For students of varying levels of singing ability. This course will teach fundamental concepts of healthy voice technique that can be applied to singing in any style. Students will work towards individual goals through regular practice of warmups, vocalizations and awareness exercises, and progress will be assessed by preparation and performance of specific song assignments. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed, as well as personalization of text and emotional expression. Students will study and perform at least one classical art song or aria to strengthen and facilitate technical growth, as well as explore repertoire in other vocal styles that move a student towards their individual performance goals (as determined with guidance from the instructor).
Students should have previous singing experience and/or study and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Sections will meet as a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour session with a pianist every other week to work on repertoire.
This course is a 2 credit version of MVO4404 for students who are already meeting a performance requirement as determined by instructor.
Individual training is available in jazz, modern and classical guitar technique and repertoire, song accompaniment (finger style), improvisation, and arranging and composing for the guitar. Course material is tailored to the interests and level of the individual student.
Have you been thinking about learning to play the piano? Perhaps you have a little experience from childhood and want to get back into it? Are you a singer, songwriter, producer, or composer who wants to accompany themselves, learn to read sheet music and chord symbols, and/or understand the basics of music theory? Maybe you are completely new to playing an instrument, and want to give it a try?
If you answered yes, then Piano Lab I might be right for you. We gather once a week in groups of six, with each student working individually on full-size keyboards with headphones. We take turns playing for each other on the Steinway baby grand, with a small concert at the end of the term. Since it’s a lab class, there is a focus on individual goals and progress, with some group activities and lots of group support.
One to two hours per week of individual practice is expected.
Our primary text for this class will be Yasmine Seale’s The Annotated Arabian Nights, which we will open in the spirit of pleasure and curiosity. Seale’s annotated edition makes de- orientalizing gestures while also mapping many of the instances in which this corpus of stories has inspired other works of art and literature.
’Alf Laylah wa-Laylah, known in English as the Thousand and One Nights or the Arabian Nights Tales, is a fascinating work that models nesting frame narratives and plumbs ethical questions related to literature (the Shahrazadian question: can story reform the femicidal king?). It also has a fascinatingly messy history of translation and adaptatation. For some of it’s stories, there are scholarly questions around whether it’s a classical Arabic tale or later French insertion? Is it an archetypal instance of orientalism or a more complicated instance of what Mary Louise Pratt calls a contact zone?
To answer questions around classical Arabic literature and the religious content of the text, we’ll look at work by Robert Irwin. We’ll dive into Edward Said’s Orientalism, and consider Jalal Toufic’s text The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster, in which he considers why Western writers feel such license to adapt from the Nights and why it feels withdrawn from
circulation to Toufic as an Arab writer.
This course serves as an introduction to the vital stories and voices of contemporary African literature. We will devote ourselves to closely reading novels, short stories, poems, and plays that explore modern African lives, both as they exist in relation to and imagine futures beyond the cruel legacies of genocide, apartheid, and (neo)colonialism. In the pages we read, you will find woven tales of national and personal liberations; intimate portraits of township life, full of grief, grit, and humor; family sagas unfolding across landscapes touched by drought and fraught with the memory of genocide; and glimpses into the ambitions and anxieties of emerging African intellectuals, who feel acutely the many hopes pinned to their futures. From exciting emerging voices to Nobel laureates, writers whose works we may cover include Wole Soyinka, Veronique Tadjo, Rémy Ngamije, Tayeb Salih, Chinua Achebe, Panashe Chigumazi, David Diop, Magogodi Oamphela Makhene, Akwaeke Amezi, Keith Vries, NoViolet Bulawayo, and Njabulo Ndebele.
T.S. Eliot famously said, “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them.” Agree or disagree, but the work of Dante Alighieri, the fourteenth century Florentine poet and statesman, remains vital to the study of poetry and its history—particularly as the lyric tradition intersects with long-form narrative and Christian allegory begins reconciling with pagan mythology in the lead-up to the Italian Renaissance. Descending into that iconic and allegorical landscape shot through with the freezing exhalations of Lake Cocytus and populated by some of history’s most famous artists, thinkers, influencers, and bad actors, we will closely read and compare four different translations of theInferno, the first section of Dante’s masterwork, theDivine Comedy. With great care, we will attempt to unravel theInferno’s dense tapestry of symbols and literary allusions; parse its various themes, such as sacred and profane love, exile, suffering as purification, and radical empathy; and compare the translators’ respective approaches to the problems and opportunities of the original’s form (hendecasyllabic terza rima), diction, music, narrative apparatus, voice, and imagery.
This course is for students who have moderate experience in playing drum set, but also for novice. Students who have some background in playing drum set will have an opportunity to fine-tune their fundamentals by working on rudimentary stick control and overall drum set technique, which includes grooves (beats) and drum fills. Students who are new to the drum set will begin with basic coordination on the set, but also learn simple drum set notation to assist in the learning process. Listening, viewing, critiquing, and reviewing drummers who have contributed to the innovation of and art of the drum set is a weekly part of our class experience. Using two drum sets in class to demonstrate an exercise or assignment, students are expected to participate in this
classroom practice. You are encouraged to learn grooves (beats) from a variety of genres including, but not limited to Blues, Funk, Rock, Progressive Rock, Metal, Fusion, Jazz, and Hip-Hop. Homework assignments include – Recording 10 to 15 minutes of your assignment practice, playing with other musicians if possible, attending music workshop, and learning how to maintain the drum set practice space and equipment in the DCB attic, Fireplace room, and practice rooms.
“Two years before leaving home, my father said to my mother that I was very ugly.” Thus begins Elena Ferrante’s coming-of-age novel that tells us, without qualms, about The Lying Life of Adults. This course will focus on Italian first-person fictional accounts of family life, which we will analyze with the support of relevant literary criticism, including love, Feminist, and trauma theories. We will read in translation major works of Italian fiction, among which Elena Ferrante’s The Days of Abandonment (2003) and The Lying Life of Adults (2019), Domenico Starnone’s Ties (2016), Alessandro Baricco’s The Young Bride (2022), and Angelo Cannavaccioulo When Things Happen (2008). These first-person narratives will also give us an opportunity to explore the liminal spaces where the author’s and the narrator’s voices overlap, or clash, and a story thus begins to speak about itself and its agenda. We will also watch films that widen our perspective of family life in Italian culture. The students will cap this course with a written essay. This course is taught in English.
Living on campus is an essential part of the Bennington student experience. As the College has one of the more economically and culturally diverse student bodies compared to other elite colleges and universities in the United States, how can students connect with and support one another in a meaningful way and create an inclusive and equitable residential community in this digital post-pandemic era? Based on college student development and Intercultural communication theories, public health framework, and restorative justice, the class will provide current knowledge and develop skills essential to creating and facilitating a positive house culture.
An exercise in planning, communication, creativity and resourcefulness, property design applies to film, television, and theatrical production. This course will look at theatrical props and set dressing from a property designer’s perspective. Starting with a script, we will uncover the questions you didn’t know needed answering in order to comprehensively produce or curate props that are functional, period appropriate, and successfully contribute to a production. Coursework will be based on lectures, script analysis, hands on property production in the Drama Department Scene Shop, and peer critiques.
For students with some dance background, this version of Sénémali is taught at a more advanced level.
This course is an introduction to Sabar (traditional dance, drum, and ceremony) from Sénégal and Gambia and Traditional West African Mandingo dance and music forms. We will build an improvisation practice that explores the dynamics between the musicians and dancers as well as how movement and live music can be experienced as a singular, integrated entity. We will also examine movement and embodied practices of the African diaspora, connecting dance lineages of the past, present, and future.
This will be an integrated studio and sociohistorical academic study in specific African dance techniques.
We will highlight and acknowledge the significance of stepping, stomping, hand coordination, upper body torsion, and hip mobility.
This course is an introduction to Sabar (traditional dance, drum, and ceremony) from Sénégal and Gambia and Traditional West African Mandingo dance and music forms. We will build an improvisation practice that explores the dynamics between the musicians and dancers as well as how movement and live music can be experienced as a singular, integrated entity. We will also examine movement and embodied practices of the African diaspora, connecting dance lineages of the past, present, and future.
This will be an integrated studio and sociohistorical academic study in specific African dance techniques.
We will highlight and acknowledge the significance of stepping, stomping, hand coordination, upper body torsion, and hip mobility.
In this course, we will be uncovering, re-positioning, and affirming historical legacies and traditions that stand the risk of being lost forever. We will explore the history and the effects of colonization in select regions of the world, i.e. Sénégal, Gambia, and other countries in West Africa. We will focus on how specific dance practices intersect with systems of race, ethnicity, and national identity. We will focus further on how dance expresses and intervenes in systems of power and oppression, including nation, race, gender, and class. We will explore how globalization across geographic, political, commercial, and digital domains has shaped the evolution of dance practice, performance, and community.
Students will read a series of texts, observe video, images, mixtape, and podcasts. We will see how African Dance and American Black Modern Dance are deeply connected. Students will write a few essays/reflections. Throughout, students will share their research and collaborate in building a digital archive of their findings.
We can define Ndaga as the awareness of legacy and debt, border crossing, re/invention, re/creation, and the desire to create new space for time travel. This is a self-journey. This course is for students who wish to find their artistic voices by exploring an interdisciplinary approach to making work. Using poetry, visual art, improvisation and various movement practices, we will make a series of projects as individuals, as partners in duets, and as members of ensembles.
This course will support students in choreographic/artistic risk-taking and the development of new performative directions and perspectives. Students will investigate and explore ways of creating dance suitable for a variety of occasions and a broad range of physical and conceptual abilities.
This semester-length, two-credit course will take students through the process of revising and refining a single project through multiple iterations, based on peer critique and instructor feedback. We will dig deep into the logics, techniques, and ever-evolving tools of editing, and also make space for experiments with animated elements, multi-channel audio/video configurations, and work that moves between different modes of presentation for different sites and audiences. We will also look at a range of examples to analyze how editing styles shift over time and work in the formation of movements and genres. Students should enter the course with a project already in progress or ready to be edited by week two. Collaborative projects are encouraged.
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 of class work and occasional assigned readings. The goals of the course include the development of individual confidence in observational, analytical drawing skills, and gaining a practical basis for further inquiry into all the visual arts. An introduction to the rich histories and contemporary concerns of drawing from diverse and inclusive points of view will be a running conversation throughout the course. Previous drawing experience may be helpful, but is not required of students enrolling in this course. A portion of this class may be spent drawing the nude human figure.
This course is designed to equip students with the essential skills and knowledge needed to excel in interviews within the technology industry. Through a combination of theoretical understanding, practical exercises, and mock interviews, students will learn the intricacies of behavioral, technical, and case study interviews. The course will focus on developing effective communication strategies, problem-solving techniques, and non-verbal communication skills necessary for success in interviews. Students will also receive personalized feedback and guidance to enhance their interview performance and confidence.
More importantly, this course will give students a holistic view to understand the process from industry experts and reduce the stress of interview process.
Life Drawing Lab provides an opportunity for student artists of all experience levels to further develop their skills with observational-based drawing. Working primarily with the human figure, students build increased understanding of the poetic, dynamic, and inherently abstract nature of drawing, while paying close attention to the potential of formal elements such as shape, line, form, and the creation of pictorial space. Although each class period provides structures and activities within which students work, the ultimate aim of this class to allow students the time and space necessary to further develop their drawing skills so as to best support individual projects and concerns. Class time is divided between drawing from life, discussing student work, and examining the use of the figure in visual art, using both contemporary and historical examples. Please note that this course may require additional materials to be purchased by the student.
Note: Much of this class will be spent drawing the nude human form.
The practice of drawing from observation brings us into direct contact with experiencing the visual world. Working from the human figure, landscape, plants and animals, or any other subject that inspires the imagination, this course introduces the fundamentals of seeing and translation with various drawing materials and approaches. The goals of the course include the development of individual confidence in observational, analytical drawing skills, and gaining a practical basis for further inquiry into all the visual arts. An introduction to the rich histories and contemporary concerns of drawing from diverse and inclusive points of view will be a running conversation throughout the course. Previous drawing experience may be helpful but is not required of students enrolling in this course. Note: A portion of this class may be spent drawing the nude human figure.
This course is for students who have prior experience with the instrument. Students are expected to practice daily (minimum of 30 minutes). End-of-semester performance is required.
Lessons with be tailored to the experience and development of each student and will target:
-Intermediate/advanced scales and repertoire
-shifting
-bow strokes and articulations
-vibrato
-dynamics, phrasing and musical style
This course is designed for students with no prior string instrument experience. Admission is on a first come, first served basis. Classes are individual lessons, taught on a weekly basis.
Daily practice (10 to 15 minutes) is expected, so that students can become familiar and comfortable with the instrument.
1970 was a watershed year for Black feminism, with the publication of several monumental books includingThe Black Woman: An Anthology,edited by Toni Cade Bambara. How did women writers of color contend with race, class, gender, and sexuality in the decades leading up to the coining of the term “intersectionality?” What works from this period were foundational for our understanding of intersectional feminism today? This is an introductory course on literature and theory written during the emergence of Black, Chicana, Asian American, and other WOC feminisms in the ‘70s and ‘80s. We will read key works of poetry, fiction, and critical theory by writers including Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, June Jordan, bell hooks, Maxine Hong Kingston, Angela Davis, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, and others. We will examine both how politics of race and gender show up in literature, and how poetic and artistic sensibilities shaped the radical visions of this period. Students will submit a mix of critical and creative assignments over the course of the term, of which they will revise and expand one for the final assignment.
From Maggie Nelson’sArgonauts, to Hanif Abdurraqib’s essays on pop music, to Saidiya Hartman’s writing on archives of the transatlantic slave trade, many writers have taken up the task of looking at history, art, and culture by first looking inward. This 4-credit class will explore autotheory, first-person cultural criticism, and other critical writing with a distinctly personal bent. What does it mean to perform criticism from a subjective standpoint? How do our personal histories inform our critical practice, and how are we (as writers and as people) shaped by the process of critique? As part of our inquiry, we will explore how queer and trans writers like Nelson and Paul Preciado have taken up autotheory and delve into the history of first-person theorizing as a Black feminist practice, from Sojourner Truth to bell hooks. Students will read, analyze, and discuss several essays per week and write 3-4 critical-creative response papers. For the final project, students will write, workshop, and revise a 2,000-3,000-word piece of first-person criticism or autotheory.
Virtue is a habit. To be ethical is to choose the mean between extremes. Happiness is not a goal, but a state. In popular culture, Aristotle’s ethical views are often represented in slogan form. In this seven-week course, we will interrogate and unpack the meanings of and ideas behind these slogans. We will carefully investigate the theory embodied in Aristotle’s central ethical work, Nicomachean Ethics. Throughout, we will consider such questions as: What is human flourishing and what constitutes a flourishing life? How does virtue (ethical character) fit into such a life? How are friends or family important to my life’s going well? What is it to voluntarily choose a course of action? What am I responsible for? How does my conduct contribute or detract from justice in the world? How might we educate for ethical development? In addition to closely reading Nicomachean Ethics, other readings may include philosophical responses to Aristotle’s ethics. Students should expect to write analytical essays and contribute productively to class conversations.
This course explores the movement for reproductive justice throughout Latin America since the 1970s, and focuses on the international and interregional cooperation among non-state actors to decriminalize abortion and end violence against women. Topics include reproductive rights versus reproductive justice, obstetric violence, ‘la ola verde’, and post-dictatorship political dynamics. Special emphasis is placed on engaging with the work of scholars and activists from the region.
This introductory course examines the historical and social realities of psychoactive drug use in contemporary societies. Through ethnographic research, students explore the social construction of drug use; drug control policy and enforcement; global drug markets; and pharmaceuticalization.
Commodities such as cars, smartphones, laptops, and refrigerators were initially considered luxuries but are now widely viewed as everyday necessities. This shift suggests that our understanding of need is shaped by social, historical, and cultural context. In this class we will explore questions such as: how do we distinguish what we want from what we need to live a dignified life? Moreover, how might societies determine which types of needs should be satisfied through market exchange and which should not? Is the recognition of economic rights as important as the recognition of political rights? Through critical exploration of both heterodox and neoclassical economic texts, we will examine the concepts of subsistence, scarcity, abundance, need, want, preference, choice, and right.
What is capitalism? When and where did it begin? This course introduces students to key features of capitalism as an economic system and a way of life that has had profound social and political consequences for human societies around the world. It is the primary aim of this course to get a better sense for what capitalism really is, and to uncover and evaluate some of the most compelling justifications and critiques regarding capitalism. We will examine questions such as: In what ways does capitalism free us and in what ways does it limit us? How does the market determine which commodities are valuable? A primary focus of the course will be examining overlaps between economy and culture by systematically considering the economic, political, and ethical project of capitalism. We will be attentive to the different ideological lenses through which capitalism is perceived and discussed as we examine phenomena such as wealth, labor, capital, commodities, and monopolies.
A good movie begins with a good script. A good script begins with a good story. In this class, we will explore the basics of structure and format for a feature-length screenplay, but the majority of the course we will be focused on storytelling, the development and polishing of good, strong stories. We will ask what goes into a good story, and how do you take those elements and, alchemically, turn them into good scenes for a script. Students will write treatments and scenes for their own original feature film ideas, and in the process will learn the formal constraints of a screenplay, formatting, scene development, and how to write effective and compelling dialogue. Most of the semester will focus on reading and discussing screenplays but the class will screen a select number of films over the course of the semester in order to see how moments on the page translate to the screen. The course will require extensive collaborative and small-group work, reading scripts, in-class and out-of-class writing exercises, and the submission, by the end of term, of a partial or full feature-length screenplay.
Every fictional universe has its own history and culture, geography and ecology that act as a backdrop to the narratives that inhabit it. This course will investigate the relationship between such a fantastical place and its characters – with a particular emphasis on the philosophy and symbology of their clothes.
This class will be both an exploration of existing media (film and television, video games, cartoons and comic strips, and other narrative based art forms) and a space to design one’s own world.
Students will generate a journal/sketchbook of ideas to culminate in a paper project concept design for a world. They will build the logic and lore for a fully fleshed out world with an emphasis on character, costume and context.
Students are welcome to world-build for a graphic novel, prep for an animation, production design for a movie, play/performance, fashion show/line or any other medium they wish to work toward or just a paper project exploring a fantasy world of their creation.
Note: This is a conceptual design and not a costume construction class.
In an increasingly geo-politicized world, Muslim and Jewish identities are often seen in opposition to one another. Yet this is actually a new perspective, one that neglects the long, intertwined histories of these religious groups. Large Jewish populations lived in the lands of Islam without interruption from the early 7th century through the 20th century and some continue to this day. There was an intense interaction between Islam and Judaism at all levels of culture and religion, especially music. From the perspective of music and sound, we will try to build a nuanced understanding of Muslim and Jewish musical collaboration, distinction, struggle, and cohabitation across the geographic region of the Middle East, encompassing present-day Turkey, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories, Iran, Morocco, and elsewhere. In this course, we will combine the study of music history and culture with hands-on music-making, dividing class time equally between lecture/discussion/listening and applied and active musical participation. We will study regional musics in their historical and religious environments from the early modern period to the present day. Our work will explore sound practices of the synagogue, mosque, religious festivals, life cycle events, folk song, art traditions and up to contemporary popular music. Other dimensions will include examining the relationship between Qur-anic recitation and Jewish cantorial chant, connections between Sufi mysticism and Kabbalah, improvisation, and how sound is necessary to the experience of ritual. Throughout the course we will welcome guest practitioners and scholars who will guide and deepen our understanding and care of the traditions we are studying.
Magic bullets forged in a pact with the Devil. A blood-stained bride driven to despair and murder on her wedding night. An opium dream of a diabolical witches’ Sabbath. Composers and performers have represented horror, madness, magical creatures, and supernatural elements in innumerable and thrilling ways since the Middle Ages. In this course, we will study key musical works that engage with the supernatural. We will listen to and watch several operas, symphonic works, solo instrumental and vocal pieces, sacred musical works, and examples from popular music and horror film soundtracks. Throughout the course we will consider how composers built a rich musical language to depict the supernatural, often pushing the boundaries of harmony, melody, and rhythm and deviating wildly from established musical norms. We will learn how composers and their works were in active dialogue with the philosophical, scientific, religious, and literary movements of their time, reading excerpts of key works connecting musical aesthetics with magic, science, the visual arts, spirituality, the sublime, and the ambiguous boundaries between the natural and supernatural worlds. Our course will be brimming with infernal demons, benevolent deities, mischievous fairies, unhinged clowns, sorcerers, ghosts, tombs, caves, prophecies, dungeons, monsters and incredible music.
Homework will include readings, listening assignments, journals, brief in-class presentations, and papers.
The United States Constitution is an “invitation to struggle,” an arena and set of principles for unending battles between irreconcilable visions of freedom, well-being, consent, obligation, and community. Far from enshrining answers, it defends questions. Battles over constitutional interpretation and amendment have been battles to open or close core questions. In this seven-week seminar, we examine these battles at close range. Readings include primary documents, commentary and multidisciplinary scholarship. Writing assignments are weekly and varied.
This production course is designed to get students producing video immediately: we will look at basic techniques with an emphasis on simple and self-devised methods of media production, efficient approaches to lighting and sound, and emphasize quick turnover time to create a great amount of work in a relatively short period of time. The course will address hybrid methods such as video installation, found and mixed footage, durational performance and feedback loops (video about video), and less orthodox methods of video production that intersect with mediums such as abstract animation and sculpture. This course will also be built on the history of video art and self-produced film as a history of experimentation through simplicity: from earlier films for carnival crowds through early Portapak video works, Cinéma Vérité to Dogme 95, phone-shot shorts and features.
The majority of complex computer systems are built on open source software. From webpages and blogs through to trillion dollar companies, open source software (OSS) is at the heart of these endeavors. Open source is simultaneously a license, rallying cry, political philosophy, and a practice of creation and curation. Popular examples of open source software include: the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack; the React, Node.js, Angular, and Vue.js web frameworks; the R programming language; and most widely used programming languages.
The course will balance lectures and reading on the history and present of open source (25%), learning about open source best practices (25%), and contributing to open source software (50%). Lectures and readings will cover the history and present of open source, such as the development of Linux, corporate influence on open source software, the meanings of various open source licensing, the xz backdoor, and similar topics.
The practical part of the course will include learning about open source best practices, reading code, and patching open issues in open source software. Students will spend most of the practical part of the course trying to write patches to fix known bugs and feature requests in open source software of their choosing.
Class is one 4 hour block and students are expected to do significant programming both in-class and between courses.
At the center of almost every live performance is a single human being who quite literally runs the show: the stage manager. This course will explore the stage manager’s role as both an artist and an administrator, using the SM’s wide-ranging responsibilities as a roadmap to understanding the production process and all the people involved in it. Through readings, discussions, and projects students will learn the basic skills of stage management: scheduling, technical breakdowns, blocking notation, understanding design drawings, managing rehearsals, creating a prompt book, calling cues, and running a show. Special attention will be paid to communication and collaboration, as well as the stage manager’s unique ability to influence the culture of a production in terms of ethics, equity, and inclusion. This course is recommended for anyone interested in understanding all that goes into making a performance happen, and will be especially useful for directors, choreographers, designers, technicians, and managers for dance and theater.
What does it really look like to pursue being a professional artist? What exactly is the “art world”? How does what I am learning in college apply to life afterwards? This seminar course will address and explore why there is no clear or singular path to “becoming an artist” and offer students the tools to navigate shaping their artistic path from an empowered position.
Together we will tackle the practical aspects and issues of continuing to create art after graduation alongside a critical investigation of the political, economic, and cultural structures of the contemporary art world. We will explore topics related to the major institutions of the art world such as: commercial galleries, private collectors/collections, non-profit spaces, artist-run spaces, museums, universities/graduate programs, auction houses, grants/public art programs, artist residencies, art publications, and more. This course is geared towards senior Visual Arts students (working in any medium) interested in or genuinely curious about pursuing a creative life as a practicing artist after graduation.
