Spring 2026 Course Search

Theoretical Ethics aims to uncover the sources of moral knowledge and the foundations of moral obligation. You will engage in a detailed reading of two classical moral theories and study contemporary interpretations and applications of these theories. You will be expected to contribute substantially to class discussion, write two essays and present a draft of your final essay to the class.

Feminism imagines a world free of gender-based oppression and injustice. But what exactly does such freedom involve? In this course, we’ll investigate the interplay between gender, feminist theory, and philosophical views about freedom. Some prompting questions include: Is individual freedom enough? What does ubiquitous pornography mean for sexual freedom? How does politics shape desire? (How) should we rethink the family and work? Does feminist freedom require freedom from gender?

Accessibility describes the practice of freeing a space or an event so it might be visited by more people in more ways than one could ever presume at the outset. In this course, we will explore the litany of practices that allow more people (and in particular, disabled, mad, and chronically ill people) into all spheres of public life with a particular focus on performance events.

Actions In Process: Junior Choreography Workshop positions creative research as a multifaceted practice that includes dancing, reading, writing, drawing, sound-making and theatrical design. The course weaves choreographic practice and group study in a variety of collaborative, experimental and performative configurations. Time in class will be devoted to combinations of lectures, workshops, exercises, readings, discussions, viewings, listening sessions and individual/group choreographic experiments.

PODs offer students the opportunity to make connections through multiple access points, especially in areas of performance. PODs are designed to help students recognize the tools and methodologies used in their own creative work both as performers and as choreographers. Structurally each POD is identified by a unique topic. PODs have required rehearsal times and culminate in a public showing.

The artist will create an original work with BFA students through an intensive research and rehearsal process.

PODs offer students the opportunity to make connections through multiple access points, especially in areas of performance. PODs are designed to help students recognize the tools and methodologies used in their own creative work both as performers and as choreographers. Structurally each POD is identified by a unique topic. PODs have required rehearsal times and culminate in a public showing.

The artist will create an original work with BFA students through an intensive research and rehearsal process.

This course is designed to be the culmination of the BFA program for all dance majors. Each student will propose a thesis project, develop goals and objectives for the semester, and present their work. Modes of practicing, situating and expressing thesis project research will be mobilized and extended through ongoing critical dialogue. We will attend to, in practice, the urgent questions facing our lives and the field of dance and performance. 

This course is designed to be the culmination of the BFA program for all dance majors. Each student will propose a thesis project, develop goals and objectives for the semester, and present their work. Modes of practicing, situating and expressing thesis project research will be mobilized and extended through ongoing critical dialogue. We will attend to, in practice, the urgent questions facing our lives and the field of dance and performance. 

Students will work with their advisor to self-design study through combining and creating new pathways through the curriculum.

Variable Credit, 1-4 Credits

Each Practice + Process course is designed around the research/pedagogic interests of the faculty member leading the class. The overall curricular structure positions studio practice, creative process and critical reading, thinking and languaging as integrated elements within one course, enabling students to move between modes of learning, reflection and making.

Each Practice + Process course is designed around the research/pedagogic interests of the faculty member leading the class. The overall curricular structure positions studio practice, creative process and critical reading, thinking and languaging as integrated elements within one course, enabling students to move between modes of learning, reflection and making.

Each Practice + Process course is designed around the research/pedagogic interests of the faculty member leading the class. The overall curricular structure positions studio practice, creative process and critical reading, thinking and languaging as integrated elements within one course, enabling students to move between modes of learning, reflection and making.

Each Practice + Process course is designed around the research/pedagogic interests of the faculty member leading the class. The overall curricular structure positions studio practice, creative process and critical reading, thinking and languaging as integrated elements within one course, enabling students to move between modes of learning, reflection and making.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

This course aims to experiment with generative and alternative forms of reading that can be thought of as not only a methodology, but as a practice that supports us as we engage in research with, alongside and through study in dance and performance. We will ask ourselves what it means to read and “make sense” of texts and events today…together. 
*For BFA students this course satisfies Critical Studies credit.
 

Catastrophic events—droughts, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and landslides—are growing in frequency and intensity around the world. As more of the global population concentrates in urban areas, the nature and consequences of these natural hazards are taking on a distinct and often violent shape in today’s metropolises and megacities. This course investigates how urban life reshapes both the impact of disasters and our capacity to respond to them.

Economic inequality is often described in terms of uneven distribution of income and wealth. Yet, more importantly, it reflects uneven access to opportunities, advantages, and life chances. Why do some people enjoy a higher standard of living and better quality of life than others? Are such inequalities fair and just? What role do history, policy, and institutions play in sustaining or reducing inequality?

Why does chronic hunger endure even in times of prosperity? How can famine devastate entire regions in extreme cases, while food deserts quietly persist in wealthy countries like the United States? And what does it mean to treat nourishment not as charity or commodity, but as a right of citizenship?

