Spring 2022

Cello — MIN4355.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Nat Parke

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

***new faculty as of 2/21/2022*** Studio instruction in cello. There will be an emphasis on creating and working towards an end-of-term performance for each student. Acceptance based on discussion with instructor. School cellos available for loan.

Music

Chance Encounters — LIT4358.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Do we have a theme? Well, we have many; the relationship between focus and wandering, between the error, the errant, and the errand; between the past, present, and future; chance and the foregone conclusion. These (and more) will be intertwined in four seminal texts and a tome (Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust, Aqua Viva by Clarice Lispector, Three Poems by John Ashbery, In Fond

Literature

Chemistry 2: Organic Structure and Bonding (with Lab) — CHE4212.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: John Bullock

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

Climate Change and Advocacy — APA2187.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This course will expose students to the various advocacy methods on the climate issue. The course will include readings, class discussion, group projects, and hands-on advocacy efforts (e.g., lobbying, organizing events, social media, public education). Students will select a particular climate campaign or organization to do advocacy with. The class will address key issues

CAPA

Coming of Age: Gender and Genre — DRA2314.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Jean Randich

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

"You can choose a lighter path, go through that door with nothing on your person, nothing on your back." --Anna Maria Hong, "H G" In this course we will investigate contemporary plays, films, and books in which the protagonists have the courage to question authority, lean into the unknown, survive despite harrowing odds, and allow time to help then unfold their identities.

Drama

Composing for Improvisers: Analyses, Creation and Performance — MCO4129.02

Spring 2022

Instructor: Michael Wimberly

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This course is for students interested in investigating musical improvisation and composition through examining and performing works by contemporary composers. Students will also be guided to compose music at their own level. Basic ability to follow scores is encouraged, but not mandatory. We will first examine and play through works by contemporary composers who incorporate

Music

Composition Intensives and Music Research Projects — MCO4397.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Allen Shawn

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This course is open to composers who want to work in a focused way on an ambitious composition project, or to those who have a specific musical research project they wish to pursue. Musical research projects could include such things as a serious study of a composer or musical topic, or a detailed analysis of a musical work. The class will meet in small groups and individually,

Music

Computational Craft — DA2114.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Computational Craft is an intro course in industry standard 3D modeling software Rhinoceros. This course will cover a wide breadth of techniques that range from basic 2D drawing to complex 3D construction. While this course is aimed at teaching technical skills, it will also have a rigorous focus on aesthetics and design concepts. Its ultimate goal is being a feedback loop

Visual Arts

Conspiracies: Past, Present, Always — HIS2112.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Eileen Scully

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Conspiracy theories have a long and interesting history in American politics and culture. Indeed, some of today's most diabolical conspiracy theories actually took hold in the era of the American Revolution. They have persisted across generations and centuries, periodically exploding into epidemic-level mass paranoia. Through select case studies, primary documents, cultural

Society Culture and Thought

Crafting the “It Narrative” — DRA2181.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

If a plastic duck could talk, what could it tell us about where it comes from and where it is going? What can we learn about labor, natural resources, extraction and global capitalism by researching and imagining the human and non-human worlds a single object has moved through? In this interdisciplinary course we will enter the realm of object-centered storytelling through

CAPA Drama

Creating Participatory Events at the Intersection of Choreographic and Conflict Engagement Practices — APA2447.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Susan Sgorbati

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

The course will involve students in the practice of integrating choreographic thinking and conflict engagement through practical application in the process of creating dynamic structures and motion strategies for a series of sketches for participatory event models, while increasing their understanding of possible cross-disciplinary applications of this work. The course will

CAPA

Creative Collaboration in Writing and Performance — DRA4261.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Kirk Jackson

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This class is about surviving the crucible of creative collaboration to satisfy the instant gratification of a hungry audience. Students write, produce and perform serialized stories. The class will divide into story line teams; each team writes and performs three scenes of a developing narrative every week. Each episode will necessitate meeting at least four times per week

Drama

Curator, Artist, Impresario: Modes of Exhibition Making — VA2244.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Anne Thompson

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This introductory class traces the historical evolution of contemporary curatorial practice. We start with the early tradition of curators as experts and custodians of collections. Building on that foundation, we examine the twentieth-century emergence of the curator as a visionary impresario and producer of global exhibitions. Throughout, we consider how artists since the