This is a fully remote course. In class time will consist of virtual meetings consisting of slideshow presentations/short lectures, discussions, visits/presentations from professionals working in various art world institutions and artists at different stages of their careers, and some asynchronous work. Course work and assignments will consist of readings, watching videos/films, written responses to materials presented, research projects/research presentations, and the development and refinement of materials needed to apply to opportunities after graduating such as: artist statement, artist bio, portfolio, project/grant proposal etc.Investigating your own artistic practice via writing, discussion, and research is central to this course.
This course will review both diatonic and modal harmony as it applies to chord structures, chord progressions, scales used in jazz improvisation, how to interpret chord alterations, and how to identify key centers.
We will learn how to translate the chord symbols found in “lead sheets” (music with only chord symbols and melody) and develop the necessary skills to create intelligent and musical improvised solos.
Students must have the ability to read basic music notation and an understanding of major & minor tonality.
This ensemble will perform a wide range of jazz music (a genre that is constantly evolving), with an emphasis on both ensemble playing and improvisation skills. By playing together, students will learn how blues, swing, Latin, and modern music elements have all fueled this music called jazz. Students will also learn how major jazz artists such as Ellington, Monk, Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Ornette Coleman and others have approached composition. As a group, we will explore different techniques for playing over chord changes and ways to make improvised solos more interesting, both harmonically and rhythmically. Whether playing a jazz standard, a student composition, or free music, the emphasis will be on listening and on interacting with each other, finding ways to create blend, groove, dynamic contrast, and tension/release.
We will learn some music by ear and other pieces will be read. Students will also be encouraged to bring in arrangements, transcriptions, and compositions, which will be read and developed by the ensemble. Students need to have adequate technique on a musical instrument, be able to read music and have a basic understanding of harmony (chord structures, chord-scales, etc.).
We will also focus heavily on intensive critical listening since listening is the key to playing more authentically. We encourage former students who have taken Jazz Ensemble to consider taking this class again to continue learning, exploring, and developing your instrument and knowledge of improvisation.
Adolescent mental health has become a topic of public discourse, due to research showing increases in depressed mood and anxiety among teens. This course is for students interested in a rigorous reading of the recent (past five years) literature on adolescent mental health. We will discuss methodologies to research adolescent mental health, as well as statistical techniques. Using the available evidence, we will debate major theories that explain increases in depressed mood and anxiety.
This course covers the domestic and international challenges facing the struggle for democracy in Middle Eastern countries, with particular emphasis on Iran. It will focus on the historical and sociocultural underpinning of the democratic concept and examine the causes of democratic success and failure.
The struggle for democracy in Iran began in the early 20th century, but today the country is ruled by totalitarian autocrats. Why has this long struggle for democracy failed?
In Egypt, a peaceful movement compelled President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, a dictator, to resign in 2011. A year later Mohamad Morsi, a fundamentalist Muslim, was elected as the new president. In June 2012, he was deposed in a military coup following massive protests calling for his resignation. What caused these changes?
Compromise is the key concept in any functioning democracy. Yet, most pro-democracy groups in the region have failed to appreciate the importance of compromise in pursuit of their goals. In these societies traditional beliefs and values have created a political culture that shapes perceptions and behavior of political activists. As a result, absolutist ideologues promising utopia and religious fundamentalists promising heaven have much in common, including a rejection of democratic compromise. Both groups leave no room for the practical reason and prudence essential to a functioning civil society. It is one thing to support the idea of democracy. It is quite another to act democratically.
Module dates: September 30, October 3, 7, 10, 14, & 17th
In this seminar, we will explore a large and diverse spectrum of repertoire focusing on the voice outside of the Western Classical tradition. Instead, we will look to popular and folk musics from around the world for inspiration in the myriad forms in which vocal expression has developed.
Vocal techniques and styles to be studied in this course include but are not limited to various traditions of overtone singing, belting, yodeling, unpitched techniques in extreme metal and elsewhere, and the employment of pressed phonation and “grit” in pitched singing. We will examine these techniques through extensive listening, in-class demonstration and experimentation, and through analysis of the physiological function of the voice.
Prior musical experience or fluency in Western musical notation is not required to take this course. Notated examples will occasionally be utilized, which will help to familiarize students with some music fundamentals.
Restorative Justiceis a set of values and practices that are having a considerable impact on the way ourjusticesystem, schools, workplaces, conflict zones and communities think about and enactjustice.Restorative Justiceasks: What if harm doers were given the opportunity to take responsibility and make amends? If survivors were able to be active participants in defining whatjusticeis and how it could be enacted to help them to heal and move on? And if the larger community was involved in this accountability and healing process? It also asks the more elemental question: how can we help people to care more about each other and to heal when harm has been done?
In the current social environment, we are questioning the value and humanity of our current system of“justice”. Given this potential openness to change, it is not enough to say that the American system of punishment does not achieve these goals.Restorative justiceclaims to provide the structure and philosophy needed to make this transformation tojusticemore real. But what are the philosophical, psychological, social and emotional values, concepts and practices on which it is built and can be mobilized to support that change? How can we ensure as much as possible thatrestorative justiceis actuallyrestorativeand what theory and practices are most valuable in that effort?
This class will expose you to many of the core ideas and practices ofrestorative justice. It is designed to provide you with understanding of the history, theory and practices of this field. You will learn how to run circles and facilitated dialogues to address conflict and to build community. You will also be offered opportunities to be a part of the campus basedRestorative JusticeCollaborative.
From pop songs like “You Used to Call Me on My Cell Phone” (Hotline Bling) to “Call Me Maybe,” and from our contemporary uses, it’s clear that the telephone has become so much more than a phone. In this course, we will study the telephone as an interdisciplinary device with a long history and divergent uses in order to learn key topics in media studies that also apply to many other technologies and phenomena. We’ll begin with Alexander Graham Bell’s collaborations with Helen Keller to develop the telephone, which we’ll analyze through disability and multisensory studies, key methods that extend to later uses of the phone as an accessible tool, from the video phone for sign language media to apps for visual impairment. Continuing with this rhetoric of embodiment and media, we will explore cases studies of gender and race, from early telephone operators to later cases of call centres, prison communication, and code-switching (as in Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You). We will also track the use of phones in horror and suspense films as a neoliberal beacon of increasing isolation and individualization. From examining the phone as a tool of representation, we will zoom out to questions of infrastructure, interface, and mediation, from geolocation and environmental impacts to apps, voice assistants, surveillance, and AR uses—from Pokémon Go to Apple Vision Pro.
Sustainable development has been defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It calls for concerted efforts towards building an inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future for people and planet. For sustainable development to be achieved, it is crucial to harmonize three core elements: economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. These elements are interconnected, and all are crucial for the well-being of individuals and societies.
Eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions is an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. To this end, there must be promotion of sustainable, inclusive, and equitable economic growth, creating greater opportunities for all, reducing inequalities, raising basic standards of living, fostering equitable social development and inclusion, and promoting integrated and sustainable management of natural resources and ecosystems.
At their core, the Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call for action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. The 17 Goals were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which set out a 15-year plan to achieve the Goals.
The goals encompass the understanding that ending poverty and other deprivations must go together with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth — all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
Today, progress is being made in many places, but, overall, action to meet the Goals is not yet advancing at the speed or scale required. Ambitious action is needed to deliver the Goals by 2030. With just under ten years left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, world leaders at the SDG Summit in September 2019 called for a Decade of Action and delivery for sustainable development, and pledged to mobilize financing, enhance national implementation and strengthen institutions to achieve the Goals by the target date of 2030, leaving no one behind.
More people around the world are living better lives compared to just a decade ago. More people have access to better healthcare, decent work, and education than ever before. But inequalities and climate change are threatening to undo the gains. Investment in inclusive and sustainable economies can unleash significant opportunities for shared prosperity. And the political, technological and financial solutions are within reach. But much greater leadership and rapid, unprecedented changes are needed to align these levers of change with sustainable development objectives.
This is an introductory course to international public law and its relevance in today’s complex and interconnected world. International law can be considered as the law governing the relations between States, but it also includes relations with international organizations, corporations, and civil society organizations. It is also the foundation for International Human Rights Law, Humanitarian law and International Criminal Law.
Despite their differences in size, power, culture, religion and ideologies, states rely on international law to cooperate and to coexist. International law serves them as an important common language.
Module dates: October 24 & 28, November 4, 7, 11, & 14
This class focuses on contemporary singing styles such as rock, heavy metal, and pop, specifically pertaining to students’ work with bands on campus. We will explore the fundamental concepts of singing through the preparation of repertoire for the students’ bands. Students may occasionally be assigned other repertoire relevant to specific technical goals. Group warm-ups and vocalizations will incorporate exercises to develop breath control, resonance, projection, range, color, and agility. We will discuss vocal production and physiology, personalization of text and emotional expression, and microphone technique. We will also work to schedule coaching sessions with the students and their bands outside of regular course time.
For students of varying levels of singing ability. This course will teach fundamental concepts of healthy voice technique that can be applied to singing in any style. Students will work towards individual goals through regular practice of warmups, vocalizations, and awareness exercises, and progress will be assessed by preparation and performance of specific song assignments. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed, as well as personalization of text and emotional expression. Students will study and perform at least one classical art song or aria to strengthen and facilitate technical growth, as well as explore repertoire in other vocal styles that move a student towards their individual performance goals (as determined with guidance from the instructor).
Students should have previous singing experience and/or study and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Sections will meet weekly in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every week to work on repertoire.
What is a soundscape, and how does it matter to our daily lives, our environments, and the media we consume? The term soundscape refers to the range of sounds in a certain place and time, from a hospital’s array of beeping medical machines to the familiar noises of the places you call home. In this course, students will explore the concepts and creation of soundscapes in visual culture and media. We will cover histories and theories from scholars of environmental studies, and sensory studies, among other fields. We will analyze how sonic qualities are socially produced such as the ‘sonic color line’, and the cultural politics of music in Interwar Paris, and develop foundational visual analysis skills in visual and print media for further coursework in media studies. The course will include screenings of fiction and non-fiction media that we will analyze and discuss together. Students will have the option to produce a creative project such as a video essay or an analytical soundwalk(guide listeners through a certain place you’ve recorded), or students can produce a critical essay on the relationship between media, ecology and race.
An advanced acting class where we will go beyond scansion and take much deeper dives into the more challenging and perhaps lesser known of Shakespeare’s speeches and scenes along with some of our favorites. Previous work with actor’s instrument will be required as basic knowledge of character analysis and truthful expression will be essential to apply to the work of powerful personalization of Shakespeare’s brilliant characters and how they come to find their events unfold. Some vocal work will include a warm-up to strengthen and care for the voice and relieve tension. You will be expected to rehearse outside of class. Reading of the plays will be required and, though we may survey proper pronunciations of heightened language, it will matter most that you know what you are saying and that we believe it.
In our work as actors, we honor the truth… using our imagination. How? Our art is the expression of genuine reaction and the following of impulses truthfully, while serving the telling of the story. Through a progressive series of exercises, improvisations, questions and answers, some light reading, writing, and engaging scene work, students will be introduced to the fundamentals of acting. Along with Character and text analysis, students will engage in movement, discussions, and activities outside of class. You will need to rehearse at least 2 – 6 hours a week and be expected to see and critique productions on and off campus.
In our work as actors, we honor the truth… using our imagination. How? Our art is the expression of genuine reaction and the following of impulses truthfully, while serving the telling of the story. Through a progressive series of exercises, improvisations, questions and answers, some light reading, writing, and engaging scene work, students will be introduced to the fundamentals of acting. Along with Character and text analysis, students will engage in movement, discussions, and activities outside of class. You will need to rehearse at least 2 – 6 hours a week and be expected to see and critique productions on and off campus.
This is a 7-week screening and discussion-based seminar on the concept and look of “trashiness” in modern and contemporary media and art practices. We will look at a broad range of art practices as well as film and online media, primarily from the latter half of the 20th century and the 21st. Of particular interest will be works produced in an independent/alternative context, in conversation with “trashy” phenomena in broader culture. This course will conclude with a final work of the student’s choice – whether it take the form of writing, art, or otherwise, it should engage with the theme of this course.
Central to this course is the way “trashy” can be a cultural denigration turned on its head: used by historically marginalized artists and communities to celebrate qualities in any combination: anti-aspirational, queer, counterfeit, filthy, punk and provisional. Through looking at self-financed works and self-organized collaborations, we’ll pay particular attention to a “trashy” approach to materials: substandard goods, dumpster and ruin diving, and the sharing of scant resources. We’ll also take a look at art and philosophical writings on proximate ideas of camp, body horror, drag, gore capitalism, maximalism, glitch, abjection, discards, finding beauty in the provisional. From Rammellzee to Tetsuo Iron Man, Shanzhai Lyric to Lung Leg, Los Espookys runs into the Holy Order of Roller Blades in the garden of Pink Flamingoes on their way to the Bliz-aard Ball Sale.
This production course introduces students to the fundamentals of working in video and the language of film form. Drawing on the energy, intensity and criticality of avant-garde film and contemporary video art practices, students will complete a series of projects exploring dimensions of cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound design before producing a final self-determined project. Concepts crucial to time-based media such as apparatus, montage and identification will be introduced through screenings, discussions and texts by a diverse range of artists, filmmakers, and theorists. Emphasis on technical instruction, formal experimentation, and critical vocabulary is balanced in order to give students a footing from which to find their own voice in the medium.
This class will examine conflict resolution theory and practice. We will explore the nature of conflict, principled negotiation and the mediation process. The skills of active listening as well as multi-party collaborative problem-solving will be introduced. The class will offer a 24 hour Certificate in Mediation Training. Classes will include readings, discussion and role-play simulations. Skills in this area are central to understanding conflict interpersonally, in groups, and in complex organizational settings.
The course will focus on social ecological systems integration framework to determine community resilience, enable smart design processes at the nexus of climate, food, energy and water systems and learn practical skills, such as ; the role of smart approaches to climate literacy and citizen science, digital storytelling, early warning systems and community based experiential knowledge.
In this undergraduate level course, we will explore complex adaptive systems and adaptive management approaches to design resilient communities . Increasing demands of a globalizing economy, loss in biodiversity, the double malnutrition problem (obesity and malnutrition), looming pandemics, aging critical infrastructure, changing demographics, and a changing climate has led to increasing concern about the resiliency of social-ecological and socio-technological systems at multiple scales of governance. These multi-scale challenges require multi-scale solutions. In particular, secure provision of food, meaningful livelihoods, reliable energy , clean water and early warnings to vulnerable communities in the face of natural and man-made hazards requires urgent attention of policy makers, planners and citizens. The emphasis will be placed on practical skills, such as resilience analysis, assessment, evaluation and scenario planning.
Module dates: October 24 & 28, November 4, 7, 11, & 14
In this class we will investigate the basic tenets of Buddhism and the practice of meditation. The class will focus on discussions of the reading and writing materials as well as in-class meditation experience. The goal of this course is to deepen our collective understanding of the intimate connection and complementarity of Buddhist ideas and meditation. The class discussions will encourage both skepticism and open mindedness as we dive deeply into the vast ocean of Buddha’s way. Course activities will include reading Buddhist texts and writing essays that reflect and expand our collective understanding. There is no prerequisite for this class besides curiosity and a desire to understand what it is all about.
“If you are really doing it, you don’t have time to watch yourself doing it.” Sanford Meisner was an actor and founding member of the Group Theater. He went on to become a master teacher of acting who sought to give students an organized approach to the creation of truthful behavior on stage within the imaginary circ*mstances of a play. This class focuses on developing an actor’s ability to listen, follow their impulses, trust their instincts, and work from moment to moment off of an acting partner. We will explore repetition, independent activities, emotional preparation, and the beginings of text work. The class will require extensive out-of-class preparation, with a minimum of six hours a week for rehearsals and the crafting of exercises. In addition, we will be reading Eleonora Duse’s biography, A Mystic in the Theater.
The Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski defined his theory of “poor theatre” as the theatre that values the body of the actor and its relation with the spectator. Poor Theatre used the simplest of sets, costumes,lighting and props requiring the actors to employ all of their skills to transform a space into other imaginative worlds.
In this course, we will rehearse and perform a production of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Our approach will be fully actor-driven, and ensemble based with minimal design elements. Our focus will be on bringing the characters wholly to life, both physically and emotionally in a rehearsal process dedicated to imagining and creating the world of the play. We will seek to find the strongest, most action filled dynamics in the relationships between characters. Rehearsals will take place in class with an additional one night a week for the first half of the term. Possible additional rehearsals will be scheduled as needed towards the end of the term in consultation with the ensemble, with performances at the end of the term. Auditions will take place in the fall. Everyone is encouraged to audition-all roles are available for any and all actors, regardless of race, heritage or gender identification. The rehearsal process will be rigorous and actors should be prepared to commit to a physically based, ensemble driven process.
This course introduces students to the anthropology of science and technology, with fieldtrips taken into adjacent fields of inquiry like STS and the history of science. This course approaches science and technology as a history of the present; that is, as an unfolding set of epistemic deployments that is actively shaping the texture and significance of social life in the present. We will revisit some of the now classic debates that first gave analytical momentum to the study of science as well as familiarize ourselves with some key arguments that are changing the study science and technology today. Several questions will guide our inquiries: What, exactly, do scientists do? What status does scientific knowledge have? What kind of society is enacted in scientific practice and used technologies? Our readings will touch on a number of topics, including: the separation of nature from the social; the historical contexts and applications of science; techniques of scientific practice like the translation of nature, the gendered dynamics of scientific knowledge, and objectivity as a disembodied vision; and the societies and subjects that science creates. This course will tack back and forth between how anthropology has engaged and explained science and the problems that press into our lives that only science seems capable of taming like genetics, the economy, and climate change.
Reversing the typical shame around so-called “ESL” speakers, this course explores the rich history of modern and contemporary Anglophone literature written by authors who learned English as a second language or within a bi/multilingual context. This rigorous reading list is then used as a springboard for cultivating diverse voices and stories in the classroom. The course’s seminar and workshop portions complement each other.
Our readings start with a famous twentieth-century example (e.g., Nabokov) and the comparative case of the establishment of modern Persian fiction before fast-forwarding to our contemporary moment and staying there, placing a stress on the U.S. American literary landscape. The idea of “outsiderness” serves as our entry. Together we ask how this outsider position opened up possibilities for these texts, both thematically and formally. What Others are produced in these texts, and what does Otherness look like within their pages?
We consider, and also critique, the popular idea buttressed by some theories of translation that there is something special about the so-called “mother tongue.” Putting those claims to task, we explore the politics of this feminization of language (i.e., why “mother?”). We furthermore consider how the idea of the mother tongue has been used as a tool of racist colonial policing, shutting racialized others out of official discourse. Recognizing that embracing a “mother” tongue has also been used as a tool of anticolonial resistance, that is, as a way to create space for a self threatened with erasure, we nevertheless consider authors who claim space in and through English-as-imperial tongue, whether by explicitly rejecting the mother tongue (e.g., Yiyun Li) or by more vexedly treating English as a site of loss and melancholia (e.g., Valeria Luiselli, Jhumpa Lahiri) – or still more, by embracing diglossia and multilingualism (e.g., Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie) alongside self-translation. Our workshop utilizes this heterogenous mapping to make room for your work and your peers. We will devote the same time and attention to one another’s work as to this published literature. Our readings might also open room for experimentation with new themes or forms.
This course takes a comparative approach to the global Enlightenment. Exploring ideas of the human and humanity developed across the world at this period, we pursue the idea that forms of difference such as race, gender, and sexuality became essential to defining “human” and “humanity.” Indeed our contemporary world grapples with this legacy. We ask: who is allowed to be fully human? What are the contours of humanity? What sorts of behaviors and ways of thinking must we learn to be fully human?
The course is divided into two units, the first on European colonialism, and the second on Persian imperialism. Juxtaposing colonialism and imperialism allows us to understand the intricacies of how power works, and how forms of difference are made. Colonialism is a form of imperialism; it mechanizes imperialism to make it work more efficiently. Our work is not to make generalizations but to pay close attention to how race, gender, and sexuality shift along axes of time and geography—and also to track when and how certain structures remain intact. In short, nineteenth-century Europe is not the same as twentieth-century Euro-America is not the same as twentieth-century Iran. And yet there is a genealogy here: each one borrows from those before, and concurrent to it.
In his book The Secular Age, the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor writes about what he describes as a “widespread sense of loss … if not always of God, then at least of meaning.” This contemporary crisis of meaning has been well-considered by social scientists, journalists, and artists. In the wake of this, some wonder whether we are entering a “post-secular” age, with a renewed interest in religious themes and symbols. Is faith something opposed to reason, or a precondition for it? Is faith arbitrarily restrictive, or abundantly creative? How can one live a meaningful life amidst uncertainty and suffering?
One place these themes get explored is in fiction, and in particular, the novel. This literature course will delve into the profound interplay between fiction, faith, culture, and meaning. We will chart culture’s move from enchantment to disenchantment, and to the question of reenchantment today, through the close reading of fiction by Graham Greene, James Baldwin, Clarice Lispector, Marilynne Robinson, Sheila Heti, and more. This course encourages critical thinking and interdisciplinary dialogue on the sacred, the transcendent, and how narratives evoke wonder, disillusionment, and the possibility of reenchantment, while also questioning the presumed dichotomy between “sacred” and “secular” art. Students will be required to complete reading responses, and write two papers, one of which can be creative with a critical introduction.
The art of creative writing is also the art of being a witness to the world. In this class, we will learn what forms creative writing can take—focusing primarily on fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction—and discover new ways to see the raw materials of our lives.We will exercise our imaginations through generative experiments and keeping an observation notebook; identify aspects of craft through reading contemporary and classic texts across genres; and hone our instincts for what works well in a story, poem, and creative nonfiction essay through workshopping drafts in each genre.
Foundations of Python Programming: Theory and Practice is a comprehensive introductory course designed to equip students with essential programming skills using the Python language. Throughout the course, students will delve into fundamental programming concepts such as variables, data types, control structures, functions, and object-oriented programming principles. They will also explore key data structures including lists, strings, dictionaries, and sets, gaining practical experience in implementing algorithms and solving real-world problems. By the end of the course, students will have developed a solid understanding of Python programming fundamentals and acquired the ability to apply their knowledge to create Python-based applications.
There are no prerequisites for this class, as it is designed for beginners with no prior programming experience. However, a basic understanding of computer literacy and familiarity with fundamental mathematical concepts such as arithmetic operations and logic would be beneficial.
Advanced Python Programming: Applications and Development is an intermediate-level course designed to build upon the foundational knowledge acquired in an introductory Python programming course. This course delves deeper into Python programming concepts and focuses on practical applications, including file handling, object-oriented programming (OOP), web development, and interacting with APIs. Students will gain hands-on experience with advanced Python libraries, frameworks, and development tools, preparing them for more complex programming projects and further study in Python-related fields.
In the first two weeks, we’ll learn about how our eyes and brain work together to make sense of what we see. We’ll also explore ways to make computer programs better at understanding images by changing them in different ways. We’ll try out some of these changes ourselves using a computer program called Python with a special tool called OpenCV.
Moving on, we’ll dive into how we can tell how far away things are and make cool illusions like the ones you might have seen in magic shows. We’ll also try to recreate some of these illusions using Python and OpenCV.
After that, we’ll talk about how bright or dark things are and how we can figure out what color something really is. We’ll also learn about another illusion that tricks our brains into seeing things differently, and we’ll try to make it happen on our own using Python and OpenCV.
Next up, we’ll explore how things can look different depending on how they’re shaped or positioned. We’ll look at a famous illusion involving a room that plays tricks on our eyes, and we’ll try to recreate it with moving objects using Python and OpenCV.
Then, we’ll talk about how things can seem like they’re moving even when they’re not. We’ll learn about different kinds of movement illusions and try to make some of our own with Python and OpenCV.
