Faculty Sessions

9:00-10:30 am
Reading the Local Landscape: Kerry Woods
Meet in front of Jennings
Be prepared to walk. We will visit a variety of on-campus habitats and reconstruct geology/glacial background, history of land-use, agricultural abandonment, and reforestation.

9:30-10:30 am
Conversation on Diversity and Inclusion at Bennington College and Beyond: Delia Saenz
Commons 253
Bennington was founded on the principles of access and inclusion. How do we reflect these principles today? Come participate in a discussion on the College today and its commitment to inclusion.

9:30-10:30 am
Beyond Plastics: Judith Enck
CAPA Symposium
Plastic pollution is a hot issue that has captured the attention of people who care about clean oceans, climate change, health, and innovative alternatives to plastics. Bennington College is the home of a new dynamic national project, Beyond Plastics, which is led by former EPA Regional Administrator and Visiting Professor Judith Enck. Enck teaches classes on plastic pollution at the college. Come hear the latest news on this issue from Judith and her students Louis Celt and Kaylyn Riddell, including what you can do in your community to tackle this growing environmental problem.

9:30-10:30 am
Female Architect / Fictive Archive: Anne Thompson and Farhad Mirza ’12
Usdan Gallery
Discuss feminism, modernism, and architecture in the Usdan Gallery exhibit of works by artist Katarina Burin. Burin spent a decade creating a fictional Czech architect of the interwar years known as P.A. Architecture, Authorship, Anonymity displays the full P.A. project of drawings, models, furniture, photographs and more—a complex enterprise that critiques the erasure of women designers from the modernist canon. The installation—also the subject of a Bennington seminar—forms a timely addition to this year’s wave of activities on the Bauhaus centennial. Come tour the show.

10:30-11:30 am
The Great Transformation, on the work of Karl Polyani: John Hultgren and David Bond
Commons 250
Fleeing the rise of fascism in Europe, Karl Polanyi arrived at Bennington in 1940. During his time here he wrote one of the great works of 20th century political economy, The Great Transformation. This panel will provide an introduction to Polanyi’s work, and discuss our class and the upcoming conference to be held at Bennington in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Great Transformation.

10:30-11:30 am
Feminism: An Alumni and Student Conversation: Barbara Alfano 
CAPA Symposium
Fifty years ago, in the politically turbulent year of 1969, Bennington graduated its last all-female class. Feminism/s of various kinds had already arguably been in existence for centuries and in many cultural communities, but the ‘second wave’ got its start in the ’60s and ’70s and is known for its focus on “all” realms of women’s experience (though not necessarily the experience of “all” women—or men, and certainly not non-binary and trans people). In this workshop, we’ll explore what it has meant to be (or not to be) a feminist at Bennington and how changes in feminism/s have changed being and learning at our increasingly diverse liberal arts college in Vermont. Liz Lerman ’69, Taliesin Thomas ’98, and students kick off the conversation.

10:30-11:30 am
The Doubtful Professor: How Bennington Prepared Us for Academic Life
Commons 326
An exploration of academic life in economics, literature, architecture, and psychology and how the Bennington experience continues to shape the work of Annie Coggan Crawford ’85, Nejem Raheem ’94, Rone Shavers ’93, Friedrike Windel ’15. Moderated by Noah Coburn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Pedagogy.

This event is part of the Fall Weekend and the Alumni Reunion programs.