Spring 2017

Course System Home Course Listing Spring 2017

Select Filters and then click Apply to load new results

Areas of Study
Course Day & Time(s)
Course Level
Credits
Course Duration
Showing 25 Results of 267

Authenticity and Modernity — PHI4107.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Eileen Scully
Days & Time:
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

Banjo — MIN2215.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: John Kirk
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Beginning, intermediate, or advanced group lessons on the 5-string banjo in the claw-hammer/frailing style. Student will learn to play using simple song sheets with chords, tablature, and standard notation. Using chord theory and scale work, personal music-making skills will be enhanced. Awareness of traditional styles of playing the instrument will be furthered through a
Music

Bass Intensive — MIN4026.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Michael Bisio
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
This class is the application of theory. It includes drills both on and off the instrument to insure the studied information (theory) is available to the performer in real time along with idiomatic considerations: construction of bass lines and solo ideas. We will also study masters in recording and by transcription. Corequisite: Attend Music Workshop seven times per term
Music

Bass with Bisio — MIN4417.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Michael Bisio
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Private instruction covering techniques and theory appropriate to the student’s level and goals. Corequisite: Must participate in Music Workshop (Tuesday, 6:30 – 8:00 pm).
Music

Battle of the Bands — MHI2115.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Kitty Brazelton
Days & Time:
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

Beat by Beat — DRA2122.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Dina Janis
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
Students in this class will read a selection of plays drawn from a contemporary and classic canon of dramatic literature.  Students will  be required to analyze and explore these plays beat by beat.  This is a script interpretation class in which theme, dramatic structure and arc, character development, tone, style and study of given playwrights and their
Drama

Beginning Cello II — MIN4354.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Nat Parke
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
The basics of cello, part two. In a small group, students will learn how to play the instrument of their choice, with an emphasis on a group performance at the term's conclusion. Corequisite: Attend Music Workshop (Tuesday, 6:30 - 8pm) seven times per term
Music

Beginning Guitar — MIN2247.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Hui Cox
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Introduces the fundamentals of acoustic guitar playing, including hand positions, tuning, reading music, major and pentatonic scales, major, minor, and seventh chords, chord progressions, blues progressions, and simple arrangements of songs. Corequisite: Must participate in Music Workshop (Tuesday, 6:30 – 8pm).
Music

Beginning Potter’s Wheel — CER2107.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Aysha Peltz
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
This class is an introduction to using the potter’s wheel as a tool for generating clay forms with an emphasis on pottery making. While focusing on the development of throwing skills, students will explore various possibilities for assembling wheel-thrown elements and will experiment with both functional and non-functional formats. Students will be introduced to the whole
Visual Arts

Beginning Violin and Viola — MIN2241.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Kaori Washiyama
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Basic techniques will include the reading of music in either treble/or alto clefs in the easy keys. Basic hand positions and appropriate fingerings will be shown, and a rudimentary facility with bow will be developed in order that all students may participate in simple ensemble performance by the end of term. Student must arrange for the use of a college instrument, if
Music

Bennington Plays: Process to Performance — DRA4265.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Jean Randich
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
This course is a master class for young directors and playwrights to learn the process and techniques of analyzing, exploring, and staging (original) works of theater. Different “teams” of writer/director or director/dramaturge work on a piece of their choosing, with the running time falling somewhere between 20 – 50 minutes. In a laboratory atmosphere we will investigate how
Drama

Biochemistry — CHE4335.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: John Bullock
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
Biochemistry is an intermediate chemistry course in which students apply principles from general and organic chemistry, as well as general biology, to understand the molecular processes that characterize life. Biochemistry is a broad discipline that is growing rapidly in its scope – new developments and discoveries are being made daily. The goal of this class will be to give
Science and Mathematics

Black Studies: Black Music Division — MHI4102.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Michael Wimberly
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
This seven-week course encourages students who have taken Black Studies: Black Film Division or Black Studies: Black Video Division courses in the Fall 2016 term to take Black Studies: Black Music Division course spring term. Students will use this course to collaborate and realize an exhibition in the Usdan Gallery based on their work and research into the past, present and
CAPA Music