In the final weeks, we’ll learn how to get images ready for computer programs to understand them better. We’ll practice drawing lines and shapes on images and learn how to describe what’s in them. We’ll also show off the projects we’ve been working on and talk about how we can make them even better.
Rebetiko was an urban underground music genre that flourished in Greece in the early 20th century. A kind of outlaw blues, rebetiko emerged from the poorest quarters of Athens in the 19th century, its songs typically dealing with themes of exile, wandering the streets after dark, taking drugs and drinking to excess, loving the wrong person, imprisonment, death, and the harsh lives of people displaced by war. The word “rebetiko” derives from the Turkish word “rebet,” meaning rebellious or disobedient and the songs revolve around the lifestyles of the “manghes,” people living by their wits, wheeling and dealing—classic antiestablishment gadabouts. Held in deep suspicion by the police, manghes, their songs and musical instruments were often banned for their blatant antiauthoritarianism. The genre evolved again after the 1923 Population Exchange Between Greece and Turkey, when a million and a half Greek refugees from Asia Minor poured into the urban centers of Greece, particularly Athens, finding themselves on the fringes of society. These newly arrived musicians—Jews, Armenians, Roma, and others— brought the rhythms, singing styles, and melodic modes of Turkey with them and developed a new genre of rebetiko calledsmyrneiko.Ultimately, rebetiko, its composers and performers became wildly popular through recordings and live performance, making an indelible mark on the evolution of Greek music. In this ensemble, we’ll learn the instrumental and vocal hits and hidden gems of rebetiko, focusing on iconic composers like Vassilis Tsitsanis, Markos Vamvakaris, and Apostolos Kaldaras, and magnetic performers like Roza Eskenazi, Rita Abadzi, Giorgos Mouflouzelis, Sotiria Bellou, and many more. We will develop an understanding of rebetiko performance practice—the singing and playing style, the feel of the rhythms, and the character of the songs. Along the way, students will learn about the colorful lives of rebetiko masters and the turbulent history of Greece in the first half of the 20th century.
The class will meet weekly for 12 lectures on a wide range of musical topics, given by faculty and visiting speakers on a rotating basis. The course will provide snapshots into musical performance and scholarship, across genres, cultures, and histories. Lecture topics will be drawn from several areas, including ethnomusicology, music history, Black Music Studies, Queer Studies, music theory, sound studies, live performance, and much more. Students of all musical levels are welcome in this class. Assignments will consist of writing weekly responses to the lectures.
This project-based class is for designers doing intermediate or advanced level work in lighting design, scenic design and/or stage management, those developing and implementing theatrical designs, as well as stage managers of faculty or student directed projects being produced on campus. In a studio atmosphere, students will share work in process each week, from inception through realization of their respective production projects. Particular attention will be placed on collaboration and communication between members of design/production teams. All participants must have already taken at least one course in the project area. Those interested in taking this course must make arrangements with the instructor for an appropriate spring term project prior to registration. A class meeting time will be arranged based on schedules of enrolled students.
Class will meet on Tuesdays, 8:30am-10:20am, plus additional times to be scheduled.
This project-based class is for designers doing intermediate or advanced level work in lighting design, scenic design and/or stage management, those developing and implementing theatrical designs, as well as stage managers of faculty or student directed projects being produced on campus. In a studio atmosphere, students will share work in process each week, from inception through realization of their respective production projects. Particular attention will be placed on collaboration and communication between members of design/production teams. All participants must have already taken at least one course in the project area. Those interested in taking this course must make arrangements with the instructor for an appropriate spring term project prior to registration. A class meeting time will be arranged based on schedules of enrolled students.
Class will meet on Tuesdays, 8:30am-10:20am, plus additional times to be scheduled.
The point of revision, we’re told, is to make our writing better. No wonder (framed this way) the idea of revision can often provoke annoyance, boredom, or even fear. But what if the revision process was closer to John Cage’s “chance operations,” a completely spontaneous and open-ended experience of creativity? Or, what if, through revision, we could explore yet-undiscovered parts of ourselves? Unlock new literary superpowers? Most importantly, what if revision could be fun? A revision-oriented poetry workshop, the course will prompt students to write and re-write their poems throughout the semester. Rather than prioritizing writing many new poems, we’ll prioritize working serially, episodically, writing several versions of the same poems, and seeing where we might end up through a series of games, exercises, chance operations, and experiments.
Afropessimists believe our world is basically hopeless. White supremacy is written into every layer of life, an escapable aspect of the modern condition. This hopelessness, though, is just the beginning for the Afropessimist, who nonetheless plots out a radical course forward–– Could pessimism be the real path to freedom? Through a deep reading of Frank B. Wilderson III, Saidyah Hartman, Jared Sexton, and others, we will mine the generative possibilities of this so-called “pessimism” about the Black condition. Students should expect about 40-60 pages of critical/theoretical reading per week, along with a handful of critical response papers.
This course is for students who are pursuing advanced work in philosophy, and is designed to be taken in conjunction with the SCT Senior Seminar. We will read and respond to a range of philosophical work. The course will emphasize habitual writing and fostering a sturdy philosophical reading and writing practice, along with regular sharing of one’s work, with feedback. Throughout the course, students will be expected to: (1) produce and share self-directed, independent written work at various stages of development, and (2) offer thoughtful, rigorous, and useful commentary on others’ work. Through this process, students will develop and refine their skills in philosophical research, analytical writing, evaluating philosophical arguments, responsive critique, and will progress in articulating and sharpening their own research questions. We will meet weekly at a mutually agreed-upon time. Topics will be determined by participants’ Plans and interests relevant to advanced work in SCT/philosophy.
In this class we’ll set hymn tunes for four voices, SATB ‐ one of the classic methods of studying harmony. We’ll look at the virtuosic chorales of Bach–arranging, reharmonizing, and revoicing each one–while singing everything we write. Emphasis will be on choosing idiomatic chords and creating elegant and singable counterpoint. Towards the end, we’ll look at more contemporary chorale voicings, and other approaches from shape-note to gospel. Previous work in harmony or counterpoint is required.
A cover song that veers from the original is a time-tested way for singers to plant a stylistic flag, from Captain Beefheart’s unhinged take on “Moonlight in Vermont” to Lauryn Hill’s pioneering “Killing Me Softly.” In this class, you’ll be asked to write weird covers, versions of songs that rewrite style, affect, and genre. Sometimes we’ll work in groups and individually, and we’ll work collaboratively to find resources (orchestra? wall of amps? hyperpop producer? backing chorus?), to nudge you beyond your comfortable tools. Students will be expected to create and perform three weird covers in groups or individually by the end of this short class.
This course will look at the versatile program of Max/MSP/Jitter, a high-level programming platform for sound and visuals. Our focus will be on the sonic capabilities of the program, though we will dip occasionally into visuals, video, and sensing technologies. Students will develop research and projects based on their interests and abilities, and must have an independent streak for troubleshooting and communal problem solving. Smaller exercises will show how to reproduce analogue problems in the digital realm, and bring us towards a sonic understanding of both. Visiting specialists will show how to bring Max into diverse interactions with other disciplines, from motion sensors, image tracking, to integration with Arduino and other devices.
Composers and improvisers periodically reinvent the wheel, creating systems of scales and tunings, instruments, and even philosophies of harmony and rhythm. In this course, we’ll also explore how to invent your own systems. Beginning with tuning, students will build an acoustic or virtual instrument based on their own temperament. We will then explore harmonic systems that ground the work of Bartók, Messiaen, and Partch as well as later 20th century music. We’ll look at concepts of raga and tala, and Javanese concepts of pathet, as well as a broad range of rhythmic and harmonic systems from across the world. Students will be expected to do advanced harmonic analysis, master readings, and create original work.
Individual private lessons with focus on the classical repertoire. Students are accepted by audition. Students will meet with the instructor weekly on scheduled class days, at times to be arranged with the instructor. A minimum of 20 minutes practice per day is expected. Two excused absences permitted, with every effort made for make-up lessons. Participation in Tuesday evening music workshop and performance at the end-of-term recital are required.
Beginning, intermediate, or advanced group lessons on the 5-string banjo in the claw-hammer/frailing style. Students will learn to play using simple song sheets with chords, tablature, and standard notation. Using chord theory and scale work, personal music-making skills will be enhanced. History of the African origins of banjo and its introduction to the western world will be discussed as well as past and present practices. Awareness of traditional styles of playing the instrument will be furthered through a listening component and ensemble playing with other instrumentalists. Students must have a 5-string banjo to practice with, a limited number of instruments are available from the music department and instructor.
Beginning, intermediate and advanced group lessons on the mandolin will be offered. Students will learn classical technique on the mandolin and start to develop a repertoire of classical and traditional folk pieces. Simple song sheets with chords, tablature, and standard notation, chord theory, and scale work will all be used to further skills. History of the Italian origins of mandolin and its introduction to the western world will be discussed as well as past and present practices. Awareness of traditional styles of playing the instrument will be furthered through a listening component and ensemble playing with other instrumentalists. Students must have a mandolin to practice with; a limited number of instruments are available from the music department and instructor.
We will study and perform from the string band traditions of rural America. Nova Scotia, Quebecois, Irish, New England, Scandinavian, African-American dance and ballad traditions. In addition, these will be experienced with listening, practice (weekly group rehearsals outside of class), and performing components. Emphasis on ensemble intuition, playing by ear, and lifetime personal music making skills (transposition, harmonizing, etc.). Performances in past terms include: contradances, music workshop appearances, arts-in-education programs for local elementary schools, and participation in a traditional Pan-Celtic music session (Saratoga Springs, NY).
This course explores music from early Indigenous music right on up to present day practitioners. Some of the traditions studied and practiced will include: Native American, Inuit, Québecois, Appalachian, African-American, Irish, Scottish, British Isle traditions, Cajun, Blues, Gospel, Mariachi, and Conjunto music. Instrumental, dance, and ballad traditions are studied and researched, and experienced first hand. Students must bring a guitar, banjo, mandolin, or fiddle (or other social instrument) to class for purposes of furthering personal music making through traditional forms. We will practice and perform as a group, improving our reading and aural skills. Other instruments are possible, but the students must discuss this with the instructor.
An introduction to music theory course. Music theory fundamentals will be taught utilizing voice (singing) and an instrument in hand. Knowledge of the piano keyboard will be learned and utilized. Curriculum will span the harmonic series, circle of 5ths, scales and chords to ear training, harmonic and rhythmic dictation, and beginning composition. Score reading, listening, and analysis will include music of composers from diverse ethnic, racial, sexual, and cultural backgrounds. Course will include singing, aural, and listening components as well as written work. Instrument choices include: voice, guitar, banjo, mandolin, mountain (lap) dulcimer, hammer dulcimer, violin family, woodwind instruments, and piano. Student must bring their own instrument to class.
For the experienced (3+years of playing) violinist/violist. Lessons in traditional styles of fiddling – Quebecois, New England, Southern Appalachian, Scandinavian, Cajun, Irish, and Scottish. This course is designed to heighten awareness of the variety of ways the violin is played regionally and socially in North America (and indeed around the world) and to give practical music skills for furthering personal music making. Students will be expected to perform at Music Workshop, or as part of a concert, in ensemble and/or solo.
This class will examine the principles of complex systems, improvisation and resilience. Concepts such as self-organization, emergence, pattern recognition, adaptation and non-linear structures will be introduced. Ordinarily, we think of order and form as externally imposed, composed or directed. In this class, however, we will consider new kinds of order, not because they are preconceived or designed, but because they are the products of dynamic, self-organizing systems operating in open-ended environments. This phenomenon – the creation of order from a rich array of self-organizing interactions – is found not only in artistic processes, but in a wide variety of natural settings when a range of initial conditions gives rise to collective behavior that is both different from and more than the sum of its parts. Like certain art forms, evolution, for example, is decidedly improvisational and emergent, as is the brain function that lies at the center of what it is to be human. Students will practice their own improvisational forms in whatever discipline they want to work in to prepare to live resiliently in a complex world.
Taking Hannah Arendt’s 1967 New Yorker article “Truth and Politics” as a foundational text, this course will examine how the 2024 election is being covered, and should be covered, in an age when basic facts about politics, history, and voting itself are in dispute. Truth and politics have always lived in a wary co-existence, as Arendt writes, but the modern tools of campaigning—which include misinformation, deceptive use of social media, AI and attacking the press as the enemy—make establishing the basic consensus around which democracy is framed nearly impossible.
We’ll begin the class with the classic movie All the President’s Men, and examine coverage of the contested outcome of the Bush v. Gore race. We’ll look at the tools and methods of disinformation campaigns abroad and at home in the 2016 and 2020 elections, through reports, hearings, podcasts and book excerpts. The course will then turn to the 2024 presidential campaign by examining paid and social media, debates, television shows and other messaging in an era when, as Arendt presciently wrote, “the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world…is being destroyed.” The course will conclude with identifying models for hope and resilience. Students will be highly encouraged to attend the fall Public Policy Forums, which will comprise part of the material for the class.
We all need more care. That much is clear. As it pertains to modern social justice and public action projects, the imperative to incorporate systems of care and healing into the greater conversation has increased dynamically. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased environmental issues due to climate change, it has become even more vital to consider holistic care models in this age of perpetual global crisis. But how do we practice care within contemporary community structures? How might we center technologies of rest in the face of calamity? This seminar examines how contemporary creative researchers and activists might consider dramaturgy as a radical care strategy within contemporary culture and public life. Course readings and viewings offer historical and contemporary case studies. We will regularly have in-class writing exercises and viewings to collectively refine our textual and discursive relationships to public action and performance across various genres of liveness and time-based forms. We will practice meditation, rest, and modes of horizontality.
This seminar draws on research methods used in the fields of visual culture and aesthetics, mediation, emergent performance practice, and literature. Creative responses across a variety of media and a final project, in lieu of a final paper, are expected.
Module dates: September 24 & 27, October 4, 8, 11, & 15
When asked to define “claritas,” our (shall we dare say?) hero Stephen Dedalus in Jame Joyce’s APortrait of an Artist as a Young Man responds thus: “The connotation of the word, Stephen said, is rather vague. Aquinas uses a term which seems to be inexact. It baffled me for a long time. It would lead you to believe that he had in mind symbolism or idealism, the supreme quality of beauty being a light from some other world, the idea of which the matter is but the shadow, the reality of which it is but the symbol. I thought he might mean that CLARITAS is the artistic discovery and representation of the divine purpose in anything or a force of generalization which would make the esthetic image a universal one, make it outshine its proper conditions. But that is literary talk. I understand it so.” But is it, really, mere “literary talk?” Such will be the subject of our investigations as we inhabit the worlds of Dubliners, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, andUlysses. Ancillary readings and investigations will include St. Thomas Aquinas, critical essays, portions of pre-Socratic philosophical texts, religious texts, as well as historical and cultural considerations of the verge of Modernity alongside the plight and lives of Dubliners.
In this course, we will read and write nonfiction that, while not entirely focused on childhood, examines the self and present circ*mstance through a reexamination of the child self. Through reading works such as When You Learn the Alphabet and Fruit Punch by Kendra Allen, Heart Berries by Terese Maire Mailhot, What About the Rest of Your Life by Sung Yim, The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard, The Chronology of Water by Lidia Yuknavitch, and If You Knew Then What I Know Now by Ryan Van Meter, we will examine the underpinnings of childhood, its joys and traumas all, and how these play out in essayistic and memoiristic texts. Paying particular attention to form and style, students will write their own nonfictions that are introspective and investigative, and provide, as these authors do, an existential or theoretical approach to dismantling or assembling their childhoods in light of one’s present considerations.
The word design is often associated with the standardized, and the mass produced. It might signify tools for what Achille Mbembe calls “the frenzied codification of social life according to…various categories of abstraction that claim to rationalize the world on the basis of corporate logic.” Pier Vittorio Aureli observes the emergence of the English word In the late sixteenth-century to describe “something more general than the graphic aspect of drawing (dessin)” and how the Italian disegno became “an ideological banner of a new class of practitioners eager to distinguish themselves from artisans.” In this introductory course, we will grapple with the changing meaning of the word, and the discipline, through practice. We will contend with the separation of (or impossibility of separating) manual and intellectual work. As we plan, project, and translate ideas into drawings, objects, and other things, we will ask ourselves when the impulse to measure, order, classify, and categorize turns compulsive.
This course is an introduction to tessellation, also known as space filling, or packing. Through drawing exercises on various grids (which also happen to be tessellations) we will learn about edges and vertices, moving to regular, semi-regular, and edge tessellation among others, eventually proceeding from planar tiling to packing in three dimensions. Tessellation is a spatial strategy with a wide range of practical uses ranging from patternmaking, scaling, and modular construction to notching, attachment methods, and approximation. In addition to reading about the Timurid dynasty Topkapı pattern scroll, we will study more recent work by artists who use tessellation practically, and metaphorically (usually both), including Etel Adnan, Sanford Biggers, Claudia Comte, General Idea, Jeffrey Gibson, Marlene Bennett Jones, Emma Kunz, Martha Jane Pettway, Bridget Riley, Jordan Nassar, and Hamra Abbas.
Clay responds directly to touch, retains memory and is forced through the dynamic process of firing to fix a point in time. This class will introduce students to a variety of hand-building techniques to construct sculptural and/or utilitarian forms. Students will develop their skills by practicing techniques demonstrated in class. Through making, students skills will increase, granting more confidence, and allowing more control over the objects they wish to realize.
Almost a century ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt alerted Americans to an impending global conflict that would pit representative governments founded on individual liberty against rising fascist dictatorships pursuing “final solutions.” Drawing inspiration from John Dewey’s philosophy of progressive education, FDR underscored that “The real safeguard of democracy… is education. It has been well said that no system of government gives so much to the individual or exacts so much as a democracy. Upon our educational system must largely depend the perpetuity of those institutions upon which our freedom and our security rest.”
This course examines the building blocks and animating principles of representative democracy. We focus on education as the bedrock of an informed citizenry that champions the principles and freedoms at the heart of American democracy. Through guided discussions and curated readings led by expert guests, we will explore the essence of democracy and devise strategies for meaningful engagement. Topics and materials include America’s foundational documents, the nexus of education and democracy, media influence, social justice debates, economic crises, technological instability, environmental stewardship, and the global drift into authoritarianism. Whether you seek to deepen your understanding of democracy or reignite your commitment to civic responsibility, we invite you to join us.
Participants will attend our series of Thursday evening speakers and panels, participate in discussions and breakout sessions, and write brief response papers to prompt questions.
I’m not a scientist, but I’m going to full-throatedly argue, scientifically and unimpeachably, that every living creature harbors a desire, whether conscious or instinctive, often more than one desire at a time. A bevy of tree nuts. A good place to take a winter’s-long nap. A cup of coffee. A better job. An easier time of it all. Life is rife with desire. And what’s more, desire in and of itself is not reckless.
And yet!
Every good story turns on a character’s desire gone reckless: Gatsby’s desire for Daisy; Terabithia’s desire for a bridge (to be fair, I haven’t read that book, so I might be misrepresenting it’s content); Odysseus’s desire to be cleverer than everyone else (I know, “cleverer” instead of “more clever”? Risky business but rule of thumb says one syllable always the -er and three or more syllables always the ‘more’ but two syllables? two syllables is dealer’s choice and “more clever” doesn’t scan as well); Humbert Humbert’s desires for, well, you know, we all know, and if you don’t know, you can register for Professor Boully’s course on Lolita; Elizabeth Bennet’s desire for independence and autonomy; Emma Bovary’s desires, full stop.
In this class we will be reading novels that speak to specific and damning desires (damning to someone, whether author or character or reader). These texts will be pulled from authors writing in the 19th and early 20th centuries as well as producing work in the here and now, or at least the recently then and soon to be. We’ll focus on how authors employ social mores and specific circ*mstances to heighten the recklessness of these desires, what historical context and society’s criteria can tell us about how these desires were perceived and, in some cases, punished, and whether and how these desires continue to be transgressive or not. The tentative reading list includes, but is not limited to (nor guaranteeing) Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Lady Chatterly’s Lover by Lawrence, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, My Education by Susan Choi, and Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. Students in class will be asked to write critically and fully participate in class discussions as well as complete a final project.
Let’s dive head-first into the Aegean Sea, swim around in the waters once swum by Achilles and Odysseus, root around in sacrifices and altars, the occasional slaughter of beloved Patroclus, the blood-thirsty murder of Hector and also a host of would-be-suitors of Penelope (I won’t lie, that becomes a bloody bloody mess, that one) before swimming over to the Ionic and Tyrrhenian Seas, chasing, if you will, on the heels of that squirrelly Trojan, Aeneas, who, weirdly enough, finds his way to what we know as Italy and becomes the founder of Rome well before Odysseus even makes it back to the shores of his beloved Ithaca. Go figure. While there, we’ll revisit the ancient myths of horrifying abuse suffered by ancient Greek women at the hands of gods and demi-gods in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, because it is useful to pair everything with a stark and tragic reminder of the transformational resilience of the least powerful among us when suffering trauma.
It’s the Greeks; it’s the Romans; it’s gonna be epic.
In this course we will explore different literary strategies that several key contemporary authors (known and lesser known) from the Spanish-Speaking World, such as Roberto Bolaño, Pedro Lemebel, María Enriquez, Montserrat Álvarez, Blanca Varela, Leopoldo María Panero, Juan Villoro, Enrique Villa Matas, among others, have used to configure their imaginary and alternative worlds. We will analyze the way these authors have worked with rhetoric figures, imaginary, lexicon, film, music, bestiary, space, time, tone, rhythm, intertext, social, political, gender and cultural themes, to start deepening the students’ own creativity to represent their potential imaginary worlds. We will also dive into a variety of literary genres such as poetry, short stories, micro stories, and chronicles. Then, students will have the opportunity to exercise their creativity imitating, modifying, intervening and/or offering a unique creative text in dialogue/response/discussion with the several texts read and analyzed. The time of the classroom will be used for each student to share their creative pieces and receive feedback from the classmates and the professor. There will be many opportunities to review drafts. As a final product, students will present their collection of a wide array of creative texts (poems, short stories, micro stories, chronicles, hybrid pieces), and selected works of these collections will be featured in the Loom of Tongues #6, CSL series of events, at the end of the semester. Advanced level. In Spanish.
The German term Gesamtkunstwerk roughly translates as a “total work of art” and refers to an artistic endeavor wherein various art forms are melded together to form a unified whole. Through the amalgamation of art, craft, music, and performance, Gesamtkunstwerk evokes a realm distinct from our everyday experience.
In this course, we will explore the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk by examining historical instances such as the Arts and Crafts Movement in England, the Vienna Secession, Andy Warhol’s Factory, Yayoi Kusama’s work, and Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Desert Art Museum. Additionally, we will delve into the trend of auteurs and impresarios increasingly dictating artistic terms, which leaned towards authoritarianism before World War II and shifted towards marketing and branding thereafter.
Finally, we will engage in both individual and collaborative studio projects with the aim of creating our own Gesamtkunstwerk as the culminating project of the course.
Almost a century ago, Franklin D. Roosevelt alerted Americans to an impending global conflict that would pit representative governments founded on individual liberty against rising fascist dictatorships pursuing “final solutions.” Drawing inspiration from John Dewey’s philosophy of progressive education, FDR underscored that “The real safeguard of democracy… is education. It has been well said that no system of government gives so much to the individual or exacts so much as a democracy. Upon our educational system must largely depend the perpetuity of those institutions upon which our freedom and our security rest.”
This course examines the building blocks and animating principles of representative democracy. We focus on education as the bedrock of an informed citizenry that champions the principles and freedoms at the heart of American democracy. Through guided discussions and curated readings led by expert guests, we will explore the essence of democracy and devise strategies for meaningful engagement. Topics and materials include America’s foundational documents, the nexus of education and democracy, media influence, social justice debates, economic crises, technological instability, environmental stewardship, and the global drift into authoritarianism. Whether you seek to deepen your understanding of democracy or reignite your commitment to civic responsibility, we invite you to join us.
