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November 21, 2023

A one-person show of new faculty member Beverly Acha’s paintings opened at in New York City on September 15. 

Bass instructor, Michael Bisio, released a new CD entitled “.”

Faculty member and Associate Director of the Elizabeth Coleman Center for the Advancement of Public Action David Bond was quoted extensively about Saint Gobain’s sponsoring New York City’s Climate Week. The company was the polluter responsible for the contamination of the Hoosick Falls, NY, and North Bennington, VT, water supplies.

Graywolf Press has purchased the rights to two books by faculty member Jenny Boully. includes Close Cover, Strike Gently and Parallax. Close Cover, Strike Gently is set for publication in Spring 2025 with Parallax to follow two years later.

Visiting faculty member Colin Brant, former Bennington Writing Seminars faculty member , and were recipients of the prestigious 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship. A one-person show, Dirty Snowball, new paintings by Brant, opened at in New York City in September. 

Visiting faculty member led a workshop at Guilford Community Church to teach new choral music by Black composers, to honor their work, and to share the history of appropriation of Black music in April 2023. Bullock spoke to The Commons about her work, including her Bennington course “Songs of Protest and Praise.”

Faculty member Maya Cantu presented a post-matinee talk, entitled “” at the Mint Theater Company in February 2023. The world premiere of Betty Smith's Becomes a Woman ran February 7-March 18.

In April 2023, faculty member Franny Choi joined MT Vallarta in conversation at Dartmouth College for Visibility: 2023, an event to promote gender equity and to combat power-based violence. of the event. In addition, Choi’s recent book The World Keeps Ending and the World Goes On was a finalist for the 3rd annual .  Choi is also the at Tulane University in New Orleans. 

Faculty member Noah Coburn published with the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, which highlights lack of compensation for injured or killed third country nationals in Afghanistan, and was interviewed by . 

Visiting faculty member Michael Cohen published “in the Jerusalem Post in January and “” in the Jewish Telegraph Agency and “” in Arab News in August.

As faculty member Elena Demyanenko continues to develop a new body of work, published an article about her experience as a Russian dancer and artist.

Four Way Books released faculty member Michael Dumanis’s new book . He read from the volume at in Manchester, and a book party and signing at the . In addition, a by Dumanis and an were featured on Poetry Daily.  

Faculty member Anaïs Duplan ’14 has been awarded a $30,000 from #BlackVisionaries, which was offered in partnership with Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum.

In addition to having had an opinion piece in the , visiting faculty member Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics has appeared on . She has become a major national and international spokesperson working against plastics pollution. Enck also received the . 

In May 2023, faculty emerita Marguerite Feitlowitz presented her translation of as part of Brooklyn Public Library's Colloquy #6: Latin American Poetry in Translation. 

Former faculty member Vivian Fine’s music has been by Oklahoma State University associate professor Erin Murphy. 

"Dancing through the Pandemic," a project from faculty member Michael Giannitti, featuring the temporary dance space designed on campus in spring 2021, was selected for inclusion in the . In addition, this fall Giannitti designed lighting for the off-Broadway production of Cross That River, which ran , and A Man for All Seasons at the . 

Faculty member Mariam Ghani is a recipient of a 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship. She is among more than 100 Bennington-associated Guggenheim Fellows to have been awarded throughout both organizations’ histories. An Afghan-American artist, writer, and filmmaker, Ghani also appeared on “,” the Aga Khan Museum’s podcast series in January 2023. 

Technical instructor in drama Seancolin Hankins produced scenic paintings for the set of “,” a production of Living Room Theater at Park-McCullough Historic Governors Mansion House in North Bennington, VT.

Faculty member and Dean of Faculty Sarah Harris’s article “‘Quería que el lector se pusiera en su lugar’: Techniques for the Recovery of History in Twists of Fate by Paco Roca” was , a scholarly journal from the University of Minnesota. 

In May 2023, visiting faculty member Maria Dahvana Headley delivered the , Oxford.

The National Endowment for the Humanities on former faculty Martha Hill, Martha Graham, and 51��������'s influential dance program in Humanities magazine. 

Faculty member Kirk Jackson directed Fun Home at in February. Bennington Technical Instructor in Costume Production Richard MacPike was the costume designer for the production. Bennington students involved included Milo Lis ’24, Nathaniel Frederickson ’26, Grace Phipps ’25, and Hannah Pierera ’23.

Faculty member John Kirk was noted for a performance of , a group of three educators/musicians, dedicated to the promotion and performance of American traditional music, at the Bainbridge Town Hall Theatre, in Bainbridge, NY, in January 2023. In addition, he and the Bennington traditional music program were highlighted in the July issue of .

