Spring 2026 Course Search

Improvisation Ensemble for Dancers and Musicians — DAN2417.02

Instructor: Susan Sgorbati
Days & Time: WE 4:10pm-6:00pm
Credits: 1

This class is an extension of the Black Music Division at Bennington College that brought dancers and musicians together for live performance in the composition of Improvisation. It is co-taught by Susan Sgorbati and Michael Wimberly. 

Musicians and Dancers will study and practice together a Solo Practice and an Ensemble Practice, building compositional structures for performance. 

Advanced Projects in Linguistics — LIN4117.01

Instructor: Alexia Fawcett
Days & Time:
Credits: 2

In this course, students will pursue advanced work in linguistics via topics and forms approved by their respective Plan committees.  The course will frame habitual and productive practices in the conduct and presentation of linguistic research, guide the growth of individual students' topical expertise, and present opportunities for the sharing and collaborative improvement of student work.  Through the pursuit of individual projects, students will develop and refine skills in the formulation of research questions and methods, the synthesis of existing scholarly literat

Thesis Practice: Digital Practices — DAN5428B.01

Instructor: Ben Pranger
Days & Time:
Credits: 2

In this class, students will start working on their artists' book documenting their ongoing MFA thesis research, process and practice, and we will discuss how this relates to potential ideas for Research As Action presentations. To make this possible, we will use software such as Adobe CC Indesign and Photoshop. Slide presentations, software demos, group and individual critiques will help students develop and shape their ongoing thesis research and actions. 

Linguistic Field Methods — LIN4116.01

Instructor: Alexia Fawcett
Days & Time: MO,TH 3:40pm-5:30pm
Credits: 4

This course is designed to equip students with the basic methodologies necessary to carry out linguistic fieldwork with speakers/users of un(der)documented languages. Students will be trained in the skills and tools of language documentation and description by working with a speaker of a language previously unknown to them.

Portfolio 2 — DAN5422B.01, section 1

Instructor: Emily Wexler
Days & Time:
Credits: 6

The term will be spent focusing on a teaching statement, evidence of teaching history, with a focus on intersectional Life writing. The continuation of the collection of documentation of professional activity, a full CV, an artist statement, and any other applicable statements will be added to the materials to create the fullness of the Portfolio book. An artist’s talk will conclude the portfolio process during the summer term.

Portfolio 2 — DAN5422B.02, section 2

Instructor: Emily Wexler
Days & Time:
Credits: 6

The term will be spent focusing on a teaching statement, evidence of teaching history, with a focus on intersectional Life writing. The continuation of the collection of documentation of professional activity, a full CV, an artist statement, and any other applicable statements will be added to the materials to create the fullness of the Portfolio book. An artist’s talk will conclude the portfolio process during the summer term.

Individualized Practice Lab — DAN5403B.01

Instructor: Donna Faye Burchfield
Days & Time:
Credits: 2

This course allows students to self-design course work by combining topics and approaches from the Practice LABs and the Study LABs to meet required hours. The Individualized LABS take the form of a series of self directed intensive workshops and study immersions.

Variable Credit, 1-2 Credits

Individualized Practice — DAN5400B.01

Instructor: Donna Faye Burchfield
Days & Time:
Credits: 2

Through mentor approved independently paced work, students develop and schedule their own weekly, planned creative practices using student-initiated resources and/or classes. Mentors guide students through the designed plan that can include a combination of practices, techniques, technologies and methodologies. The study format should provide opportunity for varied approaches and choices.

Graduate Seminar — DAN5408B.01

Instructor: Niall Jones
Days & Time:
Credits: 2

This topic driven seminar focuses on current developments within the field of dance and performance. Students will learn to think of dance and performance through their own embodied experiences and by placing dance, movement, and performance in wider disciplinary, cultural and global contexts.

Studies Lab — DAN5402B.01

Instructor: Donna Faye Burchfield
Days & Time:
Credits: 2

Where and how does study happen? What is the value of study and how do we recognize that value? What does it mean to think of our study of dance and performance as an encounter and how might that thinking offer up a chance for one to pay attention differently? Is it different from research?  Or, as Kevin Quashie suggests, does it perhaps re-situate the activities of research, scholarship, teaching and practice in an important way? These Labs take the form of intensive workshops and/or lectures.

Variable Credit, 1-2 Credits

Study Group 2 — DAN5421B.01

Instructor: Donna Faye Burchfield
Days & Time:
Credits: 2

What does studying together offer us critically that studying alone might not? Ariella Azoulay refers to studying with companions as a method of unlearning. What are the shifts experienced when you are studying with and alongside others? What conditions might group study provide that allow different questions and understandings to emerge? If, as Irit Rogoff states, “All research is collaborative,” how might these study groups expand our thinking through collaborative practices? What methodologies emerge?

Language, Culture, and Society — LIN2112.01

Instructor: Alexia Fawcett
Days & Time: WE 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 2

This course examines the complex relationship between language, culture, and society through an interdisciplinary lens, incorporating perspectives from linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis. Students will explore how linguistic practices both reflect and shape identities, power dynamics, cultural norms, and worldviews as we cover topics such as linguistic relativity, regional variation, racialization, politeness, and markers of gender and class.

The Tuning in The Trees — MUS4279.01

Instructor: Omeed Goodarzi
Days & Time: FR 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 2

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.

Studying Songs of Emancipation, Protest and Revolution — MUS2231.02

Instructor: Kathy Bullock
Days & Time: TU 4:10pm-6:00pm
Credits: 1

Music reflects the powerful journey of the people This course will study Music of the Struggle for Freedom, Rebellion and Civil and Social Rights, beginning with the African American journey in the United States from late 1700s to present day, and expanding to other cultures throughout the world.

Come Share the Joy; Voices of Hope Choir — MUS2122.02

Instructor: Kathy Bullock
Days & Time: M/Th 7:00PM-8:50PM
Credits: 2

This singing ensemble is dedicated to the preservation and performance of African-American sacred and inspirational music and other songs from the African diaspora (including South and West African and Caribbean songs). Messages of hope, faith, healing, of striving for justice and peace and of celebrating life will be the focuses for this singing experience. The course will culminate in a program on campus where we will share from the music we’ve learned.