One of the primary jobs of the storytelling tradition is to sing the songs of a culture’s heroes. In this class we’re going to take a look at what a hero is and what it means to write and sing the songs that immortalize them. And by songs I mean…plays and movies. We will attempt to define what a hero is, what a hero was, what a hero could be. We will look at the everyman hero, the superhero (formerly known as a demigod), and everything in between. Primarily we’re going to examine the ordinary person who, in the heat of war or the great pressures caused by the unfairness of life, says this far, no further. I will stand up no matter what the cost.
There are hundreds of heroes we could look at, but we’ll be most interested in examining those enshrined in works that help create a society’s shared moral compass. We’ll be reading and watching the stories of modern moments of courage in the face of great risk, both true life examples and fictional ones: Schindler’s List, Hotel Rwanda, Till, Casablanca, A Small Light, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ruined. We’ll look at people who stepped in to save others when no one else would: Erin Brockovich, Oslo. And we’ll talk about the courageous who haven’t been sung about in our artform yet. Maybe you’ll do the singing. Malala Yousafzai, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for fighting for rights for women and who was shot by the Taliban for it, Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State who stood up to Trump and wouldn’t let him steal the Georgia election, Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan, who worked tirelessly, fighting for equal rights for American women, the list goes on and on. We’ll also spend some time contemplating everyday superpowers like money, beauty, strength, community, family, nepotism. And the all-time winner: charm, or charisma, the power to make people do what you want, to believe what you want them to believe. This makes our artform a superpower, and once in a great while, when changing the hearts and minds of its audience (Angels in America, The vagin* Monologues) one capable of the heroic.
Students will decide what they believe a hero means when they write a final play of 40-90 minutes in length about an ordinary person, either based in real life or a character they create, who is called on to do extraordinary things.
What do we mean when we talk about a “surreal experience”? Which historic, cultural, and literary implications are behind this colloquial expression? How did (and does) Surrealism manifest in Modern Latin American artistic expressions, and how is that manifestation connected to Pre-Columbian cosmology? In this course, we will study the premises of the French surrealist manifesto, examining its relationship with the Pre-Columbian art and culture, as well as with the technological upheavals and global impact of World War I. Then, we will study Latin American Surrealists, their practice and production, and their ongoing impact on contemporary Latin American poetry and art. Finally, we will start to trace the communicating vessels that potentially unify a Latin American identity that is in a constant transformation and reformulation of itself. To this end, we will divide the course into two parts: In the first, we will go over a wide array of theoretical texts related to Surrealism and Pre-Columbian cosmology (Mary Ann Caws, Melanie Nicholson and George Bataille). In the second part, building on those theories, we will examine a diverse set of surrealist cultural products-poems, paintings, photographs, journals, and multidisciplinary works. The focus of the class will be on student-generated discussions and critical thinking about texts and concepts, and students will debate their own perspectives, both in conversation and in writing, thus developing analytical and linguistic skills. Surrealist approaches and surrealist learning methodologies will also come across, and students will have the opportunity to create surrealist pieces. Intermediate-High Level. In Spanish.
The Mexican photographers, Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Graciela Iturbide, and the Chilean documentary film director, Patricio Guzmán, have a common call: to document the impossible. In this course, we will explore the different ways in which each of these artists use images to capture and re-frame the complexity of their cultural heritage, as well as the beauty and intricacies of their daily lives and surroundings, and, in the case of Guzmán, the search for the remains of “disappeared” loved ones. By doing so, we will also dive into how their works raise awareness about the role of aesthetics in helping memory to retell its multiple and meaningful stories in the most vivid, creative, and imperishable manner. The focus of the course is on student-generated discussion, and critical thinking about these media, but continual practice in all four major areas of language (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) is essential. Students will develop their oral and written skills, progressing to a defense of ideas. We examine grammatical and linguistic questions as they arise naturally in the classroom. This course should also provide contextual support for future studies in Spanish, not to mention other fields. Low-intermediate. In Spanish.
Film openings both credit all the film “makers” and set the tone for what will follow. Unlike the cover of a book, they immerse the viewer in a multi-sensory experience designed to engage and prepare. Explored as palimpsests, these opening titles will be examined as examples of paratexts, as well as entry points into the films they introduce and the cultures they reflect. Screenings and theoretical readings by authors such as bell hooks and Derrida will guide the class discussions. With a focus on filmmakers from French-speaking countries, screenings will include films by Claire Denis, Max Ophüls, Euzhan Palcy, and Agnès Varda, among others. Weekly viewings required. Course conducted in English. No knowledge of French necessary.
The Scriptorium, a “place for writing,” is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing. As we write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a persuasive, well-supported thesis statement, we will also revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style. Our learning goals include practicing to write with complexity, imagination, and clarity. This Scriptorium’s readings will center on the themes of femininity and masculinity—and gender performance in between and beyond; we will watch the filmBarbie(Greta Gerwig 2023) as a beginning. We will also study critical essays and theory to provide a framework for our discussions. (This is not a Creative Writing course.) Our readings may include the following authors: Gloria Anzaldúa, Honoré de Balzac, Jorge Luis Borges, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Shohini Chaudhuri, Bora Chung, Denise Duhamel, Michel Foucault, Manuel Gonzalez, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, Ursula K. Le Guin, Clarice Lispector, Audre Lorde, Nina MacLaughlin, Aoko Matsuda, Herman Melville, Alice Munro, Sianne Ngai, Ovid, Patricia Pinho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Karen Russell, and David Trinidad. And, we may read from the following authors for their relevant critical or personal essays, philosophy, and theory: Lauren Berlant, Judith Butler, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, Jack Halberstam, bell hooks, Laura Mulvey, and Riki Anne Wilchins.
The organism sits at the heart of biological evolution. Judged on its form and performance, the organism is the ultimate object of natural selection, and thus understanding its development and function is key for understanding the evolution of life. In this course you will learn fundamentals across the levels of biological organization to understand how genetic information interacts with the external and internal environment to produce unique individuals. This course offers an integrative approach to understanding life by examining how organisms are constructed, from the microscopic building blocks of cells to the complex interplay of genetics, physiology, and behavior. With a focus that spans across the vast diversity of eukaryotic life, students will delve into the major taxonomic clades, unraveling the mysteries of their development, evolution, and ecological roles. This holistic approach is designed to introduce students to various fields of biology while highlighting their interconnectedness. This course will be accompanied by a hands-on laboratory section, which will include dissections, field work, handling living organisms, and hypothesis-driven experimentation. Students can expect to gain a thorough appreciation for the complexity of life, an understanding of the fundamental processes that shape organisms, and the practical skills necessary for scientific inquiry and experimentation.
Dive deep into the world of endocrinology, a critical field of study that explores the body’s hormonal systems and their pivotal role in orchestrating various physiological and behavioral processes. This comprehensive course is designed for students with a keen interest in understanding how hormones, the chemical messengers of the body, develop, integrate, and regulate our bodily functions. We will embark on a detailed exploration of the different classes and sources of hormones, hormone production and synthesis, receptors and target tissues, mechanisms of action and regulation, and research methods in endocrinology. Through a curated selection of readings from the primary literature, we will examine landmark studies and current research focusing on classical endocrine systems, offering insights into how our understanding of endocrinology has evolved. Moreover, we will explore the pathophysiology of endocrine disorders, investigating how imbalances in hormonal regulation can lead to disease states. By the end of this course, you will have gained an appreciation for the complexity and beauty of the endocrine system, a critical component in the intricate biology of humans and animal.
This class will focus on historical methods of electronic music composition through a contemporary lens. We will study synthesis in depth, and the development of early analog synthesizers, while learning how these techniques have influenced contemporary software design. While the class will focus on composing, students will be expected to learn how to use VCV Rack, and Madrona Labs software. We will have weekly critiques of works-in-progress, and the class will culminate in the creation of a collaborative mix-tape of student compositions. Students who enroll in this class are expected to have some basic knowledge of a DAW such as Garage Band, Pro Tools or Ableton Live.
This course will introduce students to Society, Culture & Thought by engaging with the work of one of Bennington College’s most remarkable former professors, Karl Polanyi. Nearly 80 years ago, fleeing the rise of Naziism in Europe, Polanyi arrived at Bennington, and gave a series of public lectures that offered a bold new interpretation of what had gone wrong as the world fell into unprecedented turmoil. Soon, he was hard at work writing these early thoughts into what became his magnum opus, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time. As the war and the manuscript both neared completion in 1944, Polanyi left the final revisions in the hands of colleagues at Bennington College as he rushed back to Europe to put his stunning synthesis to work rebuilding the world.
This class will be structured into two parts. Over the first half of the term, we will read and dissect The Great Transformation through a range of disciplinary lenses, including political economy, anthropology, and politics. The second half of the term will focus on using concepts and tools from the social sciences and humanities to consider the applicability of Polanyi’s ideas to today’s most pressing issues: globalization and market fundamentalism; the rise of hypernationalism and xenophobia; climate change and the commodification of nature; and the potential for reinvigorating democracy.
This foundational class covers modes of reasoning used in quantitative sciences and mathematics. While learning the art of mathematical modeling, i.e. translating the physical systems/real-life situations into mathematics, we will apply problem solving and practice effective communication of mathematics. This process involves isolating the essential variables and interactions, setting up equations that constitute a model, running the model on a computer (we will use R: http://www.r-project.org/), and modifying the hypotheses in response to the model predictions. This process is helpful in many areas of science and social science because it forces you to carefully understand your assumptions, allows you to test and more deeply understand basic conceptual theories, and can help identify targeted experiments to fill gaps in the current understanding of the system.
This course is not a repetition of high school mathematics; rather, it places high school mathematics in a larger context, and concentrates on the applications of mathematical thinking to the sciences. You do not need to know about logarithms or trig functions to take the course – we will develop these from the beginning – but you should be comfortable with topics like elementary algebra and drawing simple graphs.
In this research-based course, students will work in teams to apply their mathematical and other relevant skills to a problem coming from a business, industry, or government (BIG) partner. The goal will be to creatively and collaboratively develop a solution for the problem, and professionally present the results of their work to the partner organization. The partner organization and specific problem we will focus on will be chosen by fall registration. This course is for students with strong mathematical preparation and likely will be relevant to students with interests across the sciences. Student success will depend on realistic industry evaluations such as teamwork, communication, individual initiative, and final products.
Students in their second, third or fourth years of study with focuses across science, mathematics, and computer science with significant mathematical background are encouraged to talk to the instructor about this course and the way that their skills might contribute to the chosen problems.
This course will introduce students to relief printmaking, including the process of carving and printing woodcuts, wood engravings, linoleum cuts, and eraser prints. Students will learn through technical demonstrations, hands-on experience, and discussions. With this direct process of image making, we will explore one-color impressions, as well as multicolor-reduction printing. Students who have experience beyond the introductory level are welcome.
Besides creating our own work, we will look at original prints from the collection of the Clark Institute, and consider applications of relief printmaking into other ephemeral forms, such as postcards, books, and zines. Students who take this course will develop a more complex understanding of fine art printing, and the skills and visual vocabulary to accompany that process.
In this course, students will examine specific visual art representations of everyday life in French-speaking contexts as well as the realities they address, with a focus on race and gender issues. Through the reading of a variety of images – postcards, film opening sequences, statues, installations, memorials, and virtual reality experiments – students will hone their linguistic skills and enrich their understanding of the economic, social, geographical, historical and artistic realities of various French-speaking societies. Written assignments, conversation practice, and oral presentations will help students develop aural and speaking skills, fine-tune their French grammar and expand their vocabulary, as well as deepen their critical skills. Intermediate-low level. Conducted in French.
What is nature? Who gets to speak for nature? What is the institutional arrangement, political economic system, and form of political community best suited to cultivating a more sustainable relationship with the more-than-human realm? These questions are most effectively grappled with by putting political theory into conversation with environmental studies. In cultivating this transdisciplinary conversation, we will reconsider both (1) conventional political theoretical debates over democracy, citizenship, sovereignty and justice through the lens of environmental thought, and (2) long-standing environmental debates over wilderness, animal rights, environmental justice and climate change through the lens of political theory.
This course, intended for students who will continue to the Advanced Projects in Film/Video II course in spring 2025, supports advanced students in planning, pre-production, and early production for more complex, larger-scale, longer-duration, self-directed video projects. It also includes a screening series where we watch and analyze the process behind feature and mid-length films, and usually also includes some guest lectures from professionals in the field. Advanced Projects courses are designed to help you think through your advanced work and remain accountable to your own best timeline for completing it.
This course is for experienced student artists with a firm commitment to serious work in the studio. Students will work primarily on self-directed projects in an effort to refine individual concerns and subject matter. Students will present work regularly for critique in class as well as for individual studio meetings with the instructor.
There will be an emphasis on the growth of each student’s critical abilities, the skills to think clearly and speak articulately about one’s own work and the work of others. Emphasis on the development of an awareness of vantage-point will be a central priority when discussing the work of others. Priority will be placed on the establishment of inclusive classroom norms, and issues of power and subjectivity in the history of academic studio critique will be presented through reading assignments and in discussion.
Student research and related presentationswillbe an ongoing aspect of this course, and will focus on the work of 20th and 21st century artists and scholars as it relates and supports their own investigations. Overall, the development of a strong work ethic will be crucial; a high level ofcommitmentis expected.Please note that this course may require additional materials to be purchased by the student.
What strategies do artists use to efficiently develop an initial idea? How does one sustain a meaningful, vital, creative inquiry? How can a direct connection be made between daily life and making images, and between the personal, and public or political worlds?
This intermediate level course will address these questions through an intensive immersion in drawing and investigation into the design of strategies for generating drawing. Students will be asked to engage with a series of structures, arrangements, and approaches to visual thinking. These frameworks, or conditions, will be both found in the world, and also designed by students themselves, both through individual activity and through collaboration. Examinations of the ideas, artworks, and approaches used by artists from history and contemporary art will provide a platform on which investigations will be based.
A high level of commitment is expected; students will engage with assignments which will require them to draw daily, to focus fully on the development of an ambitious drawing practice, and to dedicate themselves to strengthening their skills and awareness of their own priorities as artists. Students should expect regular reading, writing, and assigned research.
Although students will be asked to respond to questions presented in class, and specific assignments will be given throughout this course, it is the objective of this class to provide the skills necessary for the student to confidently pursue self-designed projects.
This course introduces a variety of materials, techniques and approaches to working with oil paint. Emphasis is placed on developing and understanding of color, form and space as well as individual research and conceptual concerns. The daily experience of seeing, along with examples from art history and contemporary art, provide a base from which investigations are made. Formal, poetic, and social implications within paintings both from class and from a wide-ranging selection of practicing artists are examined and discussed. Students complete work weekly. There are regular group critiques and individual reviews, reading assignments and lectures by visiting artists. A high degree of motivation is expected.
Although students will be asked to respond to questions presented in class, and specific assignments will be given throughout this course, it is the objective of this class to provide the skills necessary for the student to confidently pursue self-designed projects.
Contemporary American conservatism has evolved considerably from its historical roots in the ideologies of classical conservatism and classical liberalism. How did we get from Edmund Burke to Steve Bannon? From the Federalists to the Freedom Caucus? To gain insight into these questions, this course will explore how the aforementioned ideologies have intersected with four distinct traditions within American conservative thought: (1) libertarianism; (2) neo-conservatism; (3) white supremacism; and (4) evangelical Christianity. With a contentious election unfolding, analyzing the political logics of these ideological variants, and how they’ve converged and diverged in practice, will give us a better understanding of the political conjuncture in which we find ourselves.
This is the seventh term Japanese course. In this intermediate course, students will learn various art forms in Japan from pottery in the Jomon Era (about 14,000 BC – 300BC) to Takashi Murakami’s so-called “superflat,” a postmodern art movement, in the Heisei Era (1989 -2019). As they learn about Japanese art, they will analyze elements of Japanese aesthetics that were shared in various art forms during each period. Students will also examine what societal changes influenced the changes in art. There are numerous points in the long Japanese history where the styles of Japanese art changed drastically and/or new art forms arose because of what was happening in Japan during that time. Throughout the course, students will create their own digital art archive to demonstrate their understanding of art history in Japan and why and how new art forms/movements arose in Japan and were brought to Japan.
Students will continue to develop their linguistic and cognitive skills by investigating and researching answers to questions like:
1) How did styles of pottery change when rice agriculture was brought to Japan from China?
2) How did Japanese isolation from foreign countries during the Edo period bring changes to Japanese paintings?
3) How did Buddhism influence Japanese art?
Their films, their books, their work, their lives have marked and shaped many lives, and still do. This course will focus on selected works of French and francophone women creators – authors, painters, choreographers, stand-up comedians, advocates, and scholars. We will explore a variety of genres and forms of expressions.Readings include excerpts from Histoire de ma vie (Sand, 1854),Aveux non avenus(Cahun, 1930),Le deuxième sexe(Beauvoir, 1949), as well as two novels: La vie sans fard (Condé, 2012) etLa discrétion(Guène 2021). Moreover, we will discuss a performance,Les Indes galantes(Dembélé, 2020), and the multi-faceted work of writer and thinker Maboula Soumahoro.Students will also learn from their live discussions with some of the contemporary “créatrices” studied in this course. Written assignments and oral presentations will help students improve their reading, speaking and writing skills in French. Advanced level. Conducted in French.
“One could even compare the function of Renaissance perspective with that of critical philosophy… The result was a translation of psychophysiological space into mathematical space; in other words, an objectification of the subjective.”
— Erwin Panofsky, Perspective as Symbolic Form
This course is about how an image might represent a codified or systematic way of thinking. We will study the differences between one-point perspective, parallel projection, non-perspectival representation, and the problem of depth in these representational modes. Weekly drawing exercises will be paired with readings to elaborate on various ‘rules’ for creating space in a picture. After a series of directed drawing assignments, students will work individually to further explore, untangle, or build on the drawing methods studied in the course. Students will have the option of making original work, creating perspectival experiments, or conducting and presenting research for their final projects. Massimo Scolari’s book (after which the course is titled) will be used as a reader, and we will consider Anne Anlin Cheng’s proposition that “We do not master by seeing; we are ourselves altered when we look.”
This seminar will look in depth at the work of two idiosyncratic mid-to-late 19th-century devotional poets, the legendary American recluse Emily Dickinson and the tormented British Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, both of whom reimagined the lyric poem and revolutionized poetic language, transforming the sound and texture of English verse through their original approaches to rhythm, syntax, punctuation, and word choice. Particular attention will be paid to the innovative and subversive nature of both poets’ work, to a close reading of individual poems, and to the spiritual and religious dimensions of their poetry, the myriad ways both Dickinson and Hopkins wrestled with God in their writing. We will also examine the life of each poet consider Dickinson and Hopkins in the context of their contemporaries, and visit Emily Dickinson’s home in Amherst, Massachusetts. Students should expect to write two essays (one on Dickinson and one on Hopkins), to memorize and recite a poem by each poet, and to complete several creative assignments.
This course will closely examine various modes in which poetry is commonly written, including the elegy, the ode, the ekphrastic, the prose poem, the pastoral, the aubade, and the litany. Students will also be introduced to the vocabulary and practice of traditional prosody, acquire a familiarity with writing in meter and using rhyme, and attempt traditional forms such as the sonnet, the villanelle, the sestina, the pantoum, the ghazal, and the abecedarian. Particular attention will be paid to the evolution of traditional forms and the myriad ways contemporary poets approach form and prosody. Poets whose work will be discussed will likely include Agha Shahid Ali, Rick Barot, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jericho Brown, Terrance Hayes, Randall Mann, Maggie Millner, and Mark Strand. Each week, students will read a packet of poems (or volume of poetry) in a given genre, and will attempt a poem in the genre or form being discussed. At the end of the term, students will submit a final portfolio of poems with a critical introductory essay.
How can we be together and create something together, when we are physically not in the same space and time? In light of the above question, this course will be fully remote, facilitated through a combination of synchronous remote sessions and individual outside-class projects. Throughout the course, with body-centered minds, we will interview each other, and exchange conversations, poems, ideas, songs, drawings and inspirations, sometimes using nonsensical and absurd themes. Using the early-bird special class time (the most pure and non-invasive time of a day!), we will support and inspire each other to set up a healthy, positive and creative mental and physical modality in order to live each day fully as a new once-in-a-life-time event, not as a predetermined routine. In addition, various movement and art practices that activate our body and sensory system will be introduced in each session in order to facilitate the body-centered thinking and communication process.
This course is open to students from any discipline who are interested in exploring an interdisciplinary approach to body-based arts and practice, and cultivating and deepening their own practices and visions while staying in communication with and inspired by others. Students can participate in this course from anywhere remotely. Besides weekly zoom meetings, students will be asked to develop their own small “dances” of any medium inspired by the in-class conversations with others.
As a constitutional structure for combining self-rule and shared rule, federalism often crops up in negotiations designed to rebuild or reconcile societies torn or threatened by civil wars in contexts as diverse as Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine in Europe, Myanmar and the Philippines in Asia, Iraq and Syria in the Middle East, and South Sudan and Somalia in Africa. But are federal arrangements and related territorial autonomy mechanisms prudent and sustainable paths to peace in ethno-politically troubled countries? This course explores the lively scholarly and policy debates surrounding this question. Topics include: theoretical perspectives on federalism, institutional options for designing federalism, conditions associated with federal successes and failures, potential alternatives to federalism in deeply divided societies, and illustrative country case studies.
Political institutions are the decision norms and organizations that govern political life. Academic and policy interest in such institutions is flourishing as previously authoritarian states seek to craft democratic constitutions, while established and new democracies contend with non-democratic, illiberal, or populist challenges to their political systems. This course introduces students to major political institutions and the debates about their relative merits. Readings, assignments, case studies, and class discussions and presentations will explore institutional structures and choices in contemporary polities, including parliamentary and presidential systems; federal and unitary arrangements; plurality and proportionality electoral designs; formal and informal political institutions; the nature of “hybrid” political systems; and problems of institutional design in transitional political or constitutional contexts.
How should states and the international community respond to protracted and violent conflicts involving ethnic, linguistic, religious or other identity groups? This is/was one of the central challenges of politics and governance in places as diverse as Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Fiji, Iraq, India, Indonesia, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Nigeria, Rwanda/Burundi, Sri Lanka and The Sudans. This course will examine contending explanations for ethnic conflicts, alternative political and constitutional strategies for managing inter-group conflicts, the challenges and opportunities raised by international mediation in deeply divided societies, and case studies of relatively successful and unsuccessful ethnic conflict management.
The purpose of education is to bring us to love beauty. This, at least, according to Socrates in Plato’s Republic (403c5-6). The Greek word Plato uses for ‘love,’ here is ‘erotika,’ that is: erotics: passionate, intense desire such as one has for a lover. It is this kind of love that Plato insists we should have for the beautiful (the fine, to kalon). What does it mean to erotically love beauty (or Beauty)? What value does beauty have? Is it all in the eye of the beholder or could beauty be a transcendent ideal? Is beauty significantly connected to truth? To goodness? How is artistic value related to the beautiful? This course will explore these questions in the context of ancient Greek philosophy and its receptions. Likely readings will include works by Plato (Symposium, Phaedrus, Lysis), Aristotle (Poetics, Nicomachean Ethics), Plotinus (On Beauty), as well as more recent philosophical considerations.
This class is a broad survey of mathematical theories and techniques which are applied in the physical sciences and engineering, but also are of interest in their own right. The class will cover fundamentals of ordinary and partial differential equations, fundamental to classical mechanics, electrodynamics, quantum mechanics, and chemistry. A large part of the course will cover Fourier analysis, which is deeply connected to the solution of partial differential equations, but also of interest in many other applications. The class will also touch on topics such as asymptotics, calculus of variations, and complex analysis.
Note that in our non-standard calculus sequence, we do not cover some standard computational techniques of calculus in the introductory course MAT 4288 Calculus: A Classical Approach. Some of those techniques will be covered in this class instead. Therefore, this class can be a good choice for students who took Calculus: A Classical Approach and want to go further with calculus.
