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. 

Costume Design Projects — DES4108.01

Instructor: Tilly Grimes
Days & Time: WE 8:30am-12:10pm
Credits: 4

Dance, Musicals, Opera - a costume studio practice

The class will consist of three elements-

1) Designing a produced piece in drama or dance

2) A paper project designing costumes for a music based narrative piece (ie:opera, musical theatre, dance)

Genesis — HIS2220.01

Instructor: Carol Pal
Days & Time: TU,FR 10:30am-12:20pm
Credits: 4

Genesis is the first book in a compilation known collectively as the Bible. It is a text of enormous literary value, and one of our earliest historical chronicles, providing foundational material for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Yet how many of us know what it actually says?  How did it come together, what is the narrative, and how does it relate to ideas, cultures, and events in the ancient world? We will not be considering Genesis in terms of its status as scripture.

History of the Book — HIS4109.01

Instructor: Carol Pal
Days & Time: WE 2:10pm-5:50pm
Credits: 4

The aim of this course is to think about books. Not just books as objects, but books as the signifiers of a wealth of relationships – between reading and writing, between people and ideas, between people and people, between technologies and desires. For centuries, our ideas have been shaped by the rhythms and hierarchies inherent in the nature of print.  But the nature of the book itself has changed enormously over time – from the painstaking creation of ancient papyri and scrolls to Gutenberg and the fifteenth-century printing revolution.

Adobe InDesign Basics — DES2107.01

Instructor: Gus Ramirez
Days & Time: MO 10:00am-11:50am
Credits: 2

This class will focus on the essentials of Adobe InDesign. Students will learn fundamental skills such as interface navigation, document setup, text and image manipulation, advanced features, and best practices for both print and digital publications.

Digital Realities: Rhino 8 and the Art of Making — DES4110.01

Instructor: Derek Parker
Days & Time: TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 2

Digital Realities: Rhino 8 and the Art of Making is an introductory course in Digital Fabrication using Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) equipment. This course will explore the use of 3D Printers, CNC Laser Cutters, and CNC Routers to create custom objects modeled in Rhino 8. The course will cover the necessary workflows and parameters used for each machine, as well as general maintenance, material management, and best practices. This course aims to build technical skills and consider aesthetics, functionality, and design concepts.

Advanced Seminar in History: Moments in Time — HIS4118.01

Instructor: Carol Pal
Days & Time: TH 1:40pm-5:20pm
Credits: 4

This advanced seminar offers students the opportunity to pursue a term-long project in history.  Asking the historian’s three basic questions – why this? why here? and why now? – each student will be able to do a deep dive into their chosen piece of the past.  For some, this will be the venue for writing their SCT senior theses.  For others, this will be the place where they can produce a historical project appropriate to their Plan. Writing will take place throughout term, and all students in this seminar will receive weekly feedback.

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.

Intro to U.S. History: Gender, Sexuality, and Nonconformity — HIS2218.01

Instructor: Alexander Jin
Days & Time: WE 10:00am-11:50am & WE 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 4

This course is an introductory survey course of U.S. history that pays particular attention to changing norms around gender and sexuality, and how people contested or subverted those norms. Topics include: same-sex intimacy in Early America, turn of the century panics around miscegenation and white slavery, the invention of hetero and homosexuality, cross-dressing in the American West, and the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Immigration in U.S. History — HIS4119.01

Instructor: Alexander Jin
Days & Time: TU 2:10pm-5:50pm
Credits: 4

This course examines the history of immigration to the United States. How did this country become a “nation of immigrants”? How did immigration become so central to American national identity? What are this country’s purported ideals on the subject and has it ever lived up to them?  

Later is Too Late: Dance Design & Production — DAN2425.01

Instructor: Davison Scandrett
Days & Time: WE 2:10pm-4:00pm
Credits: 2

Borrowed from the subtitle of Lois Ellfeldt & Edwin Carne's seminal 1971 Dance Production Handbook, "Later is Too Late" became a mantra for the course instructor after finding a well-worn copy of the paperback in his roadbox for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.  In this course we will examine the specific technical challenges and design opportunities presented in the production of dance performance, including the role that planning and management can play in overcoming the structural inequities and lack of resources endemic to the form.  Through readings,

Literature and History of the Holocaust — LIT2582.01

Instructor: Michael Dumanis
Days & Time: MO,TH 1:40pm-3:30pm
Credits: 4

The Holocaust is one of the most ethically challenging, traumatic, and consequential occurrences in modern history. This seminar aims to give students a granular understanding of the mass oppression, enslavement, and genocide that occurred in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s, in order to then consider how it has been represented in poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction both by survivors of the this historical humanitarian crisis and those who've followed.

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.

Introduction to Intaglio: The Alchemist’s Print — PRI2111.01

Instructor: Thorsten Dennerline
Days & Time: TU 2:10pm-5:50pm
Credits: 4

This course is an introduction to the magic of copper plate Intaglio. We will explore various techniques to prepare our plates including hand working and acid etching with materials such as rosin resists and sugar lifts. By the end of term, we will be printing in color. Ultimately, the overall goal of our endeavors will be to begin a dialog about artistic production in a contemporary context while also exploring the unique history of the intaglio process.