Spring 2020

The Human Condition: Hannah Arendt — PHI4101.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a major political theorist whose work has become increasingly influential in recent years. A student of Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers, her extensive writings cover such topics as the nature of power, the meaning of the political, and the problem of totalitariansim. This course is a critical exploration of some of her major works, including The

Society Culture and Thought

The Invention of the 19th Century: A seminar on Honoré de Balzac — LIT4329.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Marguerite Feitlowitz

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Oscar Wilde liked to say that Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) invented the 19th century. The Human Comedy (La Comédie Humaine) comprises approximately 3,000 characters in a total of 92 novels, sketches, stories, and philosophical tales. For the first time in the history of the novel, characters recur—a star of one book may reappear as a minor figure in the intricate social

Literature

The Jewish Annotated New Testament — APA2180.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Michael Cohen

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, Jesus' mother Mary and Mary Magdalene were all Jews even though they appear prominently in the Christian Bible, also known as the New Testament. Their lives were imbued with Jewish history, beliefs, and practices. Often those nuances and meanings are lost when those texts are read without that understanding. In this class we will read some of the

CAPA

The Magical Object - Visual Metaphor — DRA2116.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Sherry Kramer

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

There is a great difference between a prop and an object on stage that is built or filled with the dramatic forces of a play. Such objects become metaphors, they become fresh comprehensions of the world. In the theater, we believe in magic. Our gaze is focused on ordinary objects…a glass figurine, a pair of shoes, a wedding dress…and then our attention is shaped, and charged,

Drama Visual Arts

The Musical “Other”: Exoticism, Appropriation, and Multiculturalism — MHI4131.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Kerry Ryer-Parke

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

How has the cultural "Other” been represented in Western music? How can composers and performers create with a clear conscience and use source material ethically? We will examine a large repertory of works from the early Baroque period through the Twenty-first century, investigating the uses and abuses of non-Western musical sources. Beyond the classics, we'll talk about mid

Music

The Novels of Kazuo Ishiguro — LIT4291.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Stuart Nadler

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In the inscription for Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, the committee announced it had chosen to give him the award because his novels had “uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world.” In this class, we will read nearly all of these novels, beginning with Ishiguro’s first, A Pale View of These Hills, and including An Artist of

Literature

The Ocean, The Creek, The Lake: Writing Water — LIT2405.02

Spring 2020

Instructor: Akiko Busch

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

As water—through floods and droughts alike—continues to reshape the geography of the world around us, this course will look at waterscapes as written by women: Rachel Carson’s The Edge of the Sea, Annie Dillard’s A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge. Science, poetry, and ideas of conservation converge here. As a marine biologist, Carson wrote with

Environment Literature

The Politics of Student Movements in the '60s — SCT2141.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: John Hultgren

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

To most of you, the 1960’s might seem like ancient history. There wasn’t even social media! You might be surprised to find out that many of the problems confronted by the student movement during that time are the same as problems we see today. Although the student uprisings seemed focused on the Vietnam War, many other issues were part of the struggle: workers strikes,

Society Culture and Thought

The Scriptorium: Borders and Boundaries — WRI2152.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Camille Guthrie

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This scriptorium, a “place for writing,” functions as a class for writers interested in improving their academic essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and strategies for our analytical writing. As we practice various essay

Writing

The Scriptorium: Ekphrasis — WRI2154.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Camille Guthrie

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Writing

The Self, the Soul, and St. Augustine — LIT2339.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Benjamin Anastas

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

We live in an age of rampant confession, so it can be difficult to conceive of a world without it. Augustine’s Confessions—which the Bishop of Hippo dictated to a team of scribes between 397 and 400 C.E.—is one of those rare literary works that marks a very clear before and after. In this two-credit course we’ll spend the term reading the whole of the Confessions slowly and

Literature

Theater Games and Improvisation — DRA2123.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Shawtane Bowen

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Whose class is this anyway? Improvisation is for everyone. Life is made up as it happens and improv is no different. This course will explore the basic elements of improvisation. Through short and long form theater games, pattern and rhythm exercises, we aim to heighten observation, listening skills, and ensemble building. Character, object, and environment work will be

Drama

Theory of Impressionism — MTH4112.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Nicholas Brooke

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This seminar will look at works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, as well as by Erik Satie, Les Six, Fauré, and diverse U.S. composers at the turn of the 20th century. We will start by looking at Debussy’s Preludes as a microcosm of his harmonic style, and then analyze major orchestral works. Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, String Quartet, and select songs will also be analyzed