The goal of this class is to introduce the standard topics and theorems of a first abstract algebra course (groups, rings, modules, and fields), in a historically motivated context, primarily through number theory. Number theory asks questions about whole numbers: for example, are there infinitely many fundamentally different “Pythagorean triples”, where two whole number perfect squares add to a third, such as 3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2 ? Which other whole numbers can be written as a sum of two perfect squares? These questions have a rich history. Natural questions lead to surprising answers and clever techniques, introducing new ideas which then take on their own life.
The class will be taught with a number of optional topics, so that students taking it directly after Logic and Proof can concentrate on the core material, while more senior students can go into more depth in topics of interest. Note that Calculus is not a prerequisite for this class.
What is the difference between belief and knowledge? What is it to have a mind? Is theism rational? Are our actions free? These are some of the questions this first course in philosophy asks. Our investigation will center on the 17th-19th c., a watershed period in Western Europe marked by major political, scientific, religious, and intellectual revolutions. This course has two main aims: To introduce you to the methods and procedures of philosophical argument and to engage you in a critical dialogue around central problems in philosophy. We will read works in the Western philosophical tradition by canonical thinkers such as: Rene Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, George Berkeley, and non-canonical thinkers such as: Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia, Margaret Cavendish, Catharine Trotter co*ckburn, and Mary Shepherd. We will engage with these thinkers on questions concerning knowledge, reality, minds, religious belief, personal identity, and free will.
Together with calculus, linear algebra is one of the foundations of higher-level mathematics and its applications. This is NOT just the algebra you know from high school. There are several perspectives one can take on linear algebra: it is a method for handling large systems of linear equations, it is a theory of linear geometry (including in dimensions larger than three), it is matrix algebra, and it is a theoretical structure that appears throughout mathematics, physics, computer science, and statistics. This course is necessary for students concentrating in mathematics, physics, or computer science, and may be useful to students in other sciences, economics, or any studies involving statistics. This course is a prerequisite for Multivariable Calculus. Applications of linear algebra include correlation coefficients and linear regression in statistics, finite element methods in physics and engineering, analysis of networks, computer graphics, google page rank, error-correcting codes, and data compression. (Linear algebra is also central to quantum mechanics, though we will not cover that application.) The focus of the course is on core concepts, introduced with examples and computations, and applications. The course is not proof-based; students wanting to do more advanced theory or applications should continue to Advanced Linear Algebra.
This course examines major themes in the writings of German philosopher and cultural theorist Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) including history, politics, aesthetics, technology, urban life, archives, and collections. Our goal is to gain a greater understanding of Benjamin’s significance for cultural producers across disciplines, in particular artists, critics, and curators. Texts range from his seminal essays such as “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” to Benjamin’s enigmatic masterwork, the Arcades Project. Close readings of assigned texts are coupled with lectures and student research on contemporary examples of Benjamin’s influence—including engagement with a Usdan Gallery exhibition about personal collecting. A review of Benjamin’s tumultuous life provides a frame for his Marxist and antifascist positions; his analysis of the emergence of modern society and technology; and his faith in the survival of art and potential for redemption amid violence and repression.
This is the fifth term Japanese course. Rakugo is one of the traditional Japanese art and storytelling entertainment which became extremely popular during the Edo period (1603-1868). Rakugo is a rather unique storytelling performance because a storyteller sits on a seat on the stage called “kooza” and tells humorous stories without standing up from the seat. Moreover, the storytellers narrate and play various characters by changing their voice, pitch, tone, facial expressions, physical movements, etc.
In this course students will 1) research the history and the essential elements of rakugo, 2) examine several rakugo scripts to learn new grammar points and kanji characters, and 3) analyze how speech patterns change based on age, social status, gender, occasions, and situations. They will also examine cultural elements that are reflected in the rakugo scripts. As a part of the course, students will practice rakugo performances and write their own rakugo scripts to perform. Intermediate Level. Conducted in Japanese.
This is the third term Japanese course. In this course students will learn and examine Japan’s drastic social changes during the Edo period and the Meiji period to investigate what equality and equity meant to Japanese people. During the Edo Period (1603-1868), Japan closed its doors to other countries for about two hundred fifty years, and this isolation helped Japan develop its own unique culture. It, however, ended in 1867 when Japanese culture was introduced to the Western world at an International Exposition in Paris. On the contrary to the Edo period, the next era, Meiji, brought rapid modernization to Japanese society. What caused Japan to close its doors to other countries in the Edo Period? Was there a social hierarchy that existed in Japan? If so, how was it organized? What was happening in Japan during the isolation period? What caused Japanese leaders to change their minds to reopen the country? How were the ideas of equality and equality perceived by Japanese society during those periods? What can modern Japanese and US societies learn from Japan’s social changes during the Edo and the Meiji periods?
In this course, students not only will practice linguistic skills, but also will obtain a deeper understanding of equality and equity through the examination of Japanese history and society. Students will seek the answers to the questions above by studying the historical events of the Edo Period (1603-1868) and the Meiji Period (1868-1912) through the examinations of various Japanese arts such as paintings, pictures, and VR video clips.
What do you know about Japan? Would you like to visit Mount Fuji in Shizuoka, the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, or the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo? What do you want to see? Do you want to see traditional performing arts like Noh and Kabuki? Do you want to eat sushi, tonkatsu, ramen, or pizza that is topped with corn, tuna, and mayonnaise? Technology such as Google Earth and 360 video clips on YouTube has allowed us to virtually explore various places and objects in the world and learn about the history, art, culture, cuisine, etc. of those places and objects.
In this introductory level course, students will explore various cities and objects with Virtual Reality tools and learn and examine the uniqueness of Japanese culture and how traditional and modern culture coexist in the society while they practice and build their linguistic skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in Japanese. Students will also perform various situations to demonstrate their understanding of Japanese language and culture. Japanese writing systems – Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji – will be introduced. Introductory level.
Modeling and Thinking in Rhino 7 is an introductory course to Computer-Aided Design (CAD) Modeling and how those models can be used in real-world applications. This course will explore the use of Rhino to create interactive models that represent imagined designs for; manufacturing, architecture, and spatial sketching. Particular attention will be paid to how computer models relate to specific measurements, spaces, context, and future outputs. This course is aimed at building technical skills but will also consider aesthetics, functionality, and design concepts. Its ultimate goal is a feedback loop between conceptual development, workflow, and the generation of 3D Models. This course will culminate in a final portfolio of digital 3D model renderings and will serve as a prerequisite for the class Processing and Making with Rhino 7.
The Scriptorium, a “place for writing,” is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing. As we write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a persuasive, well-supported thesis statement, we will also revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style. Our learning goals include practicing to write with complexity, imagination, and clarity. This Scriptorium’s readings will center on the themes of femininity and masculinity—and gender performance in between and beyond; we will watch the film Barbie (Greta Gerwig 2023) as a beginning. We will also study critical essays and theory to provide a framework for our discussions. (This is not a Creative Writing course.) Our readings may include the following authors: Gloria Anzaldúa, Honoré de Balzac, Jorge Luis Borges, Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Shohini Chaudhuri, Bora Chung, Denise Duhamel, Michel Foucault, Manuel Gonzalez, Stuart Hall, Donna Haraway, Ursula K. Le Guin, Clarice Lispector, Audre Lorde, Nina MacLaughlin, Aoko Matsuda, Herman Melville, Alice Munro, Sianne Ngai, Ovid, Patricia Pinho, Rainer Maria Rilke, Karen Russell, and David Trinidad. And, we may read from the following authors for their relevant critical or personal essays, philosophy, and theory: Lauren Berlant, Judith Butler, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Mary Douglas, Michel Foucault, Jack Halberstam, bell hooks, Laura Mulvey, and Riki Anne Wilchins.
The Scriptorium, a “place for writing,” is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing. As we write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a persuasive, well-supported thesis statement, we will also revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style. We will strive for clarity, concision, and expressiveness as we read and respond to a variety of historical and contemporary texts.
This Scriptorium is about world-building: multiverses, utopias, dystopias, alternative realities, dreamscapes. Why have so many creators—not just in our time but across the centuries—been drawn to the idea of world-building? What do fictional worlds say about our own? Conversely, what do they offer that cannot be found anywhere else? We will voyage across worlds portrayed in novels, short stories, films, and video games. Our readings and media may include primary works by Ursula Le Guin, N.K. Jemisin, Octavia Butler, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jonathan Swift, Jason Roberts, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Samuel Johnson, Alice Munro; and critical texts by Jenny Odell, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Benedict Anderson, Lauren Berlant, and Dora Zhang.
“We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.”
― André Berthiaume
The Scriptorium, a “place for writing,” is a class for writers interested in improving their critical essay-writing skills. We will read to write and write to read. Much of our time will be occupied with writing and revising—essai means “trial” or “attempt”—as we work to create new habits and productive strategies for analytical writing. As we write in various essay structures with the aim of developing a persuasive, well-supported thesis statement, we will also revise collaboratively, improve our research and citation skills, and study grammar and style. We will strive for clarity, concision, and expressiveness as we read and respond to a variety of historical and contemporary texts.
This Scriptorium is about the complex relationship between who we are and who we present to the world, and how this relationship changes over time. We will think about this topic in a variety of contexts ranging from racial passing to gender and sexual covering to forms of becoming in contemporary fandom and transgender literature. When is masking necessary to survive or thrive? To what degree does masking involve concealing or revealing one’s identity? We will think about masks and metamorphoses in novels, short stories, poetry, drama, autobiographical prose, films and graphic novels. Our readings may include primary works by Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, Oscar Wilde, Eliza Haywood, Charlotte Charke, Shakespeare, Ovid, James Baldwin, Liana Finck, Casey Plett, Cameron Awkward-Rich, Ash Kreis; and critical texts by Judith Butler, Jack Halberstam, Hortense Spillers, Laura Mulvey, bell hooks, Danzy Senna, Jennifer Nash, Andrea Long Chu, and Caroline Bynum Walker.
Data can come to us in many forms: tables, charts, graphs, observations, experimental results, and other less formal avenues. To best understand the world around us, we must be able to take that data, answer questions, and then convey those answers to others in a clear, concise manner. This course will show different methods for presenting statistical data to others as well as interpreting the information and results accordingly.
This course will serve as an introduction to statistical reasoning and understanding as well as bolster the ability to think critically about data, its sources, and how to convey a clear message from data. It will focus on bringing clarity to data presented, choosing the correct presentation for a given data set, and avoidance of deception. There are no prerequisites and this course will be accessible to all interested and willing students.
This course is appropriate for any students wanting to understand, interpret, and present statistics. Students who plan to seriously create and analyze their own statistics for their work should take Creation of Statistics, which may either be taken as a sequel to this course, or on its own. There is some overlap between the two courses, but their focus and goals are different. Students who take Presentation of Statistics first will get a broader skill set and a more gentle introduction.
This course ranges from the republican art of nation-building in the 19th century to modernism, magical realism, and the postmodern. While there will be some discussion of standard tactics such as stylistic nuances and artists’ biographies, it is expected that we will rapidly develop sufficient ability to focus on movements, theory, and politics, thus treating the works as ideologemes, representations of social import touching on several fields. The usual tactics associated with mastering a foreign language – explicit grammar sessions, vocabulary, oral and aural practice, text – will be on offer, but they will generally be student-driven, servicing the content, corroborating the hope that in confronting our own preconceived notions of the Spanish-speaking world we will simultaneously debunk those regarding how a language is taught. Students will therefore learn to speak, listen, read and write in increasingly meaningful scenarios. Conducted predominantly in Spanish. For beginners.
How do we know something “beyond a reasonable doubt”? What is the relationship of insight to logical argument? How can we have certain knowledge about concepts which are infinite? These questions are at the core of mathematics, but also at the core of liberal arts. In mathematics, people have found rather detailed answers to how much certainty is possible, and have found fascinating limitations to our knowledge.
This course serves two purposes. Firstly, it is for intermediate mathematics students, who are moving from introductory classes (such as Linear Algebra, Quantitative Reasoning and Mathematical Modeling, or Euclid’s Elements) to more advanced theoretical mathematics. The class is also recommended for computer science students. However, no prior mathematics knowledge is assumed. Therefore, the class is also suitable for beginning mathematics students, for students of philosophy, and for anyone interested in these questions and seeking to improve their ability to reason and form clear arguments (ideally, every student at a liberal arts college!).
The core of the course will be analyzing and developing logical mathematical arguments in various contexts. Additional topics will include symbolic logic and rules of inference; the language of sets and functions; the beginnings of abstract algebra, including Boolean algebras; and a brief introduction to the Hilbert program and Gödel’s theorems.
In simple terms, economic development aims to enhance people’s material well-being. However, achieving this without harming the environment or compromising the needs of diverse groups across different contexts and timeframes is a challenge. How can we reconcile this tension and balance these competing priorities? This is the central question of sustainable development. In this seminar, we will delve into this question and examine the ethical principles guiding the goals of sustainable development. We will analyze the strategies used to achieve these goals in different communities and evaluate their success.
This course is open to all students, regardless of their academic year, and does not require prior knowledge of economics. We will explore fundamental concepts verbally and through written materials, employing visual aids such as graphs and charts to provide evidence supporting the ideas.
There are two main requirements for this course: thorough reading of assigned texts and completion of related homework assignments, as well as active participation in class discussions based on the assigned materials. Regular attendance is essential to engage meaningfully with the course content.
In this course on macroeconomic principles, we’ll explore the vital indicators—aggregate production, employment, and prices—that are commonly used to assess the health and overall behavior of an economy. We will evaluate how government policies and various economic institutions influence and shape these variables, along with the economic forces that drive growth and fluctuations. Additionally, we will examine the long and short-term effects of these interventions on a nation’s economic conditions, including poverty and inequality.
This is an introductory course on macroeconomic theory and applications, designed for students in their first and second years of college. We will explore the basic ideas verbally and through written expositions, utilizing macroeconomic data to provide evidential support for our arguments. Graphs and mathematical formulations will be employed to express key concepts formally. Therefore, a grasp of high-school algebra and geometry is required, with some familiarity expected in spreadsheet analysis of data. Additionally, some knowledge of calculus will be advantageous.
The course has two requirements:
[1] Active class participation, grounded in thorough engagement with assigned materials
[2] Completion of a research project with related homework assignments.
Attendance is mandatory, and students are expected to carefully prepare by engaging with assigned readings and actively participating in class discussions. Additionally, students will conduct empirically-grounded research on a specific issue related to production, employment, and prices of a country of their choice.
The seminar centers on fundamental questions concerning labor: Why do people work? What is the relationship between ‘work’ and ‘employment’? And how do the concerns of ‘nonwage work’—specifically care work within households—intersect with wage work within the labor market? These inquiries motivate our exploration. We will delve into established theories in labor economics and macroeconomics, enriching our discussions by drawing from political economy and social reproduction theory. Furthermore, we will investigate the evolution of ‘work’ and the dynamics of the ’employment relationship’ over recent decades, analyzing transformations in both the Global North and the Global South, especially in the post-COVID era. Throughout, we will examine how work influences individuals’ material well-being, shapes their living standards, and contributes to a region’s overall economic output and average income.
This advanced-level research seminar is tailored for third and fourth-year college students, with second-year students eligible with instructor approval. We will explore key concepts verbally and through written exposition, utilizing mathematical formulations for formal expression. The course will involve close analysis of macroeconomic datasets, requiring prior knowledge of data analysis and familiarity with spreadsheet analysis. Some understanding of statistical theory/applications and economics is also beneficial.
The course entails two requirements: [a] Active class participation, grounded in thorough engagement with assigned materials, and [b] a research project with related homework assignments. Attendance is mandatory, and students are expected to carefully prepare by engaging with assigned readings and actively participating in class discussions. Additionally, students will conduct research based on empirical evidence on a specific issue related to work, employment, and wage income.
This course is for students who have experience in playing drum set. In this 7 week class, students will fine-tune their stick control, hi-hat, cymbal, and bass drum technique, grooves, and drum fills. Listening, viewing, and reviewing drummers who have contributed to the innovation of the art of the drum set is a weekly part of our class discussion. We will use 2 drum sets in class to demonstrate an exercise or assignment. Students are expected to participate in this classroom practice. You are expected to learn grooves from a variety of genres including, but not limited to Blues, Funk, Rock, Progressive Rock, Fusion, Jazz, and Hip-Hop. Homework assignments include: Recording 15 minutes of your practice for weekly submission, playing with other musicians, attending music workshop, and maintaining the drum set practice space and equipment in the DCB attic and Fireplace room.
Students who have applied and who have been accepted into the Endeavor Environmental Action Fellowship will take this pre-fellowship class. It is required in order to do the fellowship during field work term. It will prepare the student to have a very effective paid fellowship experience during field work term.
Chemistry is all around us, shaping the world we live in and influencing our daily lives in fascinating ways. Have you ever wondered about the chemical compounds found in plants or fungi? Have you wondered what’s in your drinking water or household cleaners? In this course, we will explore the fundamental principles of chemistry while delving into these questions and more. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, and hands-on experiments, students will develop a deeper understanding of the chemical make-up and processes that underlie various aspects of everyday life. No prior experience in the physical sciences is required.
An enviornmental policy class which closely examines the environmental and public health impacts of the production, transport, use and disposal of plastics. It is taught on-line and includes many community people who audit the class – creating a nice exchange of ideas between Bennington students and grassroots environmental advocates from across the country. Climate change, environmental justice, health and community action are the central focuses of this class. Based in CAPA, there is a heavy emphasis on how to effectively use public action to address this particular issue.
Beginning in the Fall of 1974 through the spring of 1984, Bill Dixon, a Bennington music faculty member, American composer, and visual artist who was a seminal figure in free jazz, implemented a curriculum entitled Black Music: Black Music Division. This menu of courses introduced innovative pioneers of music who contributed to the lexicon and history of the black experience in America. Initially, Black Music courses were listed in the curriculum as extra-divisional or interdisciplinary courses from 1968- Spring 1974. Dixon boldly defended an affront from the administration who were not in favor of the teachings of Black Music as a separate entity from the general music curriculum. Students engaged in these courses rallied to defend Black Music Studies during that period, which is documented in the archives. After Fall 1985 courses were listed in the curriculum under Music. Black Music: Black Music Division concentrated on music composition, improvisation, visual art, poetry, literature, dance, and performances that reflected the immense contributions that were often overlooked and unpraised in comparison to the western aesthetic. Dixon’s compositions, teachings, and innovative approach to creative music boldly addressed a multitude of issues in the wake of the Civil Rights, Feminist, and Black Power Movements. This ever-evolving course reflects on the social, political, and cultural content created as an outcry from artists Nina Simone, Billy Holiday, The Last Poets, Amiri Baraka, Max Roach, Nickki Giovani, Basquiat, Public Enemy, Spike Lee, to present day performers, writers, and content producers and countless others.
The Bennington archives housing Black Music: Black Music Division is a portal for students to investigate how these movements instigated an awakening in the artistic and political community that inspired a revolution that continues today. These archives contain documentaries, photos, video, recorded, and written words from former students, faculty, and visiting artists. Students will have the opportunity to research how Black Music embodied itself here at Bennington College through this 50-year retrospective.
Individual lessons for intermediate to advanced students. Students are expected to practice a minimum of 1-2 hours per day and learn scales, etudes, pieces, sonatas and concertos. End-of-semester performance is required.
The course is designed for students with no prior string instrument experience. Admission is on a first come first serve basis. Classes will be individual (usually 20-25 min. long). Daily practice (10-15 min.) is expected so students can become familiar and comfortable with the instrument.
This course is a survey of the cultural, social, and religious movements that transformed Europe between 1350 and 1600. These revolutions in Western thought gave birth to the Enlightenment and the intellectual outlook that still characterizes our culture today. Using primary source materials such as letters, literature, court records, diaries, and paintings, we examine both large-scale changes and personal stories. We explore Renaissance humanism, art and literature, as well as explorations of the New World, theories of government, and the development of racial ideology.
The Enlightenment might be considered one of the most enduring revolutions in Europe. The invention of empirical science, new philosophies, and the secular discourse of the various Enlightenments (French, Scottish, English, and German) created the intellectual platform on which we are still standing today. It was also a movement in which women were visible and prominent – intellectually bold, politically active, and challenging the status quo in every field. In this course, we follow the women and men who were part of this process, examine similarities and differences, and illuminate the assumptions implicit in the intellectual fabric of our world.
This course is the first of a four-course chemistry sequence covering general, organic and biochemistry. Students do not need to take the entire sequence. We will focus on introductory chemical principles, including atomic theory, classical and quantum bonding concepts, molecular structure, organic functional groups, and the relationship between structure and properties. The class will have lecture/discussion meetings at which we will critically examine the major concepts of reading assignments, discuss articles, and review some of the current developments of the field. The aim of the laboratory will be to develop your experimental skills, especially your ability to design meaningful experiments, analyze data, and interpret observations. Note: while there is no specific math pre-requisite, the ability to apply algebraic relationships is expected.
This class will cover the essentials of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Students will learn the foundations of each interface and how to use basic and advanced functions of each program including, but not limited to: artboard and layer management, pen tools and path-finders, text and type formatting, color management, selection tools, and clipping masks. Through a mix of directed and independent assignments, students will use their knowledge of these softwares to create unique printed matter ranging from posters and flyers to pamphlets and booklets.
Students undertaking culminating work in Society, Culture, and Thought (SCT) complete individual research projects. The process generally begins with students presenting ideas and proposals in their sixth-term Plan Meetings. To support these projects, SCT faculty offer a combined research seminar (2 credits) and various specialized group tutorials (2 credits). These are co-requisites, so students taking the seminar must also take one of the group tutorials. Most individual research projects are accomplished in one term. Students wanting to conduct extensive fieldwork, data collection, or archival research may continue, with permission of their instructors, into the spring term after completing the fall-semester combined seminar and tutorial. Please email the instructor to register for this Fall 2024 semester seminar and for details about completing the necessary group tutorial form by the end of Spring 2024.
Students undertaking culminating work in Society, Culture, and Thought (SCT) complete individual research projects. The process generally begins with students presenting ideas and proposals in their sixth-term Plan Meetings. To support these projects, SCT faculty offer a combined research seminar (2 credits) and various specialized group tutorials (2 credits). These are co-requisites, so students taking the seminar must also take one of the group tutorials. Most individual research projects are accomplished in one term. Students wanting to conduct extensive fieldwork, data collection, or archival research may continue, with permission of their instructors, into the spring term after completing the fall-semester combined seminar and tutorial.
The aim of this course is to explore the development of Christianity as a set of interlocking complex systems with an equally complex history. Christianity has been around for 2,000 years, and there is no denying that we live under its enormously powerful influence. Millions have fought and died over it. But even those who identify themselves as Christians often seem to be unclear on the elements of this system, or where it came from. In this course, we will explore the development of the Christian phenomenon, from its Mesopotamian origins, through Judaism, Jesus, Catholicism, cults and Crusades, to the Protestant Reformations of Martin Luther and Henry VIII.
In this class we will explore the concepts of energy, entropy and quantization to discover how their dancing interplay determines the structure and dynamics of the world around us. Our aim will be to understand the organizing principles that drive all chemical and physical processes. Doing so inevitably involves mathematics, but the associated understanding goes beyond mathematics and is intimately linked to the use of language to clarify ideas. Thus, the work in this class will include the refinement of writing skills to clearly communicate scientific ideas in non-mathematical and non-technical language. Although mathematical expertise is not required in order to take this class, the reading and class discussions will often involve mathematics, and those students that are interested in applying and developing the associated mathematical skills will have ample opportunity to do so. There is no prerequisite for this course besides curiosity and a desire to understand what it is all about.