Black Studies: Black Spring I — FV4318.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Karthik Pandian
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Students who have taken Black Studies courses in the Fall 2016 term will use this course to realize an exhibition in the Usdan Gallery based on their work and research into the past, present and future of black lives at Bennington College. While the centerpiece of the exhibition will be the collaborative video produced in Black Studies: Black Video Division course, it will be
CAPA Visual Arts Music

Black Studies: Black Spring II — FV4320.02

Spring 2017
Instructor: Karthik Pandian
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Students who have taken Black Studies courses in the Fall 2016 term will use this course to realize physical and digital documentation of their work and research into the past, present and future of black lives at Bennington College. Participants in this practical course will archive and disseminate the work of Black Studies engaging technologies of print media, video
CAPA Visual Arts Music

Calculus: Principles and Concepts — MAT2243.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Andrew McIntyre
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
Calculus is the mathematics of quantities that are infinitely small or infinitely many in number. For example, in physics, the curved trajectory of a planet can be understood by splitting it into infinitely many, infinitely short straight line pieces. An area can be computed by splitting the shape into infinitely many, infinitely small squares or triangles. The paradox of
Science and Mathematics

Cello — MIN4355.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Nat Parke
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Studio instruction in cello. There will be an emphasis on creating and working towards an end-of-term project for each student. Students must have had at least three years of cello study. Corequisite: Attend Music Workshop (Tuesday, 6:30 - 8pm) seven times per term
Music

Chance — PEC4104.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Eileen Scully
Days & Time:
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

Chemistry 2: Organic Structure & Bonding (with lab) — CHE4212.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Janet Foley
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
Building on structural and reactivity insights developed in Chemistry 1, this course delves into molecular structure and modern theories of bonding, especially as they relate to the reaction patterns of functional groups. We will focus on the mechanisms of reaction pathways and develop an understanding for how those mechanisms are experimentally explored. There will be numerous
Science and Mathematics

Chinese Worldview in Arts, Literature and Life — CHI4601.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Ginger Lin
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
How do Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism play out in Chinese culture? This course is designed to introduce students to Chinese worldview and beliefs by exploring Chinese ancient poems, traditional and contemporary paintings, music, architecture, literature and daily life. It helps students develop their Chinese language skills to understand, describe and discuss subjects in
Languages

Clarinet — MIN4223.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Bruce Williamson
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Study of clarinet technique and repertoire with an emphasis on tone production, dexterity, reading skills, and improvisation. This course is for intermediate-advanced students only. Corequisite: Must participate in Music Workshop (T 4:30  -6:00pm).
Music

Climate Change: Past, Present, and Future — ES2103.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Andrew McIntyre
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
Climate change is inarguably the most pressing current environmental issue. While human-caused climate change may be unprecedented, climate change itself is not. Indeed, the average temperature of our planet has fluctuated substantially over many millennia due to natural variability in Earth’s orbit and surface conditions. In this course, we will examine the physical basis for
Science and Mathematics Environment

Comparative Animal Physiology (with lab) — BIO4201.01

Spring 2017
Instructor:
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
A rigorous course in which physiological processes of vertebrates and invertebrates are studied at the cellular, organ, organ system, and whole animal levels of organization. The unifying themes of the course are the phenomenon of homeostasis (whereby an animal maintains its organization in the face of environmental perturbations) and the relationship between structure and
Science and Mathematics

Composing Performers’ Ensemble — MCO4239.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Bruce Williamson
Days & Time:
Credits: 4
This ensemble will be comprised of performing musicians who also compose and/or improvise. The focus will be on the reading of new works, composed specifically for the instrumental possibilities within the group. By reading
Music

Composition Styles for Modern Jazz — MTH4102.01

Spring 2017
Instructor: Bruce Williamson
Days & Time:
Credits: 2
Jazz composition styles have been steadily evolving over its 100+ years of existence. With blues always at the core, contrapuntal approaches have come full circle. By first reviewing the evolution of jazz styles, then focusing on composition approaches currently being utilized by today’s emerging jazz artists, this course will examine modern approaches to form, rhythm, harmony
Music