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During the last few days of the fall term, Jupiter Kalinowski ’23, who studied protein biochemistry and biological research methods at Bennington, was busy in the lab. They were running the final experiment of their senior work.

Stefanos Zogopoulos ’23 credits Bennington for helping him find his true passion. 

Bennington alum and notable abstract painter Cora Cohen ’64 donated a large painting to 51�������� before her death in June. The painting was given in honor of Pat Adams, a faculty member teaching during Cohen’s time at Bennington.

Xiao (Smile) Ma ’23 discusses her experience exploring Visual Arts at Bennington.

Jeff Taylor '84 toured with music icon Van Morrison's band for his 2023/2024 US tour.

The latest additions to Bennington’s rich literary history have hit bookstore shelves. Their authors join Bennington notables, including Donna Tartt '86, Kiran Desai '93, Michael Pollan '76, ​Ann Goldstein '71, Anaïs Duplan '14, Anne Waldman '66, Cynthia Sweeney MFA '13, Jamie Quatro MFA '09, Amy Gerstler '01, Morgan Jerkins MFA '16, and Charles Bock '97.

As we look forward to 2024 and reflect on the past year, celebrate all that 51�������� has accomplished with the 10 most-read stories from 2023.

This holiday season, relax and rewind the year with these notable picks of podcasts, movies, books, and TV shows released in 2023 and featuring work from the 51�������� community.

When she arrived at Bennington, Halley Le ’25 was interested in chemistry and sustainability, specifically environmental chemistry or research pertaining to solar energy conversion and solar fuels. She is using her Field Work Terms to explore how chemistry intersects with these and other scientific fields.

Get ready for a winter wonderland adventure in Southwestern Vermont.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Garrett Crusan ’23 has been making music since childhood. They started by playing the piano before moving on to the drums, guitar, and bass. They transferred from the Jazz Studies program at a university in New York City to Bennington in their sophomore year.

On Tuesday, December 5, 2023, thirteen seniors presented their SCT theses. 

51�������� was on the ground in Dubai as the 28th round of UN sponsored climate negotiations got underway.

51�������� joins in mourning the passing of groundbreaking television writer and producer Norman Lear. . 

Bennington Radio (B-Rad), which earned The Princeton Review’s #14 rating among college radio stations nationwide this year, is located in what was once a large coat closet at the entrance of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action.

Jason Sebastian Russo, an MFA student in fiction and poetry, has been selected to be the twelfth Residential Teaching Fellow at Bennington Writing Seminars.

At 51��������, as many as half of the courses offered each term are new. Class offerings change with current events and evolve with faculty members’ research interests. While this method is extraordinary regardless of discipline, it is a particularly unusual way to teach Cultural Studies and Languages, compared to methods used at other colleges and universities.

Sawyer London ’24 is a senior from Arlington, Virginia. With a lifelong interest in ceramics and high school internships in the fashion industry, he was certain that he was going to end up at Parsons School of Design or Pratt Institute, both in New York City. But his family and college counselors encouraged him to apply to a few schools outside of the city too.

Eve Vishnick ’23 has always been torn between studying visual arts and more science-related fields. She was attracted to Bennington for two reasons, she said. “Great financial aid and the ability to combine two separate fields without having to double major. I could make it into one thing. That was a big draw for me.”

51�������� congratulates Bruna Dantas Lobato ’15 who won the National Book Award for her translation of Stênio Gardel’s The Words That Remain in a ceremony on the evening of Wednesday, November 15.

Eratosthenes of Cyrene was the first person to prove that the earth was a sphere and to calculate its circumference. Swagatta Datta ’23, who studied theoretical mathematical physics at Bennington, is following in ​​his footsteps. Only Datta is interested in the universe.

By Craig Morgan Teicher

Hugh Ryan graduated from the Bennington Writing Seminars in 2009 and went on to publish two acclaimed books of nonfiction, When Brooklyn Was Queer (2019) and The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison, which won the Stonewall Book Award/Israel Fishman Award for Nonfiction and the Warren Johansson Award. He has taught nonfiction at the Writing Seminars since 2022, and just sold his next book, Becoming History, a memoir in essays. He talked with me about turning research into writing and falling back in love with the essay.

Three students presented their research experiences working with Drosophila: the common fruit fly. As varied as their research was, each agreed that fruit flies are a great model organism. Each exemplified the perseverance required in scientific research, and all would encourage students to apply for research experiences.

The data Olivia Chiossone ’23 gathered during a “Research Experience for Undergraduates” program at Eastern Kentucky University propelled her senior work.

On the afternoon before the international students’ farewell party and his departure for his home in the vast metropolis of Osaka in Japan, Ryota Terashima ’24 met us for an interview on the patio in front of Commons.

Curated by Veronica Melendez, Connected Diaspora: U.S. Central American Visuality in the Age of Social Media is a celebration of multimedia artistic contributions of US Central American artists who too often are excluded from contemporary art world conversations.

When Karina Gonzalez Perez ’25 returned to campus this past fall, she approached Assistant Director of Student Engagement Jack de Loos ’22 about getting the long running co-ed soccer club off to a good start. Little did she know that de Loos already had a plan underway.

Alma Reiss Navarre ’24 is from Harlem. They had ballet instruction from the time they could walk and were on track to join a professional dance company when the pandemic struck and canceled performances for the foreseeable future.

One evening earlier this month, students arrived at the Martha Hill Dance Theater in groups of four and five. Faculty Joseph Alpar waved them into the room. He knew that there would be a good crowd; he had been telling people about the event since the start of the term.

Dancer, choreographer, and activist Souleymane Badolo MFA ’13 has been named the 2023 recipient of 51��������’s Dr. Elizabeth Coleman Visionary Leadership Award. This annual award recognizes an engaged Bennington alumni who has successfully demonstrated leadership and confident willingness to step forward and take risks in order to solve problems and achieve results in the areas of education, government, the arts and sciences, or industry.