We will immerse ourselves in reading Shakespeare’s Sonnets and his Neoclassical poem, Venus and Adonis. Shakespeare invented his own style of the sonnet, now called the English sonnet. The word sonnet comes from the Italian sonetto, which means “a little sound or song”; it was a poetic form originally popularized by Petrarch in the 14th century. In the 154 sonnets, first published in 1609, Shakespeare dazzles us with his lexical, semantic, aural, syntactic, and rhetorical virtuosity. Despite this poetic brilliance, the poet was not immune to a bad romance. As we expand our understanding of Shakespeare’s themes, narrative strategies, poetic innovations, we will examine the critical reception of these works, including biographical, Feminist, Queer Theory, and Post-structural approaches. Our most pressing objective is to become more agile, precise, and imaginative close readers of—and writers about—Shakespeare’s poetry.
This electronic music composition class will focus on advanced patch design in VCV Rack,as well as hardware synthesizers. The semester will be framed by three composition assignments which will be presented to the class in weekly critiques. Particular emphasis will be placed on the efficiency and synergy of patch design. Significant class time will be spent listening to and analyzing electronic music together, and discussing ways of integrating modular synths into different styles of music,from pop, to techno to jazz and classical. The semester will culminate in a live event of student compositions.
This course will be based on Sara Ahmed’s theories on orientation and dis/orientation and her questioning of “What do such moments of disorientation tell us? What do they do, and what can we do with them?” The course will focus on finding recipes for the concept of dis/orientation using immersive audio technologies and expanded images and will focus on materializing the texts that are written by Black and queer feminist scholars/artists. The students will produce time-based and performative audiovisual pieces that utilize spatial audio and expanded images as compositional methods.
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of sound recording/music production techniques and using the medium of sound as a creative form. Students will be introduced to recording techniques through lectures, hands-on exercises, and critical listening sessions. We will cover basic sound acoustics, spot and stereo microphone techniques, field recording techniques, signal flow, audio processing, and creative and unconventional music recording techniques. We will analyze productions by various artists including but not limited to the Beatles, Motown artists, Betty Davis, Radiohead, Prince, Fever Ray, Erykah Badu, Esperanza Spalding, and Janelle Monáe. We will focus on learning how to work with the DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) in post-production and editing as a creative tool. This course will also introduce the basic fundamentals of mixing techniques.
In the Lab portion of this course (which will be run in the last two hours of the course), we will focus on applying the recording techniques that we learn in the main class via recording sessions at the recording studio of Jennings. Students will learn how to run recording sessions, invite their musical collaborations/ensembles, and learn how to work in a collaborative environment. The Lab section of this class will run as in-person sessions and it will involve hands-on work with recording equipment.
Students who have previously taken “Introduction to Recording” will not be permitted to take this class.
In this introductory course, students will expand their understanding of music by delving into experimental sound practices. During this course, students will create sound compositions,electroacoustic pieces, and performances/installations. The topics will include soundscape composition, binaural sound recording,introduction to modular synthesis, electromagnetic field listening,live performance setups, and site-specific sound work. There will be an emphasis on production and experiential learning through exercises and workshops. Along with readings and discussions, we will look at various examples from sound art and experimental music by various composers, including but not limited to Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, Daphne Oram, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Christine Sun Kim, and Yvette Janine Jackson. This course is introductory; however, it is open to students who want to incorporate sound-based works in their interdisciplinary projects at any level.
Music Composition for Dance looks retrospectively at collaborative twentieth-century works for ballet and modern dance from Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Nijinsky, Ellington, Ailey, Cage, Syvilla Fort, Copland, and Martha Graham, amongst others. These collaborations helped revolutionize dance choreography, philosophies and musical methods from their use of tonalities, sonorities, textures, rhythms, narratives, and concepts producing innovative works that continue to inform and inspire. Surveying these collaborations will provide students with an informed understanding of the creative process, and how one can apply these processes to develop their own original work.
Students will collaborate in class while exploring methods that can be used in their creative process to develop music composition for dance, theatre, film, and other related disciplines. Class activities and assignments include, but are not limited to; reading about choreographers and composers, listening and examining music, viewing choreography on film and video, researching Bennington archives in dance and music, viewing and examining musical scores related to dance, creating narratives based on blood memories, responding to biographical readings in discussion, writing and presentation, creating an original music composition or choreography to be presented live or videotaped.
Playing an instrument is not required, however, having basic knowledge of recording music using Garage Band, Logic Audio, Ableton or other recording software is a plus. For dancers, being able to improvise movement and interact / dialogue with other dancers and musicians is necessary. Performing live is a goal, but not required.
This course will introduce and/or deepen students’ understanding of the Alexander Technique and Ideokinesis in relation to dance, the practice of performance, and everyday movement. It is both a movement and somatic class. The Alexander Technique opens up the possibility of finding new balance, efficiency, strength, direction, and perspective. It makes your physical capacity more available, as well as your performative intelligence, and it improves everyday function.
Some classes will include the application of the Alexander Technique and performance practice principles when moving or dancing, and some classes will focus on the study of the skeleton in order to understand the fundamentals of the body. The instructor will guide and support students into a more optimal balance and freedom. Alexander Technique challenges the student to wake up and notice what it is they are doing in their day to day lives and performance work. This shift in awareness and attention aims to stimulate and enhance better function all around.
This course invites students to create duets using a number of compositional tools and improvisational and performance strategies. Dancers working together will inspire each other based on their relationship. As material reveals itself, moment to moment, consider that the dancers will be “teaching” each other as they work. This premise will allow us to learn from one another.
We will also learn how to recognize and detach from what we already know in order to make room for what we don’t know. Learning how to compose while moving is key, making space for each dancer to trust the duet. They must accept what they do not know, in order to wake up to what is there in any given moment. Inhabiting the space we are dancing in, being in relationship to one another, and seeing all there is around us expands our experience. Feedback will be part of our work. How we see and how we can include our audience as part of our dancing is key to how the duets develop. Structures may be developed in multiple ways, using written, spatial, physical, and vocal scores.
In this course we will engage with various approaches and techniques that support students in the development of their improvisation and performance practices, expanding and deepening their experience of both. This will encourage a letting go of the attachment we have to engrained movement patterns and preconceived ideas of what our dance vocabulary can/should include. In turn, this will open up the possibility of finding new efficiency, direction, and perspective. The practice of improvisation will expand the students physical, performative and choreographic intelligence.
Certain histories and lineages of dance improvisation practice will be referenced and discussed within class, as well as readings of significant improvisation dance artists in the field, including Lisa Nelson, Deborah Hay, Eva Karczag, Dana Reitz, Steve Paxton and William Forsythe. We will practice solo, duet and group improvisation, navigating our relationship to time, space and our audience.
Graduate Teaching Fellows in Dance are integrated into the dance program as teaching assistants. In consultation with their academic advisors and the dance faculty, MFA candidates develop an assistantship schedule of approximately ten hours weekly; the courses they develop and teach are listed in the curriculum. All Teaching Fellows bring their own professional histories and contribute their own manners of teaching. Outside of listed class times, TBD, the Teaching Fellows will meet to discuss their courses, with the designated faculty and with each other. Furthermore, they will play an active role in the weekly meetings and events of the Dance Program.
This course is designed to assist graduate students with the research and development of their new work. The weekly format is determined with the students. In class, they show works-in-progress, try out ideas with their colleagues, and discuss issues involved in their creative processes. Though the class meets only once a week, students are expected to spend considerable time each week in active, ongoing creative research; their independent projects will be presented to the public, either formally or informally, by the end of the term. All MFA candidates bring their own professional histories and contribute their own artistic voices.
In this course, a selection of audio, video, and print media on pop music, food, fashion, and social media, among other aspects of popular culture In Taiwan, will serve as a source of authentic input for the study. Students will explore the role of pop culture in shaping modern Taiwanese and Chinese societies through in-class discussions while developing their competencies in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese. Students will even create their pop culture pieces!
Students will explore concepts such as how popular culture affects and is affected by the very different political systems between China and Taiwan; what was the effect of China’s opening (and now closing) on popular culture there; how have the pop cultures of Japan and Korea and western consumer culture influenced pop culture in Taiwan.
A course pack of various Mandarin Chinese language materials pertaining to pop culture in Taiwan will be provided.
Tai-Chi (Taiji) is a Chinese martial art and meditation system. The symbol of Tai-Chi is the famous Chinese Yin and Yang symbol also called Taiji.
In this course, students will get some practical experience with Tai-Chi martial art and learn a little bit about Daoist philosophy in the process. Students also will get some practical experience with Qi Gong (Ba Duan Jin). Qi-Gong is a form of gentle exercise intended to increase one’s vital energy (qi), hence the name. Qi-Gong and Tai-Chi are both commonly practiced by Chinese people.
This course will be instructed in English. Each class will begin with a Qi-Gong exercise to warm up. Over the duration of the course, students will learn and practice 37 Tai-Chi forms of Zheng Man Qing, a style popular in Taiwan.
During the Mao era, artistic expression in China was completely relegated to serving the propaganda interests of the CCP. After the post Mao opening, avant-garde artists, such as the Stars group, seized upon the opportunity to explore western artistic influences and champion individualism and freedom of expression. In this class we will explore the ways in which post-Mao (particularly avant-garde) Chinese art, reflected on and influenced modern Chinese culture and society. Each class or every other class, students will be given a packet with visual and written information on a particular work of art with a vocabulary list and grammar points for that material. Documentaries will also be used as a source of authentic input. Students will be expected to prepare to discuss the material in Chinese with the teacher and classmates during the next class meeting.
A course pack of various Chinese Avant-Garde art materials will be provided.
“Have you eaten yet?” This common Chinese greeting is just one of many common phrases that shows the centrality of food to Taiwanese and Chinese culture. In this course we will focus on the theme of Chinese and Taiwanese food and dining culture as an entrée into the study of Chinese language and culture. As Chinese grammar is very simple with no verb conjugation, no plural, no gender, no articles or subject and object forms, it is very easy to speak Chinese. Students will be able to begin speaking Chinese from the very first class and be able to engage in a lot of daily conversation after one term.
Also by studying the form of the most basic Chinese characters students will simultaneously gain insights into traditional Chinese cultural values while learning to read and write Mandarin. “Let’s do Chinese!” Chinese food? Yes, but also language and culture.
P.S. 1) We will take a field trip to an Albany restaurant to try authentic Chinese food.
2) A free course pack of various materials will be provided.
Have you ever imagined speaking in the language of computers, and transforming your ideas into actions that computers can perform? This course is a gateway to discovering the art and science of programming, a crucial skill that serves as the backbone of computer science. But computer science transcends mere programming. Our actual aim is to nurture your ability to think like a computer scientist.
Computer scientists approach and solve problems using computational thinking. This is an essential skill in the modern age. No prior programming experience is necessary, making this course an ideal starting point for anyone wanting to venture into the realm of computer science, including those from liberal arts backgrounds who want to explore the interplay of technology and society.
This course will introduce you to foundational concepts such as functions and abstractions, data structures, and algorithm complexity, using the Python language. These topics serve as the building blocks for computer science, and pave the way for more advanced topics in the field. Through your exploration, you will not only learn to distinguish what computer science offers as a field, but also gain valuable insights into cutting-edge advancements that are driving innovation and transforming our world.
This course is followed by Introduction to Computer Science 2: Algorithms and Application.
Topics include: Python programming, complexity theory, discrete structures, recursion, object-oriented programming, testing and debugging
Evaluation will be based on active engagement, projects, and a comprehensive final examination.
Have you ever wondered what a computer is and how it actually works? In this course, we’ll answer the software half of this question. We will start with virtual machines and develop a high-level language, write a compiler, and an operating system. By the end, we will have developed a software hierarchy that makes the hardware we designed in Systems 1: Hardware Architecture and Design (CS 2114) useable.
We will begin by developing a virtual machine, an important layer that allows software to operate without considering the specifics of the underlying hardware. Then, we will develop a high-level programming language, designed to be both powerful and user-friendly (reminiscent of Java). And finally we will design and implement a compiler that translates human-readable code into a structured format that the virtual machine understands,.
Our exploration of the software hierarchy will culminate in developing an operating system, the ultimate orchestrator of hardware and software resources. Our operating system will manage tasks such as executing programs, memory access, and input/output operations, making the computer you have developed effective for a wide variety of tasks.
By the end of the course, you will have a comprehensive understanding of the software stack that powers modern computer systems. You will also gain hands-on experience in developing the components that enable computers to perform complex tasks, from running applications to managing system resources. This course will also equip you with the knowledge and skills to bridge the gap between raw hardware and the high-level applications that we interact with daily, completing your journey from circuits to a fully operational modern computer.
Topics include: virtual machines, operating systems, high-level language design, operating systems, assembly language.
Evaluation will be based on active engagement, projects, and a comprehensive final examination.
Chemistry 3 focuses on the nature and pathways of organic reactions: what the steps are, how we experimentally determine them, and how we can use them to solve practical problems, such as the synthesis of a drug, or understanding the action of an enzyme. Emphasis will be using the general principles of nucleo- and and electrophilicity to provide a logical framework for understanding substitution, addition, elimination and reactions involving carbonyl groups. Chemical kinetics will also be a topic of study because of the insights it provides for reaction mechanisms. Lab will focus on several clusters of experiments designed for students to extend what they know to answer questions of their own. A major project will be the development of a research proposal based on the student’s own question. Background from the literature will motivate the proposal and initial experiments will be proposed.
Dancers have been tuning their relationship toeffortsince the beginning. We know when we can do an estimation of the movement, just to tell if the steps will line up with the meter of a song. We also know when we need to practice with full momentum, otherwise our partner won’t be able to feel our weight shift.EffortLabis a practice of naming and knowing what it takes to do what you’re doing. No one else might know theeffortrequired, but we always do.
Whether it is high or low effort, calibrating these effort levels is one way we survive capitalist systems while retaining agency and, ideally, cultivating enjoyment. Effort Lab uplifts effort as a compositional tool and design technique, thereby empowering each dancer to exercise their authorship, agency, and invention.
Class will include an embodied check-in and a gentle warm-up. Through improvisatory dancing and writing, we will map out our relationships toeffort through demonstrations, dialogue, charts, and maps. We will travel outside the studio to witness how effort shifts environmentally, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes involuntarily.
EffortLabwill have moments of high and loweffortin order to ask: What feelings arise when oureffortdoesn’t match our circ*mstances? How can we calibrate oureffortso that we’re giving an amount that feels right?
Instead of approaching movement seeking transformation, Melancholy Pilates is a class to stay with how you feel and feel it more. How can we move with feelings of sadness and melancholy? This class asks the student to practice finding action, even when the body might feel stagnant, leaden, or difficult to motivate.
We will utilize a lot of horizontal positions to build length and strength in our muscles, while trying our best to remain present with all our sensations, including emotions like sadness. This class will begin and end with guided meditations, visualizations, and breathing exercises to attune our consciousness to how we truly feel. The bulk of the class will offer repetitive movements in the style of pilates (though this is not a formal pilates class).
No pilates experience necessary. Sadness at some point in your life is a prerequisite.
This is an essential course for students wishing to make new work for performance this term, whether one project or a series. It is designed specifically to support each person’s artistic voice and manner of working.
Attention will be given to all elements involved in composition and production, including collaborative aspects. Students are expected to show their work throughout stages of development, complete their projects, and perform them formally or informally by the end of the term. Everyone will be engaged in feedback sessions, giving full attention to the work at hand, honing critical/observational skills and articulating their perceptions and thoughts.
This term this class is offered for 4 credits, giving us more time to consider an expanded notion of how work can be shared with the public as well as thoroughly explore and workshop technical, mechanical, performative and creative elements of making choreographic work.
This is a practice for participants of any discipline to activate the desired body, in their chosen form or medium.
Trusting the intrinsic intelligence of the body, as well as discovering the glitches that contribute to the making process, we will source multiple systems (muscular, skeletal, fluid, organ) and other ways of reading the body (energy, emotion, history, trauma). Attunement at the level of reflex, habit, and fundamental technique let us support, reject, help, and preempt decision-making. Throughout the creative process, we will allow what seems to be an error to become useful material.
We investigate escalation and tension using modes that effectively bypass culturally dominant binaries of self and other and offer various approaches to relationships that define and re-define our understanding of power. Ultimately, what lies at the core of our de-centered power play is a non-binary meaning-making.
We will derive form and content from places known through direct experience, drawing on sensation, thought, memory, and imagination. Students’ compositional drafts will be regularly created/viewed and discussed, sparking conversations on structure, organization, and disorganization.
We will develop the results of this research with a view to presenting and performing in studio showings, produced performances, and/or dance workshops.
This course is for students who have a serious interest in dance or desire to explore embodied practice and cognition, whether or not you have previous dance experience. We will consider many aspects of dance making, embodiment, and performance. We will work towards constantly evolving ways to be one’s own teacher—recognizing patterns, heightening awareness of observation, and selecting easier, more efficient, and effective movement options. Improvisational structures will test and inform our making and moving via screening/reading/composing. We will look at the tools needed for developing and performing our own work and feeling more comfortable in our bodies. Students’ experiments will be regularly drafted, viewed, discussed and edited, opening up conversations about technique, structure, organization, and disorganization (to understand a range of perspectives). In order to expand the process, we will develop some complementary practices of creating through writing, drawing, and storytelling.
Collaborative and solo projects will be developed throughout the term and will include a showing in Dance Workshop or in the end-of-term Studio Concert.
Mallet Percussion Ensemble continues to perform folkloric, classical, modern, and global genres of music while composing and developing original work. The goal for each student is to become familiar with all of the mallet keyboard instruments, which include the marimba, xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone, and African balafon. Our coursework will link music theory, improvisation, and composition through the practice of playing scales, arpeggios, modes, and chord progressions while adapting and arranging various select repertoire. Rehearsing individually, attending group lab, and scheduling lessons is highly recommended and expected. Presenting solo and ensemble works-in-progress for music workshop and campus events are encouraged.
Overview and Outcomes: The percussion mallet ensemble will learn existing repertoire (TBA) while creating original composition assignments for the mallet keyboard, in addition to composing a collective work. Students should have a working knowledge of this instrument. Auditions for this course are required.
A “rigorous study of art” became the goal of Philosopher and Cultural Critic Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) when his growing distaste for the outlook and methods of his art history professor—the famous and foundational Heinrich Wölfflin—caused him to consider publishing an account of “the most disastrous activity I have ever encountered at a German university.”
Striking a balance between Benjamin’s histories of the marginal and Wölfflin’s big picture formalism, this wide-ranging introductory course requires the serious, if necessarily fast-paced, analysis (and memorization) of a broad constellation of paintings, prints, drawings, sculpture, architecture, monuments, and examples of material and visual culture across both time and place. Along the journey students will acquaint themselves with various art historical methodologies, critical terms, and disciplinary controversies. Mid-term/Final/Short papers.
The Baroque has fascinated–and incensed–historians, cultural critics, and philosophers from Walter Benjamin and Erwin Panofsky to Gilles Deleuze and Peter Greenaway. Often aligned with an artistic ‘Golden Age’ exemplified by the complex and discomfiting works of Bernini, Rubens, Velázquez, and Vermeer, the Baroque has also been associated with ruinous decadence and excess, irrationality, preciosity and effeminacy, and lately, BLING—rhetorically charged notions that can be interpreted in religious, gendered, and racial terms. This course is an investigation of both seventeenth-century European painting, prints, and sculpture and (Neo)Baroque aesthetics as such. We will endeavor to identify at least some of the characteristic mentalities, themes, heuristics, and tropes that constitute the representational-epistemological—and certainly, the metaphysical—mechanics of this rich and varied mode or modes of artistic expression. A comparative essay, museum visit, and sustained original research will culminate in a research paper and presentation.
This class offers participants a unique chance to develop word-poem stories while simultaneously learning traditional letterpress relief printing techniques, making a distinctive multidisciplinary connection to letterforms on paper.
Word play refers to the fact that we will be inventing poems spontaneously, using improvisation and therefore will become involved imaginatively with composing poem-sentences and then physically with composing metal and wooden type in printed forms. It will begin with word-play exercises involving imaginative and thoughtful, spoken and written responses. Throughout this process, participants will work collaboratively, creating a narrative story together while working toward a finished, shared content, hand-printed chapbook, consisting of traditional relief letterpress methods centered on the written stories we create. Participants will then pamphlet-bind a small edition, which we will share.
This advanced level course combines printmaking and bookmaking. We will explore techniques such as relief printing, pressure printing, monotype, and collograph, integrating our prints into a variety of book structures. For the first 7 weeks, we will work in the Word & Image lab using Vandercook proofing presses, and also in the printmaking studio located in VAPA.
Students should find the parameters of our assignments broad enough to customize to their own artistic interests and are encouraged to bring content to their work from outside the classroom. Besides making prints and books, we will look at a diverse range of historical and contemporary examples including a visit to the Clark Institute to see artist books from their collection. By the end of term, students will have gathered the skills and visual vocabulary to continue independently in the field of book arts and printmaking.
What makes a poem political? Why do some poems, chants, and slogans circulate in political contexts, while others don’t? In this course, we will read poems from the 20th and 21st Century that have gone under the banner of “protest poetry” and examine the tools of craft that socially-engaged poets have utilized to further their work. Beginning with poets writing under Soviet repression in the early 1900s, we will explore several movements and historical periods, reading works by Mahmoud Darwish, Adrienne Rich, June Jordan, Bei Dao, Martín Espada, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and others whose poetic work has been situated in relation to activist practice. Readings will also include critical and theoretical writing on poetry and social change. Finally, we will perform close readings on political chants and slogans and attempt to write our own.
Students will write four short responses (two critical and two creative). For the final project, students will write either a) a portfolio of poems with a critical introduction, or b) a manifesto for political writing, citing sources from our syllabus.
This class is for seniors writing extended manuscripts in a unified genre: literary criticism, fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, drama, screenwriting, or a hybrid form that combines genres. We welcome entirely hybrid-form manuscripts, but mixed collections, i.e. some poems with some prose, are not acceptable in this class, for we privilege extended immersion in a single genre. Think of your work as having two, equally important parts: The steady development and drafting of your own project; and sustained engagement with the work of your peers. Our aim is to create a community that is at once rigorous and supportive. To that end, you’ll not only read each other’s drafts but also delve into contemporary publications of like-minded literary work written by emerging writers and scholars. Students will also have individual meetings with the instructor. Students are expected to work seriously on their manuscripts over the summer and to begin the term with pages ready to be shared. Work begun in a previous course may be continued with the understanding that there will be significant expansion and revision.
End-of-term requirements: Full-length first drafts of 75 pages of fiction or creative nonfiction, including hybrid forms; 50 pages of literary criticism; 30 pages of poetry; translation project length determined with instructor.
This discussion-animated, readings-based seminar provides art historical, cultural, and critical contexts for the Visual Arts Lecture Series (VALS). In addition to our ongoing interrogation of the public lecture as such, students present their own work (in any field) and analyze the technical and stylistic aspects of structuring an effective and engaging ‘talk.’ The course provides unique opportunities for interaction with visiting artists, curators, critics, and historians. Consistent participation and a formal presentation of work/research is required, as are visits to local and regional museums and archives. Not recommended for first and second-years unless they have an advanced body of work to present.
To be LGBTQIA and AAPI is to occupy two disparate, marginalized identities that seem constantly to be shifting. What might the literature of this intersection teach us about larger questions of community, belonging, and resistance? This 2000-level class attempts to locate a Queer Asian Pacific America through literature, from the work of early Chinese American lesbian poets like Kitty Tsui, to David Henry Hwang’s queer reimagination of Madame Butterfly, to contemporaries like No‘u Revilla and Fatimah Asghar, and beyond. How do discourses of AAPI identity negotiate—even depend upon—gender and sexuality? How have writers of literature engaged with concepts such as hypersexualization, kinship, assimilation, and “saving face” as a matter of craft? And what possibilities for postcolonial and diasporic being may be opened up by queer/trans life, literature, and language? We will engage these and other questions by reading works of fiction, poetry, and drama, as well as critical and theoretical texts. Students will submit weekly responses, write two short papers, and do a final project with both critical and creative options.
