considered the world’s first full novel and a masterwork of classical literature. Sei Shonagon’s The Pillow Book is a memoir recounting life in the Japanese court of the same time, also regarded as a masterpiece of observation and wit in evoking natural and human worlds. Both authors were ladies in waiting at

Literature

The Creation of Spain's Image: Myths Archetypes — SPA4102.01

Fall 2013

Instructor: Sarah Harris

Days & Time: TBA

Credits: 4

The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset once remarked of his compatriots, 'We prefer the lively sensation of things to the things themselves.' This course will focus on these 'lively sensations,' national myths of Spain that may or may not maintain much direct connection to the original 'things themselves.' National myths contain symbolic cultural significance and can

Languages

The Creation of Spain's Image: Myths and Archetypes — SPA4301.01

Fall 2016

Instructor: Sarah Harris

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset once remarked of his compatriots, ‘We prefer the lively sensation of things to the things themselves.’ This course will focus on these ‘lively sensations,’ national myths of Spain that may or may not maintain much direct connection to the original ‘things themselves.’ National myths contain symbolic cultural significance and can

Languages

The Culinary Triangle and Ceramic Pot — APA2276.02

Fall 2020

Instructor: Yoko Inoue

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

What is the transformative power of food and how did the invention of pottery contribute to innovations in cooking? We will look at how anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss’s culinary triangle analyzes three interrelated aspects of the food: raw, cooked and rotted and mechanisms of natural and cultural transformations of food. We will also examine how the evolution of ceramic pot

CAPA Visual Arts

The Culture of Italian Opera — ITA4215.01

Fall 2016

Instructor: Barbara Alfano

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This course explores Italian culture through one of its most celebrated traditions--opera. Students will discuss plots, settings, characters, and themes while strengthening their speaking skills and acquiring new vocabulary. Through the comparison of past and present cultural norms and habits, and through the relationship between those cultural norms and romantic love, students

Languages

The Curatorial: Multiple Variations — VA4208.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Anne Thompson

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This class will curate an experimental exhibition of prints, photographs, artist books and other editions from Bennington College collections. In taking the multiple—or reproducible object—as a starting point, we open up a field that connects Crossett Library with campus art holdings and allows for strategizing about expanded exhibition structures. After an initial survey of

Visual Arts

The Curatorial: Your Top Ten — CUR2230.01

Spring 2025

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This class explores curatorial thinking through the process of compiling a Top Ten, a media staple that invites cultural producers to discuss ten things they like or recommend. Creating a Top Ten, like curating, involves making selections within parameters including (but not limited to) history, context, aesthetics, politics, style and preference. A good Top Ten is a cohesive

Visual Arts