In the spring of 2023, faculty member Jonathan Kline exhibited at in Livingston Manor, NY.

by faculty member Sherry Kramer, has been published by Methuen/Bloomsbury. This book on meaning making in timebound art is part one of Kramer's plainspoken exploration of how we make things matter to an audience.

are set to lead in psychological horror film Self-Portrait, based on visiting faculty member Rachel Lyon's debut novel .

Faculty member Vanessa Lyon published Lush Lives, a work of fiction, with . She did a reading at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT, in September. 

Faculty member Amie McClellan spoke at the in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, in October. Her talk was called "Exploring VHL as a model misfolded substrate for lysine-independent quality control." 

New faculty member Caitlin McDonough MacKenzie is part of a University of Maine-spearheaded team that a $2.5 million National Science Foundation grant to study alpine plants in New England. 

Communications and Marketing Manager and his dad Marty performed at the inaugural , created by the Catskills Borscht Belt Museum. The lineup featured some of the biggest names in comedy, like Rachel Feinstein and Alan Zweibel.

In January 2023, faculty member Senem Pirler performed at as part of an ensemble brought together by Claire Chase performing an all-Pauline Oliveros program to celebrate composer Pauline Oliveros at 90.

Several faculty members collaborated on , a new play by Mindy Pfeffer, which premiered at the 14 Y Theater/LABA Second Stage in New York City in January 2023. The play was directed by Jean Randich, with set and projection design by Sue Rees, and costume design by Charles Schoonmaker.

Visiting faculty member Lena Retamoso Urbano has published the short story "Vestigios" in , a literary magazine sponsored by the Universidad Católica Sedes Sapientiae based in Lima, Peru.

Faculty member Jennifer Rohn will be acting in Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play November 3–25 at Boston’s Calderwood Pavilion. 

John West, MFA ’18 and Bennington Writing Seminars faculty member Hugh Ryan, MFA '09, connected in an about West’s new book Lessons and Carols: A Meditation on Recovery.

Three papers by faculty member Özge Savaş were recently published in peer-reviewed journals: "" in Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, "Epistemic Exclusion and Invisibility in Sex Research: revisiting the WEIRD Dichotomy" in the Journal of Sex Research, and "Vulnerability and Empowerment on the Ground: Activist Perspectives from the Global Feminisms Project" in the Feminism & Psychology Journal. 

Jacob's Pillow featured an , which includes work by faculty member Charles Schoonmaker, who was a resident costume designer there early in his career.

Faculty member Tim Schroeder published “Four-dimensional characterization of a PFOA-contaminated fractured rock aquifer (FRA) in Bennington, Vermont, U.S.A” in the journal .

Visiting faculty member Mark Schapiro released , a four-part podcast series looking at how each of the four elements is impacted by climate change or is inspiring responses to it. 

The Arts Fuse reviewed faculty member Allen Shawn's album writing "This CD is truly a record of Shawn’s 'mindset' at a given moment—mindset or whatever one wants to call the spark that sets things percolating as a composer sits down at the piano." 

Elizabeth Sherman, faculty emerita, offered a lecture called “Why Don’t Americans ‘Get’ Science?” with the in Stowe, Vermont, last fall. 

Bennington Writing Seminars faculty member for the 2023 McKitterick Prize for his novel Other Names for Love. The prize is awarded annually to an author over the age of 40 for a first novel. 

Visiting faculty member Maboula Soumahoro has joined scholars from around the world for a year-long fellowship at Columbia University’s starting this fall. In addition, she joined NPR's to discuss the riots in France and problems stemming from racism. 

Anne Thompson, faculty member and Director and Curator of the Suzanne Lemberg Usdan Gallery, in the Brooklyn Rail for her review of a David Smith show. Another publication in the catalog for Groundswell: Women of Land Art, which opened in September at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, is forthcoming. As part of the exhibition's opening, Thompson joined Bennington alumni Patricia Johnson '62 in on Sunday, September 24, at her public sculpture at Fair Park Lagoon in Dallas.

Visiting faculty member Oliver Wadsworth performed as Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream at this spring.

Faculty member Emily Waterman coauthored “” in the American Journal of Community Psychology in January 2023. Waterman and several students and alumni—including Hafsa Zulfiqar '22, McKennly McLain '23, Sergui Caivoi '24, and Taha Qadeer '25—published in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse.

Faculty member Michael Wimberly headlined the held by the Greater Bennington Peace and Justice Center and Greater Bennington Interfaith Council.

The music video for "" by the alternative rock band Protomartyr features guest artist Kota Yamazaki.

Faculty can submit Faculty Notes for inclusion in upcoming Faculty Notes articles at communications@bennington.edu.