What are the ways in which the spaces that the human body occupies affects how we view it in a photograph? How does the gendered and racialized body communicate through a photograph made in these spaces? What is communicated when figure and space intertwine? Throughout the history ofphotography, the human figure has been used to intentionally occupy and alter physical spaces. In this course students will explore how the human body can transform interior and exterior space using available and artificial light. They will look at work by photographers who have examined these ideas in both formally aesthetic and symbolic ways. These images will serve as inspiration for the work that will cover the course assignments. Class discussions of readings, peer critique of works in progress will be central components of the coursework.
Each term, Bennington Visual Arts offers a program of 4-5 lectures by visiting arts professionals: artists, curators, historians and critics, selected to showcase the diversity of contemporary art practices. Designed to enhance a broader and deeper knowledge of various disciplines and issues in the Visual Arts and to stimulate campus dialogue around topical issues in contemporary art and culture, these thematically curated presentations offer students the opportunity to engage with art by emerging and internationally-known artists from underrepresented backgrounds. Students registered for this series must attend all lectures on Tuesday evenings at 7:00pm as well as gallery exhibitions, and are responsible for taking notes and completing a one-page essay-questionnaire for each event to be submitted via Populi.
This is an analog film-based black-and-white photography course designed for those with little or no experience in photography. Emphasis will be placed on the application of technique in terms of personal expression through the selection and composition of subject matter. The course comprises technical lectures, darkroom demonstrations; lectures on historical and contemporary photographs as well as class critiques. The course will begin with a 2-D design assignment using photograms and continue with others that will teach camera controls, exposure, film processing, printing and structuring narrative using single and multiple images.
The hero has till sundown to get out of Dodge. The heroine has to take the full course of cancer treatments. The polar vortex is coming. The iceberg is waiting for its date with the Titanic. They say that the main character of every story is time. In timebound art forms, there are two times running in parallel: the story’s, and the audience’s.
Almost all works for the stage and screen begin at a moment when something is about to happen. Some characters want it to happen, others do not. But regardless of a character’s hopes or fears, a fuse has been timed and measured and lit. And when it burns down, the play or movie is over.
Each work’s fuse is a clock that belongs to the story of the piece, where it controls and motivates actions and events. A strong clock counts down the when of the characters’ desires, it counts down how long they will be given to struggle to get them, it counts down the meaning of too late. But its greatest utility is that it shapes the audience’s attention. It organizes an audience’s hopes and fears. Who would get excited watching Cinderella stroll home leisurely after the ball? The clock is going to strike twelve, and the spectator is desperate for her to make it home before it does.
We will look at fairy tales, plays, films, and streaming series to investigate their use of time as an organizing principle, focusing on the way that an audience’s hopes are manipulated by urgency for greatest effect, and the way to craft the nextness that drives an audience most effectively. Works will include Arrival, An Octoroon, The Clean House, Back to the Future, Betrayal, Memento, Groundhog Day, The Piano Lesson, and a selection of action films.
Short writing assignments and critical papers will be required for each work we view or read, and a final play of 40-90 minutes will be required.
A writer is a reader moved to imitation.
Appropriation, repurpose, pastiche, hybrid, sampling, remix, in conversation, mash up. Everyone knows that when you steal, steal from the best. When we write we may borrow the structure of a sonata, the plot from a story, the tang and tone of a novel, and characters from our own lives. Is everything we write adaptation?
We will look at Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson, Amadeus by Peter Shaffer and its film adaptation, Ruined by Lynn Nottage and its inspiration Mother Courage, Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play by Anne Washburn and the episodes of The Simpsons used by the play, An Octoroon by Branden Jacobs Jenkins and The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault, Fat Ham by James IJames and Hamlet, and Huckleberry Finn and two parallel novels, Finn by Jon Clinch and James by Percival Everett.
We will adapt a myth, a poem, three inanimate objects, and a song. The final project for the class will be an adaptation of a short story into a play of 30 to 90 minutes.
This course will focus on reading and analyzing a variety of autobiographical writing forms as well as perfecting your written French through creative autobiographical writing. Literary readings will offer both a critical perspective on a wide variety of autobiographical genres as well as models for inspiration and imitation in your own writing. We will also examine style and register while striving to master some of the stylistic and grammatical difficulties which confound even native speakers. Atelier sessions will allow students to present each othersʹ work in a workshop setting. Conducted in French. Intermediate-high level.
Viewed from the outside, the French-speaking world offers enticing images of beauty, pleasure, and freedom. From the inside, however, it is a complicated, often contradictory world where implicit codes and values shape the most basic aspects of daily life. This course will give you an insider’s perspective on a cultural and communicative system whose ideas, customs, and belief systems are surprisingly different from your own. Together, we will examine how daily life and activities (friendship and family relationships, housing, leisure, work, and food culture) reflect culturally specific ideologies and values. Emphasis will be placed on developing ease, fluency, and sophistication in oral and written expression. Designed for students with no previous study of French, this class will revolve around authentic materials from the Francophone world (video, music, advertisem*nts, literary texts). Introductory level. Conducted in French.
In this course, we will learn how to perform ‘The Harold’. The Harold is a long-form improvised form developed by Del Close. It is a collage of scenes inspired by a single suggestion which are interwoven and connected. Students, now with a solid understanding of scene work and ‘Game’, will come to learn the Harold structure and perform full Harolds both in class and in their class shows. The central theme of Advanced Improvisation: The Harold is teamwork.
Whose class is this anyway? Improvisation is for everyone. Life is made up as it happens and improv is no different. This course will explore the basic elements of improvisation. Through short and long form theater games, pattern and rhythm exercises, we aim to heighten observation, listening skills, and ensemble building. Character, object, and environment work will be explored as well. Our goal is remaining truthful and honest in an improvised scene or monologue. This course will draw from improv gurus such as Del Close and Mick Napier, and the practices of National Comedy Theatre and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. This course will culminate in a public performance of improvised madness.
Advanced Improvisation: GOTS is an in-depth study of improvised comedy scene work. The central theme of this course is finding and playing “Game.” In order to find a Game in a long form improvised scene, you typically need to be able to answer three questions:
- What is the situation?
- What is the first unusual thing?
- If this is true, then what else is true?
We’ll be building upon the basics learned in Theater Games and Improvisation (keeping things simple, listening, reacting, agreement, accepting offers, commitment, playing at the top of your intelligence, being specific) to help us find Game in both ‘premise-based’ and ‘organic’ scenes.
This course emphasizes character development through exercises and scene work, while introducing advanced improv theory and technique. You will be encouraged to make strong emotional and character choices. This course is fully in-person and has THREE class shows.
Screen printing is an extremely versatile means of reproducing a 2-D image onto a variety of objects. Hand-drawn, painted, photographic and digital images can all be used singularly and in combination with each other. Preparation and processing is relatively simple and multiples can be produced quickly. In this class, we will print with non-toxic, water-based inks.
We will begin by covering the basics: How to stretch, coat and shoot a screen; create a variety of images – from hand-drawn and/or painted stencil screens using screen-filler, to producing film positives for hand-drawn and/or painted images and text, hand-cut stencils, photographic and digital images and text.
Students will learn ink modification and color mixing, experimenting with transparencies, printing a single color, creating split-fountain blends and clean-up. We will cover registration techniques for printing multiple colors/layers and best practices for overprinting on paper. We will explore printing on fabric and the use of repeated patterns, printing on other substrates and monotype printing (producing unique images).
Beginning and experienced screenprinters are welcome to join us.
This course is intended for the student who is looking specifically to build a robust studio practice as well as the capacity to work independently on self-directed projects.. Experimenting with materials, techniques, and styles in painting will be encouraged in order to develop an artistic sensibility while instituting regular work habits. Assigned projects and independent work are intended to develop problem-solving as well as problem-finding skills. Group critiques, presentations, and discussions will exercise and expand imaginative thinking through open-ended conversations.
Fake news, reality television, “IRL” – asserting the veracity of our perceptions is a constant preoccupation in contemporary culture. What is real? Realism is a widely used term with multiple connotations: verisimilitude, authenticity, objectivity, truth, fact. In this course we will consider how painting reflects and/or perverts “reality” by making imitations of historical paintings. We will learn about the technical and material particularities of paint while exploring the ways in which formal choices such as color, light, texture, scale, and composition influence our perceptions as makers and viewers.
This class will look at the intersection ofphotographyandperformanceart inside the contributions of feminist and queer practices.Students will respond to differentperformanceprompts thinking about the role of the camera as an artistic and documentation tool. They will also engage in readings and analysis of works from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors andphotographers from the global south.Students will experiment with performances, learncamera techniques, practice photographing still and moving subjects, develop art direction projects, compose narratives, and create installations with photographs.
Photoshop and Lightroom will be available on all workstations in the Photo Digital Lab.
Students will be required to have a Mac-compatible external hard drive and inkjet photo paper to complete assignments.
An introduction to 16mm film techniques, students will shoot and edit analog 16mm film, develop by hand and finally will transfer film to video. Through readings, screenings, experiments and hands-on workshops students will learn about cinematography and the photochemical process. Taking advantage of the special tactile, tangible nature of analog film, material properties will also be explored- direct tactile methods such as loops, paint/scratch on film and laser etching. All films are silent, and hand-processed.
This course is directed at the student who is interested in furthering a visual vocabulary and conceptual enhancement through material introductions and demonstrations. The class will be based primarily on mastering methods of working with materials that we come across in this everyday modern life. Foundational understanding of these materials in their raw states; synthetic/organic. Observing proximity; understood/understanding. You will begin to design informed decisions on material selection and their safe manipulations to create and develop new rich conceptual directions. Questions about questions like: Is this the most interesting solution? What is interesting? What is a more valuable piece of matter? Why are objects made out of specific materials and what in the consumer world relates to these material selections? Could it be something that will degrade (as all does) in this art world and, is it okay to be more aware of this reality?
The foundation of this course is designed around the encouragement to experiment fearlessly towards finding a richer material language and recognize the importance of body awareness to reach efficient production methods. There will be 3 projects during this seven week intensive design course. Each project will build upon the last to allow for a consistent flow and understanding of the complex material properties and their relationships of this World. This class will cover working methods such as, but not limited to, tapping and dieing, cutting, sanding and polishing, casting and mold making with multiple materials.
In Intro to Metal Shop, you will learn metal is one of the most exciting, malleable and strong materials to work with in sculpture.
In this course, you will be introduced to the ins and outs of the Bennington metal shop. Whether you are a seasoned sculpture student, or have always wanted to learn how to weld, this course is a great way to be introduced to the fundamentals of mild steel design methods. This course is open to all that are curious!
Students will learn the basics of welding, metal-shop equipment, shop safety, and fabrication techniques.
Please note that this course may require additional materials to be purchased by the student.
This course requires an additional 3 hours of work per week in order to complete the projects and tasks assigned. Students are encouraged to work together during this time to ensure support and safety.
UUsing shop tools with respect and understanding of safety procedures is required. This course is project-based and students will be evaluated on their ability to use shop tools with proficiency and respect as well as understand safety procedures.
This course will introduce students to the components of storytelling in photographic series by examining migration as a themeand using photography as a research tool. Students will develop a robust sense of artistic ethics by studying representations of migration by photographers in diasporic communities and engaging methods for creating visual narratives around topics of
belonging, heritage, and identity. This class will be composed of exercises on the different elements of storytelling in a photographic series and will include readings from visual anthropology and gender studies addressing how photography can be used to do collaborative work in different communities. Throughout the semester, students will work with a field diary to reflect on their experiences with different assignments and produce a final photographic series. They will also have opportunities to engage with the Berkshire Immigrant Center.
This class gives composers hands-on practice notating their music and hearing it played by performers playing a variety of instruments. It is meant for fledgling composers, those who have never even imagined composing music but would like to try, as well as for those who may have composed a lot of music already but need more experience writing it down. There are specific composition assignments approximately every other week. Musicians visit the class first to explain their instruments and return a second time to play and record what the students have composed for them. In tandem with this we explore and review notation and the rudiments of music. Over the course of the term we study and review the overtone series; the notation and hearing of rhythm and pitch (in treble and bass clef); intervals; the modes; major and minor scales; triads and chord formation;the circle of fifths; whole-tone and pentatonic scales, and the concepts behind twelve-tone music. We also study a bit of Music History. The course approaches music study through a progressive-education model, positing that students will be motivated to learn skills if they have a creative use for them.
The class is labeled a ‘4000’ level because it is intended for students who have taken instrumental lessons for a few years or more, and who can read music in at least one clef. It is recommended that students who are taking this course are concurrently taking instrumental lessons.
This is a two credit composition workshop for students who want to practice their notated composing, and who have previously taken “Composing for Instruments” or another course requiring notational skills. The idea of the class is to gain fluency in the composing/notating process and confront some theory concepts along the way, by notating short pieces for piano following specific prompts. There will be weekly or bi-weekly composing assignments, some decided upon by the instructor, some determined by the group. Assignments could range from “Write a one-page two-part invention”, “Write a one page piece using jazzy rhythms”, “Write a short twelve-tone piece”, “Write a piece in a Rock piano idiom”, to “Write a short piece in which the pianist needs to talk as well as play”, “Write a piece for piano in which the keyboard is not used (and the piano is not harmed!)”.
Individual private piano lessons for more advanced students. Audition required. A weekly hour-long lesson time is arranged with the instructor.
In this course we will explore spiraling in and out of the floor. This is a rigorous movement class that focuses on traveling through space, using the spirals embedded in the body and exploring how these will help us to separate from the floor and come back to it. We will create movement sequences and phrases sourced from postmodern dance techniques and Flying Low (movement practice developed by David Zambrano that investigates moving fluidly in and out of the floor).
Starting from simplicity and leading towards complexity, we will gradually explore speed, phrasing, rhythm, spatiality, and expression.
This course is intended for students with previous experience with dance and movement-based practices who wish to deepen their understanding and experience of dynamic movement that relates to gravity and complex movement patterns.
This course creates a space for the study of anatomy and its application to movement techniques. This work examines different sections of the skeleton such as the pelvis, legs, spine, and shoulder girdle. We will also address the psoas muscle as the pillar(s) of the body connecting our lower and upper halves.
This work aims to release the joints and increase the space within. This will help for efficiency in different movement techniques, and will also promote organic movement and an exploration of different movement qualities. As a consequence of this practice, we will understand ways to take care of the body, reduce wear, and amplify breathing, all significant health benefits.
This course is intended for students from any discipline who wish to engage with embodiment and an application of anatomical concepts towards movement and creative expression. Students can expect to do some light work outside of class studying anatomical structures as well as physical work in class. No prior dance experience necessary.
This course is intended for students with some playing and reading experience, who have passed Piano Lab I or its equivalent. The goals of this course are to gain ease and dexterity at the keyboard, further developing a confident piano technique, musical expression, and the skill of reading musical notation. Students will expand upon a repertoire of scales and chords. They will study and learn to perform selected compositions.
Though this course is called a Piano Lab, students are taught individually. Each lesson is approximately 30 minute-long.
Have you been thinking about learning to play the piano? Perhaps you have a little experience from childhood and want to get back into it? Do you want to learn to read sheet music and understand the basics of music theory? Maybe you are completely new to playing an instrument, and want to give it a try?
If you answered yes, then Piano Lab I might be right for you.
Lessons are given on a one on one basis. Each lesson is 20-25 minute-long.
Dalcroze Eurhythmics is a music class where we practice sensing the body through sound. What do you know that your sentient, feeling body did not first experience? How does music help you know and express yourself? Can music help you understand someone else?
Emile Jaques-Dalcroze (1865-1950) saw all music as a metaphor for the body experiencing itself. We don’t just hear music: we feel it. When a musician interprets a musical score, and plays the right notes at the right time, is it enough to move you? In Eurhythmics, (greek for ‘good flow’) we play with embodiment as the source of dynamic, felt experience, designing games of movement and music to challenge the depth and breadth of our awareness. What makes a rhythm groove? What makes a phrase beautiful? One Dalcroze student, Meredith Monk, summed it up this way: “All musical truth resides in the body.”
Students will learn the basics of sewing. Included will be various hand stitches used in garment construction and repair as well as learning how to use a sewing machine.
Module dates: September 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, & 20
Students will learn the basics of sewing. Included will be various hand stitches used in garment construction and repair as well as learning how to use a sewing machine.
Module dates: September 24 & 27, October 4, 8, 11, & 15
This introductory course will investigate basic building techniques and principles behind making Sculpture through experiential learning. Within the first couple of weeks of term we will participate in an Iron Pour. The students will shape wax and prepare sand-molds for participation. The students will also be introduced and immersed within a community of artists off campus. This class will continue to demonstrate known material manipulations of classical processes however will be encouraged to further explore the more contemporary approaches as the class moves forward. We will use materials such as but not limited to wood, steel, plaster, wire mesh, alginate, cardboard and clay, as well as non toxic glues, hardware and fasteners. The students will become knowledgeable of safety procedures and understand how to use the woodshop’s basic hand and stationary tools efficiently. This class will have four main projects over the period of the term. Each project will have a prompted topic for the student to respond alongside a set variety of materials to work with. The material restrictions will allow the students to become creative on the most basic levels. The students will learn to become innovative and invent ways to work around a problem. We will understand and practice building works within a physically productive studio. Each student will be responsible for keeping a journal/drawing book that is split up per project. In addition each student will consistently propagate a digital folder, organized by project, that will contain websites, images and inspirational findings. This practice will act as a reference for student responsibilities as well as open conversation around portfolio building. These digital folders will also aid in preparations for individual Presentations randomly called upon throughout the term. There will be regular project related presentations that will complement individual group critiques.
This course asks each student to work in a self-directed way among a community of critical thinkers. Finding one’s voice, as a maker, requires research sources of influence and inspiration. Students are expected to undertake a significant amount of work outside of regular class meetings. At this point in your Visual Arts Education you must be able to represent serious attention and dedication to your work, and prove that you can manage your time and energy towards advanced inquiry. The goal is for students to become fully versed in issues that define traditional and contemporary sculpture. Regular individual and bi-monthly critiques with visitors will be complemented by student presentations pertaining to their work. Students will produce a visual presentation that highlights their interests, influences, and exploration. Each student will be required to propagate a visual journal as it pertains to their generative studio practice and be able to talk about how their work might be viewed in current worldly events. There will be a minimum of 4 readings that will require written or visual responses throughout the term as well as a field trip to encourage students to engage with work beyond the institution.
This 2-credit course will explore the use of medium format film, its purpose, benefits and drawbacks, and the appeal of photographing with a significantly larger film than 35mm. Students will learn about the history of medium format film, the versatility of its sizes that varies from camera to camera and how to enhance their photographic practice with its use. Most of the coursework will involve developing, photographing, printing digitally and in a darkroom, and scanning negatives made with medium format film. The photography area has two different types of medium formats to explore, the classic Twin Lens Reflex Camera and the modular Single Lens Reflex Camera. By the end of the course, students will have gotten a sense as to why medium format film is important, versatile, and cost effective to achieve a great quality negative and image.
Have you been thinking about learning to play the piano? Are you completely new to playing an instrument and want to give it a try? Do you have a little experience from childhood and want to get back into it? Are you a singer, songwriter, producer, or composer who wants to know how to accompany themselves, learn to read sheet music and chord symbols, and understand the basics of music theory?
If you answered yes, then Piano Lab I might be right for you.
This section of piano lab will be scheduled as weekly 20 minute lessons with the instructor.
One to two hours per week of individual practice is expected.
This is a beginning musicianship course for students who wish to develop sight-singing skills in standard Western music notation as it pertains to the interpretation and performance of melodic music. This class is intended to serve singers who desire to be able to learn songs from sheet music (which will help prepare students for the more advanced 4000-level voice classes at Bennington), but would be useful for any student who wants to learn how to read music and sight-sing. Students will begin by learning the fundamentals of music notation: notes, rhythms, and musical terminology. By gaining familiarity with scales and intervals, and through the use of melodic exercises and song excerpts in varying styles, students will build a connection between the eye, ear, and voice to develop the muscle memory needed to be able to translate written melodic material into sound, on sight. Students will learn and sing excerpts of songs in varying styles, gaining musical independence in the process. Sight-singing is an invaluable and highly marketable skill for musicians of all styles, and opens up a world of possibility for both aspiring professionals and amateur lovers of music.
This course is for true novices- it is not intended for students who already have experience reading music notation. No previous singing or musical experience is necessary to enroll, though it is highly recommended that students who enroll have the ability to match pitch (i.e. hear a pitch and then sing it back accurately).
The study of minerals and rocks is fundamental to earth science as well as understanding and developing solutions for most environmental problems. All products consumed by people are either directly removed from the earth or grown in a medium consisting largely of earth materials. The nature of the earth materials in any region has great bearing on how human activities will impact the environment there. Through this course, students will build an understanding of how the chemistry of minerals influences geologic and environmental processes, how rocks form within the earth, how to identify common rock-forming minerals, and how to classify rock types. The course will include field trips to local sites during class periods and on several Saturdays through the term. Prior coursework in geology is required. Prior coursework in chemistry is recommended.
How are we able to learn about the universe around us? All information astronomers gather about the universe comes to us in the form of light. Sensing this light can be as simple as looking up at a nearby star or as complex as pointing a computerized telescope with a state-of-the-art digital detector at a distant galaxy. This class will focus on observing with a focus on using digital detectors to measure astrophysical properties of distant objects. We will cover celestial coordinate systems, the design and operation of telescopes, digital detectors, and how modern astronomers extract scientific results from telescopic observations. Work for this course will consist of problem sets, exams, and observing labs, with a self-designed observing project serving as the culminating work. A significant component of this course will involve nighttime observing at Stickney Observatory, which can only be accomplished on clear nights. Because of changeable New England weather, students who enroll in this class will need to have flexible nighttime schedules.
Earthʹs life‐supporting environmental systems are controlled by a complex interplay between geologic and biological processes acting both on the surface and deep within the planetary interior. This course will explore how earth materials and physical processes contribute to a healthy environment, and how humans impact geologic processes. Topics covered will include: earth resources, natural hazards, water resources and pollution, soil formation and depletion, coastal processes, energy resources, and climate change. Students will be expected to examine these topics from both scientific and societal perspectives. This course will include field trips that require moderate physical activity.
Physics is the study of what Newton called “the System of the World.” To know the System of the World is to know what forces are out there and how those forces operate on things. These forces explain the dynamics of the world around us: from the path of a falling apple to the motion of a car down the highway to the flight of a rocket from the Earth. Careful analysis of the forces that govern these motions reveal countless insights about the world around you and enable you to look at that world with new eyes. While there are no explicit prerequisites for this course, a proficiency with algebra is assumed.
This class will focus on weekly instruction in improvisation through differing styles and feels. We will specifically focus on how group improvisation can help build community and communication.
Explore and develop skills in chord analysis, rhythm and expression through your instrument. We will also touch on the deep history of improvisation.
Weekly assignments will focus on growing improvisation skills and expanding ones knowledge of what improvisation can be.
This course offers an overview of foundational tools and techniques in digital photographic practice and aims to help students find new sources of inspiration, deepen their creative work, and enhance their ability to present it. Students will learn to shoot with digital SLR cameras using manual settings, manage, process, and manipulate digital image files, properly scan negatives, and produce digital portfolios and high quality inkjet prints. They will be challenged to create new work within short time periods in response to prompts, and to develop and revise an independent project, in the process becoming more comfortable contributing to critiques with peers and receiving feedback on their work. In addition, students will build their awareness of historical and contemporary artists and the breadth of possibilities for the medium, as they practice making observations, thinking critically, speaking, and writing about photography. Short readings and videos will provide additional context and encourage reflection on the impact of recent technological and social changes.
Class time will include demonstrations and supervised practice, group critiques, and discussions. Assignments will be given on a weekly basis throughout most of the term, and self-directed final projects will allow students to creatively express their technical skills as they explore their own questions and concerns. Please note that a Mac-compatible external hard drive and inkjet photo paper are required for this course. Students do not need to have their own DSLR cameras or printers.
