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51��������’s Spring 2024 Visual Arts Lecture Series (VALS) welcomes photographer and educator Elle Pérez as the Adams-Tillim Lecturer on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. All VALS lectures are free, open to the public, and will take place from 7:00 – 8:30 pm in Tishman Lecture Hall on the College’s campus.

A native of Washington state, Genevieve Hammatt ’26 came to Bennington with a plan to study social justice and social work but quickly realized that she could incorporate her lifelong passion for the environment into her studies. 

Nine students from high schools around the country were selected as winners of 51��������’s 2023-2024 Young Writers Awards.

During most ceramics classes, the pieces students make are theirs to do with what they like. They keep them or give them to family and friends. Students in Anina Major’s  in the Fall of 2023 had other plans. Each student crafted four mugs that they donated to ��dz�’s, the 51�������� cafe, this term.

Presentation to address storytelling as a form of social activism on April 16, 2024.

In honor of the celebration of Ramadan, Ahmed Shuwehdi ’25 and Muhammad Ammar ’24, co-leaders of the Muslim Student Association, asked Muslim students to respond to the prompt, "What has Ramadan felt like for you at home, and how does it feel at Bennington?” and answered the prompt themselves. The responses reveal longing, nostalgia, and an appreciation for the community at Bennington.

Five Questions with Astronomer Hugh Crowl

Hugh Crowl, astronomer and faculty member in astronomy and physics at Bennington, is teaching a class this term all about the total solar eclipse crossing nearby 51�������� on April  8. Bennington will experience a 97-percent eclipse, but the class is traveling north to Plattsburgh, NY, to be in the path of totality.

Today, 51�������� announced its plans to open a new satellite campus, which will be launched into space, buildings and all, on April 8.

Senior projects in music

51��������’s Carriage Barn Concert Series, which occurs each term in the Deane Carriage Barn, has announced its Spring 2024 lineup of talented, innovative, and classically trained musicians who will share their work with the college and local community.

Winston Foundation Grant funds 2024 Ben Belitt Colloquium on Arts and Literary Culture

51�������� is pleased to announce that poet and memoirist Safiya Sinclair ’10 will address the class of 2024 at Commencement.

Poetry at Bennington, an endowed program of short-term residencies that brings established and emerging poets to 51�������� for public readings and close work with students, has announced its Spring 2024 lineup of featured poets.

The Literature discipline at 51�������� has received a grant from the Winston Foundation to fund a new course and reading from 2024 Ben Belitt Distinguished Visiting Writer .  

More than 100 people attended the opening of Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal at 51��������’s Usdan Gallery on the evening of Tuesday, February 27, 2024. The nationally traveling exhibition gathers the multifaceted work of Milford Graves (1941–2021) to explore the practices and predilections of an extraordinary jazz innovator, tireless polymath, and legendary 51�������� professor. The exhibition is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 1:00–5:00 pm and by appointment through April 27. For more information, visit the . 

Susan Sgorbati, director of 51��������’s Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA), shared her work with the Transboundary Water In-Cooperation Network () and their international cooperation to develop a new United Nations convention on conserving the river deltas () with the Reporter Danielle M. Crosier of the Bennington Banner. 

Ryan Chigogo ’23, energy analyst at Charles River Associates, reflects on his time at 51��������. 

Article by Gaurav Aung '24

51��������’s Prison Education Initiative (PEI), which serves Great Meadow Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men’s prison in Comstock, NY, is poised to become in New York State to offer incarcerated people the opportunity to pursue a bachelor’s degree. 

This award offers national recognition of academic libraries that are making a difference for all underrepresented groups.

Nicholas Brooke, music faculty member at 51��������, will bring his creative collaborators to for a week-long residency culminating in a work-in-progress performance of his latest piece, Ten Transcendental Etudes, on March 1-2. The show will also run at performing arts center in New York City April 4-7. 

51�������� science faculty member Tim Schroeder co-authored a journal article, “Mineral Carbonation of Peridotite Fueled by Magmatic Degassing and Melt Impregnation in an Oceanic Transform Fault,” that was published in the most recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Music performances and documentary screening create a vibrant program of Milford Graves events.

Milford Graves: A Mind-Body Deal, a nationally traveling exhibition, gathers the multifaceted work of Milford Graves (1941-2021) to explore the practices and predilections of an extraordinary jazz innovator, tireless polymath, and legendary 51�������� professor.

Computer Scientist Darcy Otto studies the foundations of computation, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and AI ethics and is starting as a new faculty member in the spring term. He is eager to help students discover how to think like computer scientists and how deep questions connect seemingly disparate areas of study.

By Gaurav Aung ’24

51�������� was Florence Gill ’22’s destination long before they knew it existed. Born and raised in Doncaster, England, they had no idea attending college in the United States was an option. After finishing their General Certificate of Secondary Education (roughly the British equivalent of an American high school diploma), they were on a path that would lead them to a strict education at a university in the United Kingdom, yet they found themself at a crossroads: they wanted the depth of a specialized undergraduate degree but also the breadth of study that couldn’t be found in the UK.

Ahmad Yassir ’20 stayed in the town of Bennington after graduation and works as a digital advertising and marketing specialist for the . He had an amazing 2023.

35 Bennington students have been selected for paid fellowship opportunities during the 2024 Field Work Term.

In September 2023, was eager to start her position as the director of Student Accessibility Services at 51��������. This new role, which had previously been shared between Residential Life and Academic Services, was created to provide added accessibility and (ADA) expertise more conveniently than ever. 

Recent graduate trustee Alisha Bade Shrestha ’23 discusses her experience studying Performing and Visual Arts at 51�������� and the "small nestled miracles" she found on campus.

Shlesha Pradhan '24, from Kathmandu, Nepal, has always been interested in science, particularly in Biology. While in high school, her initial plan was to enter the field of medicine; however, her perspective shifted when she took a volunteer role at a rehabilitation center.

On the final Wednesday of the fall 2023 term, students in faculty member Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie’s course prepared to present their final projects.