This is an environmental policy course with a focus on public action. The class will explore the dimensions of the production, use and disposal of plastics, including climate change impacts, alternatives to single-use plastic packaging, and the need for innovation. There will also be a focus on environmental justice.

Drawing from news articles, interviews, archival materials, and more, writers throughout the 20th and 21st Centuries have sought to document the world through poetry.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a 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 revolution. This course is a detailed exploration of some of her major works, including The Human Condition, On Revolution, and Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, as well as an engagement with some of the critical literature on her work.

This course is an introduction to the theory of knowledge in the analytical tradition. We will engage with topics such as skepticism about the external world, the nature of belief, truth, and justification, as well as foundationalism and coherentism,, internalism versus externalism, along with other topics.

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 careful study of the main arguments in his early and late work as well as a consideration of some of the critical literature.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

This is the post-fellowship course for students selected to participate in the Endeavor Environmental Action Fellowship Program. The class is designed to sharpen each student’s skills and capacities for success in their future work, and ultimately, to successfully advance environmental justice issues, address complex societal challenges, and become effective change-makers in the world.

In 1935, at Bennington College, Martha Graham created the iconic work Panorama. This piece “was Graham’s political call to action and her attempt to awaken social consciousness and is a stunning example of 1930s modernism.” The Martha Graham Dance Company returns to Bennington to celebrate its 100th year by teaching and performing this piece.

The Tuning in the Trees is an advanced seminar in microtonality that treats tuning systems as both technical structures and living landscapes. Students will explore how musical intervals emerge from natural patterns—such as tree bifurcations, harmonic ratios, and number sequences—while engaging deeply with Just intonation, Meantone, Bohlen–Pierce, and other non-Western tunings.

Actions in Practice employs Sidra Bell's CONTEMPORARY SYSTEMS, an interior and material approach to movement that encourages provocative thought and an immersive approach to the subject matter of the body. The work demands a high degree of physicality and input from the dancers, encouraging them to execute movement with intention, curiosity, and empathy.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

Studio Practice is designed to offer each student a rigorous and immersive dance study experience. A deep-dive into practices of critical physicality, students will be supported in making direct connections across an abundance of dance forms that rearrange and blur the boundaries between traditional and emerging techniques. Studio Practice courses focus on the relationships between curiosity, desire, strength, effort, force, and presence, all while moving within the lineages and histories that inform the ways in which we create and encounter our dancing futures.

The CAPA Workshop is for Seniors who are engaged in their advanced work and want to complete a project as part of it in Public Action.Students are able to connect this work to any area of study at Bennington College. Each student will be required to assemble a digital portfolio that will include their research or thesis, along with a description and implementation of their project during the term. A proposal form will be required once admitted to the class. Projects, can be local, national or international. 

Aristocles (known to us as "Plato") lived and wrote in Athens in the 5th c. BCE. More than 2400 years later, Alfred North Whitehead’s famous remark still resonates: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato…the wealth of general ideas scattered through them…have made [Plato’s] writings an inexhaustible mine of suggestion” (Process and Reality, 1929).

In 1948, Elanor Roosevelt, instrumental for the approval of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, said “In a true sense, human rights are a fundamental object of law and government in a just society. Human rights exist to the degree that they are respected by people in relations with each other and by governments in relations with their citizens.”

Human mobility has been an inherent human condition throughout history. From earliest human history, women and men have migrated in search of a better life, to populate other places on the planet, or to escape and survive human-made or natural dangers. Today migration is a fact of life for an increasing number of people around the world: there are more than 281 million migrants that cross borders, about 71.2 million that are internally displaced and around 40 million seeking asylum. Almost half of them are women.

This class will introduce students to creating digital archive that includes digitizing photographs, documents, videotapes and basic types of metadata. We will have discussions about why digitizing personal collections is so important. Students will be expected to bring their own materials to the class. 

With billions of images uploaded to the internet daily, we are bombarded by media content on corporately owned platforms from news outlets to algorithmic social media feeds and YouTube videos. How do we create meaningful independent media for each other in this current age of disinformation? What importance do physical materials such as books, zines, posters, and pamphlets still have in disseminating information and ideas to our communities? How does the art of self-publishing become a means of empowerment and an act of care?

This Module will serve as an introduction to the work of Peacebuilding around the world, both in theory and practice. Vahidin Omanovic, Director of Center for Peacebuilding in Bosnia, will be joining us to reflect on his work and introduce us to key topics in peacebuilding, including: peacebuilding in a local community, obstacles for peace, identity,  discrimination, methods of sustainable peacebuilding.

This Module will introduce Conflict Resolution skills and the fundamentals of Dialogue exchanges.