As exhibitions and publications such as What is a Photograph? (The International Center of Photography, 2014), A Matter of Memory: The Photograph as Object in the Digital Age (George Eastman Museum, 2016), and Photography is Magic (Charlotte Cotton, Aperture, 2015) attest, there are many contemporary artists whose work with photography draws increased focus to material and spatial concerns, and whose creative expression extends beyond traditional fine art prints to encompass experiments with scale, texture, form, and installation. Through group critiques, assignments, artist slideshows, and readings, this course explores the broad range of physical forms that photographic works can take. While learning about past and present photographic work that has pushed the boundaries of the medium, students will expand their own creative practices, research new materials and processes, and work to advance self-directed projects through feedback and revision. Designed for those who have taken Photography Foundations and ideally at least one other four-credit photography course, Image Objects aims to challenge, complicate, clarify and deepen students’ understanding of their work in progress as they resolve its production both formally and conceptually.
Understanding the form of a container is an integral part of the aesthetic reconfiguration of nature in Ikebana. The concept of activating an interior architectural space with collected cut plants and their arrangement stems from ancient Japanese animism. The container is considered a mysterious receptacle for the sustainability of life and acts as a symbolic focal point in its spatial context. This course focuses not only on the philosophical and ideological understanding of Ikebana principles and the formalized compositions of the flower arrangements but also puts emphasis on material connotations, contemporary contexts and innovative recontextualizations of Ikebana.
This course investigates the relationship between two essential elements; the expressive sculptural forms of plants and the ceramic utilitarian function. Reflecting historical research and conceptual interpretation, the final project will culminate in a presentation of Ikebana installation that includes sculptural elements in molding and shaping plants while experimenting with clay, various non-plant or mixed media materials.
This is an introductory course of basic mold making and slip casting techniques for producing systemic components to create a series of functional ware. This course focuses on the development of design concepts through exploration of slip casting methods, application of alteration and assemblage techniques and experimentation of prototype makings to produce ceramic multiples (cups).
This course primarily puts emphasis on acquisition of sufficient skills for ceramic (mass-)production for utilitarian purposes. Basic preparation of the material, glaze application and firing techniques will be introduced. In order to develop conceptual framework and design thinking, several diverse assignments, including drawing projects and performative work, will be incorporated in to the class structure. Students are expected to conceive one final project based on a research assignment utilizing books in the collection of Crossett Library and materialize the idea into production.
In this course, students will examine the building blocks which make up the interlocking systems of language and observe how those systems are enacted and granted layers of meaning through social practice. Beyond developing an understanding of the basic mechanics of sound systems, word-meaning relations, and the expression of grammatical values in languages of the world, we will also explore how these complexes become “real” through contextualized use, and how speakers utilize them to project identity, influence social structures, pursue creative innovation, and interact with those around them on multiple simultaneous levels. Throughout the course, we will further maintain a critical eye on questions of language as they arise through daily life (from interpersonal interactions to broader causes of social justice and equity), and on how we as individuals may address such issues in a manner that is both productive and globally aware.
Ecology is the study of interactions among organisms and their environment. Studying theseinteractions provides us with the theoretical foundation for understanding many of the mostpressing environmental problems. Ecology is a broad field, encompassing research at the scales of individuals, populations, communities, and ecosystems with methods that draw on traditional ecological knowledge, Darwin-esque natural history observations, cutting edge computer modeling, and beyond. In this course, we will survey the concepts and frameworks that underpin ecology research and learn to think quantitatively about populations and communities.Students will explore how ecological interactions produce the patterns and processes observed in biomes around the world, and gain an appreciation for the limitations of modern ecology’s frameworks. Students will leave this class with the skills toexplore local ecological communities, generate hypotheses, develop experimental designs, and apply statistical analyses to ecological data.
Screen printing is an extremely versatile means of reproducing a 2-D image onto a variety of objects. Hand-drawn, painted, photographic and digital images can all be used singularly and in combination with each other. Preparation and processing is relatively simple and multiples can be produced quickly. In this class, we will print with non-toxic, water-based inks.
We will begin by covering the basics: How to stretch, coat and shoot a screen; create a variety of images – from hand-drawn and/or painted stencil screens using screen-filler, to producing film positives for hand-drawn and/or painted images and text, hand-cut stencils, photographic and digital images and text.
Students will learn ink modification and color mixing, experimenting with transparencies, printing a single color, creating split-fountain blends and clean-up. We will cover registration techniques for printing multiple colors/layers and best practices for overprinting on paper. We will explore printing on fabric and the use of repeated patterns, printing on other substrates and monotype printing (producing unique images).
Beginning and experienced screenprinters are welcome to join us.
Behind any social scene, mundane or extraordinary, lie structures of power. The goals of anthropology include unmasking these structures–the deep complexities of how humans organize themselves in groups. In this course we will explore the structures of gender, kinship, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and class to learn and develop analytical tools to navigate carefully, see deeply and engage fully the world around us.
For students of varying levels of singing ability. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed. Group warm-ups and vocalizations will incorporate exercises to develop breath control, resonance, projection, range, color, and agility. The fundamental concepts of singing will be explored in the preparation of specific song assignments. Personalization of text and emotional expression will be addressed. Students will study and perform classical song literature (including early Italian songs, 17-18th century arias and repertoire in several languages) to strengthen and to facilitate technical growth before moving on to other contemporary styles of their choice. Students should have previous voiceexperience and/or study, and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Class will be taught in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every other week to work on repertoire.
For students of varying levels of singing ability. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed. Group warm-ups and vocalizations will incorporate exercises to develop breath control, resonance, projection, range, color, and agility. The fundamental concepts of singing will be explored in the preparation of specific song assignments. Personalization of text and emotional expression will be addressed. Students will study and perform classical song literature (including early Italian songs, 17-18th century arias and repertoire in several languages) to strengthen and to facilitate technical growth before moving on to other contemporary styles of their choice. Students should have previous voiceexperience and/or study, and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. The class will be taught in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every other week to work on repertoire.
In terms of public action, Ganas remains a community-driven, cross-cultural association that offers students volunteer opportunities to engage with the predominantly undocumented Latine migrant worker population. We maintain relationships with local organizations and members while developing new ones, along with more conventional classes and readings. Over the past couple of years it has ballooned into a range of simultaneous activities that are seemingly happening all of the time, with students very much at the center of said impetus.
More specifically, we run visits to local farms, interpretation services, ESL classes, Spanish classes, transportation, a variety of social events, and assistance with the DMV. Ganas has also provided support for Sunrise, Neighborhood Connections, Bridges to Health, the Bennington Free Clinic, and is the leader of one multi-college consortium. We have cemented the more political wing of the group, through the Berkshire Immigrant Center, Migrant Justice, and Milk with Dignity, organizing the latter’s protests in the town of Bennington.
The group’s largely student-managed ethos should be emphasized herein.
4-credit course for new participants, 1- to 4-credit group tutorial for those continuing, whose presence will be required during the first hour of class time each week.
For students of varying levels of singing ability. This course will teach fundamental concepts of healthy voice technique that can be applied to singing in any style. Students will work towards individual goals through regular practice of warmups, vocalizations, and awareness exercises, and progress will be assessed by preparation and performance of specific song assignments. Vocal production and physiology will be discussed, as well as personalization of text and emotional expression. Students will study and perform at least one classical art song or aria to strengthen and facilitate technical growth, as well as explore repertoire in other vocal styles that move a student towards their individual performance goals (as determined with guidance from the instructor).
Students should have previous singing experience and/or study and some music literacy. Students will maintain a written record of their process and progress throughout the term. Sections will meet weekly in a combination of group classes and individual private lessons with the instructor. Students will also have an individual half-hour coaching session with a pianist every week to work on repertoire.
Advanced studies in theory relating to performance. Students must be enrolled in Bass with Bisio (MIN4417) simultaneously, no exceptions. This class is only for advanced students and by permission.
Beginning to advanced lessons in bass technique and appropriate theory.
Climate change, poverty, and food access are all compelling and urgent issues confronting our society. Growing local food is one significant way we can respond. Having received the Bennington Fair Food Initiative Grant with the mission to develop educational training programs in agriculture/food system workforce development and to create small business, this class will be practice based learning in regenerative agricultural practices and the creation of sustainable food systems. The course will combine hands-on learning at the farm with classroom work to gain knowledge on how to create and develop a project. We will do a broad overview of project management, writing a mission statement, creating a budget, how to work collaboratively, marketing and grant writing. We will use the farm as material, learning about organic farm production, processing, natural dye making, flowers, beekeeping, medicinal herbs, and mushroom cultivation. All students will be expected to develop and design a project working with fellow students.
We will address the process of discerning a text’s dramatic potential and realizing that potential in performance by developing and implementing a directorial approach through analysis and rehearsal techniques. The term is divided between exercises and rehearsal of individual projects. The work of the course includes a midterm Director’s Approach Essay, a final Rehearsal Log, and a Public Performance of student-directed scenes. Students are encouraged to explore cultural, ethnic, race, and gender diversity in choosing their final projects, which are subject to instructor’s approval.
Quantifying and monitoring the abundance of particular organisms is often the major endeavor in conservation and ecology research. We work to protect endangered species, facilitate the recovery of threatened species, reduce invasive species, and restore historically present species, but we also understand that even absent human pressures, some species are more rare than others. How do ecologists understand what makes some species rare and others common? What impacts do rarity or commonness have on ecosystem structure and function? How do human-caused changes in abundance shift these dynamics? In this class, we will explore questions of rarity and commonness through peer-reviewed papers in ecology and biological conservation. We’ll unpack how scientists have defined and framed rare and common species in papers spanning four decades of research. Finally, we will connect our ecological understandings of “rare” and “common” to conservation policy-making and management.
What are genes? How do they work? How are they passed on? This course will provide an introduction to modes of inheritance as well as to genes, their structure, and their regulation. Topics discussed in this class will include, but are not limited to, the molecular structure of DNA and RNA, Mendelian inheritance, molecular properties of genes, and the regulation of gene expression. The laboratory portion of this course will provide hands-on experience with genome-wide genetic screening, highlighting the increasing importance of bioinformatics in the post-genome sequence era.
Bennington’s campus supports beautiful examples of temperate deciduous mixed hardwood forests. This class is a deep dive into forest ecology, land use change, and forest succession at a local scale. Students will explore the local forest community composition, structure, and function over the last 15,000 years and discuss the environmental conditions, disturbance dynamics, and biotic interactions responsible for the forest we have today. We will assess the current condition of the campus forests, practice plant identification skills, and look for signs of past disturbances to piece together the history of this place. We will use the “layer cake” model to incorporate many tiers including bedrock & surficial geology, topography & hydrology, human culture, plant biology, and climate into our understanding of local forest ecology.
This course offers an immersive experience into the world of DNA, genes, and genomes in eukaryotic organisms. In addition to getting a grasp of the foundational biology, students will engage with various online databases and resources, becoming familiar with the computational algorithms and methodologies used to mine and analyze the ever-increasing data generated from whole-genome sequencing, and consider how that improves our understanding of evolutionary relationships amongst organisms based on their molecular fingerprints. In the second half of the term, students will work in teams on a genome annotation project, contributing to an ongoing multi-institute analysis of understudied regions of various Drosophila species’ genomes. Students completing successful project work become eligible for future co-author status on emerging publications by the Genomics Education Partnership consortium.
Why are cultures and societies so different, and simultaneously, so similar? This introductory course examines some of the theoretical and methodological approaches of anthropology in exploring human culture and society. We explore various ethnographic examples to develop an anthropological perspective on economy and politics, social organization, kinship and family life, ideology and ritual, ecology and adaptation, as well as a focus on the sources and dynamics of inequality. Further, we focus on the dynamics of change in contemporary life-globalization, migration, political collapse, environmental calamity and social reorganization-and how these processes challenge social scientists to construct appropriate paradigms to describe and understand the production of cultural meanings in the increasingly globalized world, and to identify cultural differences and human universals.
In New England, parcels of land were traditionally described in reference to specific existing landscape features—a system called “metes and bounds.” This course, grounded in the ecology, history and culture of the Bennington region over its 250-plus year history, explores human interactions with the biophysical environment to produce livelihoods as well as economic commodities from woolen underwear to carpenter squares and other manufactures for New England and beyond. How have these interactions shaped the area and how does their interplay constrain and enable its future? What features of social life and the natural environment have been, or should be, sustained? Fieldwork and practical exercises will provide an entry into the tools, skills and approaches to studying Bennington, a place of many horizons and boundaries.
The dramaturg serves as a powerful medium in the theatre. They bridge the past and the present, the creative team and the audience, while providing critical generosity and historical and literary insight. Focusing upon the practical application of dramaturgy, this course will offer students a credited platform for dramaturgical work oriented toward production.
Three groups of students are eligible to apply for Advanced Dramaturgy: 1) students who have previously taken Introduction to Dramaturgy and will be working on a Drama-supported production or independent project for Fall 2024; 2) students who have previously taken Introduction to Dramaturgy; 3) students who have not taken Introduction to Dramaturgy, but who will be working on a Drama-supported production or independent project for Fall 2024.
For students in these first and third groups, it is not necessary to work in the role of production dramaturg on a show; actors, directors, playwrights, and designers who envision a substantive research and/or analytical component to their production work are also encouraged to apply.
Students will participate in weekly workshop discussions about their dramaturgy projects. Students will also be responsible for assignments, including research exercises and short essays on genre, style, and structure, that contribute to a final research casebook on a play or musical. For students working as dramaturgs on productions, rehearsal hours will be considered in distribution of workload each week. Students will explore dramaturgy as “truly a world of limitless possibilities” (in the words of Michael Mark Chemers) within the context of individualized production processes.
Restorative Justice is a practice and a philosophy. It combines theories, concepts and actions from multiple fields including philosophy, psychology, criminal justice and values found in many faith traditions. In this 4000 level class we will dive deeply into concepts like shame, forgiveness, trauma, revenge and healing. We will relate these powerful concepts to the ideas and practices that are used in restorative justice to explore their alignment and/or lack of connection.
In her bookWhat is Scenography?, Pamela Howard states: “Scenography is the seamless synthesis of space, text, research, art, actors, directors and spectators that contributes to an original creation.” While the term “scenography” was regarded for centuries as synonymous with “theater design,” Howard’s definition does not mention theater or a stage, and other artists and theorists now address the scenographic qualities or aspects of various spaces and events, many of which are unrelated to theater. In this course, we will explore how these concepts, originally deeply rooted in theatrical practice, have evolved into a considerably broader paradigm. We will consider how the concerns of scenography, such as dramaturgy, spatial composition and focus, and most essentially visual storytelling, can inform the making or viewing of work beyond the boundaries of theater spaces, in situations ranging from public art and spectacle to politics.
Visual elements are a significant component of performance, whether it be theater, performance art, music or dance. With many performance projects, there is little time to contemplate, rethink or adjust designs in the actual performance space; there is rarely an opportunity to watch a collaborative art develop. In this class, equipped space is available to give the time to seriously look at and question theinterrelationship of visual and kinetic performance elements. Visual choices affect movement and how it is seen and movement choices affect how visual components are used and seen.We will explore in fine detail what and how the performance elements communicate to viewers, paying particular attention to the manipulation and refinement of composition, focus, timing and transformation.
Furthermore, this situation is an opportunity to explore equal partnership among the collaborators, whose roles will shift. Students are actively involved in all aspects — making movement, designing lighting and designing costumes.No particular technical skills are expected of those enrolling, as the course will focus on conceptualization, design, making work, and collaboration; instruction in any technical skills needed to complete the assignments will be included in the course.
Explorations are structured for both formal theatrical contexts and informal studio situations as well as found environments. Time for group project development must be invested outside of class in the Martha Hill Theater. While some projects are done on an individual basis, most coursework requires close collaboration with other students in the class and close observation of the work of others. All work done for the course is viewed and discussed by the class and instructors as a group.Students interested in any performance related area, visual storytelling, theatrical design, and/or making work collaboratively will benefit from this course.
Studio instruction in cello. There will be an emphasis on creating and working towards an end-of-term project for each student. A limited number of school cellos are available for loan.
One-on-one instruction in cello. There will be an emphasis on creating and working towards an end-of-term project for each student.
This course offers an introduction to the history and development of world theater and drama. We will experience the dynamic pageant of theater history through an exploration of its conventions and aesthetics, as well as its social and cultural functions. We will study theater history from antiquity through the nineteenth century, reading representative plays ranging from Greek tragedy and classical Sanskrit drama; to an array of Japanese theatrical forms (Noh, Bunraku, and Kabuki); and through German Romanticism and American melodrama. Along the way, we will read key critical and theoretical texts illuminating the plays. The course encompasses not only the study of plays as dramatic texts, but also their contexts of theater architecture and stagecraft, performance conventions, debates of art and commerce, shifting relationships to the audience, and questions about expanding the canon. Through an interdisciplinary study of theater history, students will also learn to connect theatrical tradition to its contemporary practice.
“All around is stone/And all is soft inside.” –Aurora Aksnes
Described as the second most frequently produced playwright in the world after William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen continues to provoke, challenge and inspire contemporary audiences with the contradictions in his work. This course explores Ibsen’s immense influence and innovations as an architect of modern drama. The Norwegian playwright restlessly experimented with the theatrical genre while relentlessly pursuing themes of personal freedom. From early works such as Brandto his final playWhen We Dead Awaken, Ibsen’s plays urge the individual’s imperative toward moral autonomy and the challenging of repressive societal institutions: whether marriage, the church, or the corruption of a free press. As Ivo de Figueiredo observes, “Ibsen captured his own times with astonishing power,” even as his works, written between 1850 and 1899, have inspired a diverse array of twentieth and twenty-first century playwrights and adaptors, ranging from Owen Dodson and Charles Ludlam, to Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Amy Herzog, and Charles Busch. Setting Ibsen’s plays in contexts of nineteenth-century Romantic nationalism, the dawn of continental Realist and Naturalist movements, and the rise of the “New Woman,” this course will span Ibsen’s epic verse dramas (e.g. Peer Gynt); his social and feminist problem plays (e.g.A Doll’s House, Hedda Gabler, An Enemy of the People); and his theatrical explorations into subconscious drives (e.g.The Master Builder) in late works that influenced new movements of Symbolism and Expressionism, and paralleled the dream-plays of August Strindberg, Ibsen’s peer and rival in Sweden.
In this class we will explore the changing female silhouette of 19th century Victorian Eurocentric fashion. This will include researching the historical garment, determining a pattern, scaling and grading the pattern, creating a mockup, fitting the garment, and constructing the garment out of a fashion fabric and culminating in a fully realized period costume.
Depending on skill level and confidence, students will be assigned a period from the Victorians from which the student will choose a Historical Garment to copy/adapt/re-design and fully build.
Construction of the period large scale dresses will be built through a theatrical costume lens and is intended to refine the students’ sewing, pattern making, experience with fabric, and complexity of construction. This is NOT a class in recreating authentic period sewing techniques though they will be discussed and researched. Students should expect to participate as fit models for each other’s period gowns but not their own.
Materials will be provided to ensure accessibility/equity to the course. Underpinnings will be provided unless a student shows particular interest in building a full top to toe look (corset, hoop skirt etc). The built dresses and any underpinnings will stay with Bennington to bolster the historical dress stock and will be displayed at the end of the class.
This course will look into the use of the kiln as an integral tool and part of the creative process in ceramic art. We will explore various different kilns andfiringtechniques, learning the roles of fire and atmosphere in transforming glaze components into desired surfaces. We will also discuss the history of kiln technology and how it has influenced the development of wares, kiln building, and the theoretical basis for kiln design andfiring. Students will be expected to develop and produce work independently outside of class time for use in thefirings.
Clay responds directly to touch, retains memory and is forced through the dynamic process of firing to fix a point in time. This class will introduce students to a variety of hand-building techniques to construct sculptural and/or utilitarian forms. Students will develop their skills by practicing techniques demonstrated in class. Through making, students skills will increase, granting more confidence, and allowing more control over the objects they wish to realize.
How do we physically understand the spaces we are in? How is each of us affected by them? How do we develop a deeper sense of place? The Body Acoustic aims to heighten awareness of the reciprocal relationship between the built environment and our senses. Light and sound, distances, height, volume, surfaces, angles/curves and a/symmetries all affect one’s movement through interior and exterior spaces; one’s movement, in turn, affects the perception of these spaces.
Using methodologies from visual and movement-based art forms, The Body Acoustic provides an opportunity for students of any discipline to engage in trans-disciplinary research and practice. All students will be contributing their own unique perspectives and working toward their own understanding of the work at hand. Throughout the course, students will graphically articulate their experiences inhabiting multiple spaces (i.e. drawing, photo collage), design and make simple situations/spaces to move through and will determine short scenes/movement studies to influence our sense of place. Students will form teams to complete short on-site exercises and will share results of other assigned exercises through discussion and presentation.
The purpose of this course is to guide students through their own quantitative data collection project. Initial course content will include a review of basic quantitative social science research methods, and content on the development of feasible research questions and sampling choices. Students will submit an institutional review board application, and we will discuss ethical issues related to student projects (e.g., consent and privacy protection). We will discuss measurement tools and survey construction. Subsequent lecture content will be responsive to students’ needs, but will likely focus on troubleshooting participant recruitment, ethical data storage, and data management. Although the course will focus primarily on collecting survey data, students who are interested in collecting experimental or administrative data can find a space here; all students will discuss their project with the instructor before admittance into the course.
It is trite but true: kids grow up so fast. In this course we will discuss the incredible growth of infants, toddlers, and children in multiple domains (physical, cognitive, emotional/social). We will discover how growth in each domain affects the others. We will explore enduring topics of discourse in child development, such as nature and nurture, individual differences, and the nature of change. We will also examine current discourses such as overparenting, screen time, and the impact of environmental toxins and toxic stress (e.g., abuse, racism) on child development. This course focuses on the period from fertilization to around age 12, but we may discuss how childhood experiences affect outcomes later in life.
The course will be for sustained work on an animation or projection design project, and should be a space for both experimentation, ambition and consistent endeavor. Students will be expected to create a complete animation, a series of experiments, interactive project, projection mapping etc. The expectation is that students will be fully engaged in all aspects of the class from critiques, to experimenting with ideas, undertaking research and being present. Locations may be explored for showing of work including investigating digital projections on different surfaces and forms.
A public showing will be required.
The class will be concerned with animating inanimate objects by primarily stop motion. Locations will be constructed, objects to animated formed, and lighting explored in order to create the imaginary world. A variety of filmmakers and techniques will be looked at during the course of the semester. Students will be expected to produce a variety of short projects over the first seven weeks based on current affairs and future worlds, followed by a longer more sustained project. Students will be instructed in using ‘Dragonframe’ Software, creating moveable articulated figures, and creating locations as well as video/sound editing software.
The class will include a mixture of creating assemblages in a variety of means and materials. Objects will be cut out with scissors or the laser cutter, animated with pins or digital pins in software (After Effects), layers will be used to create depth in three dimensions, a multiplane or using the Z axis. Movement will be animated using software or an animation track and recorded via Dragonframe.
We will be looking at Martha Colburn, Quirino Cristiani, Hiraki Sawa, Terry Gilliam, Janie Geiser, John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, in particular as well as others.
Background in animation, drawing, collage is necessary.
Primo Levi studied chemistry in Italy in the 1930s, where he witnessed the rise of fascism. As a Jew, he learned to navigate the treacherous path of being the Other from childhood, but that was little preparation for what was to come. Sent to Auschwitz in 1944, he survived and went on to become one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His memoir, The Periodic Table, provides a fascinating glimpse into the mind of a writer who was trained in science but who had a love of language and a gift for storytelling. It consists of a series of self-contained vignettes, each a story unto itself, that form a mosaic that depicts humanity in all its beauty and flaws. In this course, we will closely examine each of these vignettes, considering the history, culture, and science that shape them, as well as their relevance to today. Note that the course title is taken from the title of Roald Hoffmann’s 1995 book on the dualities inherent to chemistry.