Music

Topics in Applied Philosophy: Privacy — PHI2126.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Paul Voice

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Privacy has long been regarded as important and yet claims to privacy have been frequently challenged and often overridden by political, economic, and technological considerations. Do we have a right to privacy? If so, what is its philosophical justification and what essential human goods and capacities does it protect? In what circumstances and for what reasons can we be asked

Society Culture and Thought

Topics In Video: Experimental Documentary — FV4236.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Kate Purdie

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This course explores documentary possibilities through screenings and video projects. The class will look at and consider non-fiction techniques from early cinema verite films to recent attempts to address point of view and outsider status in documentary and experimental video work. In collaborative and individual projects, the class will take a hands-on approach to documentary

Visual Arts

Traces, Mistakes, and Leftovers — DRW4237.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Mary Lum

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

The role of drawing has changed over the history of art, from primitive recording to preliminary sketch, from documentation to works that function independently. How can we expand these notions to include the remnants of the making process. Can the research done before a project, the many mistakes made in process, or the discards left after completion of an artwork be

Visual Arts

Traditional Music Ensemble — MPF4221.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: John Kirk

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

We will study and perform from the string band traditions of rural America. Nova Scotia, Quebecois, Irish, New England, Scandinavian, African American dance and ballad traditions will also be experienced with listening, practice (weekly group rehearsals outside of class), and performing components. Emphasis on ensemble intuition, playing by ear, and lifetime personal music

Music

Transformational Processes —

Spring 2020

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This course will focus on the development of two site specific projects. The design process will be rooted in analytical drawing and modeling. These drawings and models will inform the program which will define the limits and possibilities of the architectonic invention. A variety of strategies and source materials will be accessed, including texts, maps and found objects.

Transformative Voice — MCO4117.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Sergei Tcherepnin

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

In this class, students will use their voices to create stylistically diverse sonic compositions, from sound collages to pop songs. The focus will be on learning a variety of techniques on how to transform the human voice with electronics. We will cover vocoders, ring modulators, delays, autotune, harmonizers and pitch shifters. A series of composition assignments will frame

Music

Tuesday Soup-er Club Intensive: Bennington Foodscape — APA2168.02

Spring 2020

Instructor: Yoko Inoue

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This is a trans-disciplinary course that investigates local food sovereignty. Incorporating activities such as collective soup making to intersect with academic research and theoretical reading, this course aims to enhance our overall understandings about the modern day food chain (i.e. industrial food production and systems of distribution). The Soup-er Club will create

CAPA

Ukulele Comprehensive — MIN2230.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: John Kirk

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

A comprehensive course on learning skills on the ukulele. We will learn the history of the uke and both traditional and contemporary styles. Music theory and playing techniques will be covered and students will be expected to perform as a group or individually at Music Workshop. Students must have their own soprano or tenor ukulele.

Music

Understanding PFOA: Science and Policy — ENV2173.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Tim Schroeder

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

The water supply of Hoosick Falls, NY, Bennington’s western neighbor, has been contaminated with Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) by past industrial activity. PFOA is an “emerging contaminant” that is correlated with a range of health problems. This course will investigate the social and physical aspects of this ongoing disaster, from how the regulation of chemicals in the US

CAPA Environment

Unhomely Thoughts from Abroad — SPA4605.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

From Simón Bolívar’s recruitment of the exiled Francisco de Miranda in early nineteenth-century London, to the counter-revolutionary Guillermo Cabrera Infante’s Tres tristes tigres, written in a Hampstead flat, much of Latin America’s postcolonial identity has been forged outside its borders. Beyond defining home, exiles have defined their alternate environments. De Miranda’s

Cultural Studies and Languages

Unique Prints: 3-D Prints and Modular Works — PRI4272.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Thorsten Dennerline

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This course is an introduction to unique prints, or prints that are not necessarily printed as an edition. We will emphasize the making of mixed media prints using a broad range of methods from monotypes to digital prints. The class is structured around a series of projects where rigorous experimentation is encouraged. Students will learn various non-typical printmaking

Visual Arts

Violin/Viola — MIN4345.01

Spring 2020

Instructor: Kaori Washiyama

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Studies in all left-hand position and shifting and an exploration of various bow techniques. Students can select from the concerto, sonata repertoire, short pieces and etudes for the study designed to develop technique, advanced musicianship and prepare for the performance. Corequisites: Must participate and perform at least twice in Music Workshop (Tu. 6:30pm – 8:00pm)

Music