Visual Arts

Dalcroze Eurhythmics and The City of Rhythm — MFN2148.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Founded in 1909, the garden city of Hellerau had an odd design aesthetic: everything would be based on principles of rhythm. Instead of placing a church in the center, the city planners invited the Swiss musician and choreographer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze and the visionary stage designer Adolphe Appia to design a modern theatre and college where they would teach Dalcroze’s Methode

Music

Dance Workshop-Extension — DAN2000.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Elena Demyanenko

Days & Time:

Credits: 1

Dance Workshop has been held at Bennington College since its beginning in 1932. It is a meeting place for all dance students, dance faculty, and staff. Here, students of all levels, undergraduate through graduate, show and discuss works in progress. All of the participants practice articulating and refining their own processes, and all are involved in learning how to see and

Dance

Decolonial Approaches to Settler Colonialism in American Visual Arts — AH4124.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In this upper-level seminar, we will study the history of American art and visual culture in light of decolonial thought produced by Indigenous peoples in their ongoing resistance to the colonization of so-called North America. This approach will teach us to see the arts’ entanglements in the operations of colonial power and sustain our goal to decolonize the practice

Visual Arts

Deep Listening : The Music Of William Parker 1973- 2021 — MHI2111.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Michael Wimberly

Days & Time:

Credits: 1

In this course of Deep Listening students will become familiar with recordings outlining the trajectory of the recording career of bassist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist William Parker as a sideman and leader of select ensembles. William Parker’s recordings document some of free jazz’s most prominent innovators including, Cecil Taylor, Peter Brötzmann, David Ware, and

Music

Dickensian Binge — LIT4174.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Manuel Gonzales

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Let's start with this hot-take -- Charles Dickens was the Shonda Rhimes of Victorian-era serialized storytelling -- and see what happens when we go from there. With his serialized novels, beginning with The Pickwick Papers, published in monthly installments from March 1836 until November 1837, Dickens helped refashion the publishing world and storytelling itself. Dude could

Literature

Directed Projects — PHO4247.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Students in this advanced level course will use research in both texts and images, and reflective writing, to hone their critical thinking skills to expand their photographic practice. Group critique will be a central component of the course, facilitating constructive evaluation of work in progress. By the end of the semester, students will produce a body of work that

Visual Arts

Directing I: The Director's Vision — DRA4332.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Jean Randich

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

What is action? What is character? What is an “event”? What are gesture, timing, rhythm and stakes? How do actors, playwrights, and directors collaborate to create an experience/event in space and time? How do illusion and anti-illusion collude and compete to make the representation "real?" This workshop/seminar offers theater artists the chance to examine their craft from the

Drama

Drawing As Record — DRW2121.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Annette Lawrence

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

The fundamentals of drawing are the basic tools for this investigation into seeing and translation. Using simple methods and means, the practice of drawing is approached from both traditional and experimental directions. The focus of this inquiry is on drawing from observation, broadly defined. In class drawing sessions and discussions are complemented by independent, outside

Visual Arts

Drawing as Record — DRW2121.02

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Visual Arts

Drumming: An Extension of Language — MIN2120.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This course serves as an introduction to rhythms and musical practices from Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean. Using indigenous percussion instruments from these regions, students will learn to play traditional and hybrid rhythms. There will be discussions and scheduled response papers on readings, podcast, and films pertaining to global issues from these regions, as well as an

CAPA Music

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of Marine Mammals — BIO4189.02

Spring 2022

Instructor: Sara Bebus

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Whales and dolphins evolved from a terrestrial deer-like mammal about 50 million years ago. In this course we will explore the unique evolutionary histories, ecological strategies, and conservation concerns of marine mammals. We will focus on cetaceans, a group comprised of 90 diverse species ranging the 88 lb. vaquita to the 165 ton blue whale. Topics will include, adaptations

Science and Mathematics

Elements of Architecture — ARC2121.01

Spring 2022

Instructor: Donald Sherefkin

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

An introduction to the discipline of architectural exploration through direct experience, drawing and modeling. We begin with a series of abstract exercises which explore ways in which meaning is embedded in form, space, and movement. These exercises gradually build into more complex architectural compositions organized around particular problems. Workshops will focus on a

Visual Arts