Course Listing | 51��

Spring 2021

The Latin American Short Story — SPA4006.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Jonathan Pitcher

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Along with intermittent textual analysis and some socio-historical context, the intention is to obsess over the ideology of that most lauded of genres, the Latin American short story, from modernismo to its contemporary forms. Students will develop their oral and written skills, progressing from paragraph-level exposition to imitation to an initial defense of ideas. The course

Cultural Studies and Languages

The Line of Clothing: Rendering for Costume Design — DRA2311.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Charles Schoonmaker

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Rendering is one of the fundamental techniques designers use to visualize their ideas. This class will explore various methods used to communicate visual ideas to directors, performers, producers, and other members of a creative team. While we will primarily work using traditional materials such as paper, pencil, and paint, we may also have occasion to work in digital media.

Dance Drama

The Manner of Moving — DAN2242.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Dana Reitz

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

This is designed for those who are interested in excavating and investigating their own ways of moving. By becoming more grounded, more aware and more observant, students will be able to experience presence in motion. We will be thoroughly exploring, modifying, rearranging, expanding and ultimately reconsidering how we move. While creating small movement scenarios, students

Dance

The Personal and Political — PSY2213.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Özge Savas

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

What is political? How do we acquire political knowledge? How is political understanding shaped across generations? What is the relationship between power, gender, race, and politics? Why do people participate in social movements? What is a “peaceful protest”? In this course we will examine the interplay between people, power, and politics. We will consider participation in

Music Society Culture and Thought

The Politics of Soul: Music, Emotion, Embodiment — MHI4305.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Joseph Alpar and Brian Michael Murphy

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

How do various musical traditions seek to carry listeners toward a realm of emotional feeling and even to mystical experience? From soul in American rhythm and blues, to tarab in Arab music, hüzün in Turkish music, saudade in Brazilian music, and duende in Spanish Flamenco, there are numerous concepts that describe

Music Society Culture and Thought

The Renaissance — HIS2341.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Carol Pal

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This course is a survey of the cultural, social, and religious movements that transformed Europe between 1350 and 1700. 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

Society Culture and Thought

The Scriptorium: Beauty — WRI2155.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Camille Guthrie

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This scriptorium, a “place for writing,” functions as a class for writers interested in improving their academic 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 strategies for our analytical writing. As we write in various essay

Writing

The Third Decade of Life — PSY2241.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Emily Waterman

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In this course we will draw from the fields of developmental psychology and sociology to discuss the third decade of life, or approximately ages 18 to 30. We will ask questions such as: When does adolescence end, and when does adulthood begin? Is ‘emerging adulthood’ an accurate term to describe this period? What should be the purpose of our 20s? Are recent demographic trends

Society Culture and Thought

The World of Pierre Boulez — MHI2320.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Allen Shawn

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

The idea of this class is to use the breadth of Pierre Boulez's activities and interests to learn more about music and many other subjects, and to have a good time doing so. Composer and conductor and musical thinker Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) was certainly at times "infuriating" (Alex Ross in the New Yorker), and most certainly an "enigma" (biographer Joan Peyser), but he

Music

The “Chinese Dream” after COVID? — CHI4403.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Ginger Lin

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

With the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing’s Hong Kong security law, and Xinjiang re-education camps, attitudes towards the Chinese government under the leadership of Xi Jinping have soured globally, challenging Xi’s plans to realize the “Chinese Dream” of “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” In this course, students will use authentic materials, such as print articles,

Cultural Studies and Languages

Theater Games and Improvisation — DRA2123.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

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

Drama

Thermal and Statistical Physics — PHY4108.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Hugh Crowl

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In the wake of the Industrial Revolution, physicists developed thermal physics as a way of improving the efficiency of steam engines. At nearly the same time, the development of statistical physics gave birth to an understanding of how large ensembles of particles interacted. We will study both the macroscopic (“Thermal”) and microscopic (“Statistical”) view of systems and the

Science and Mathematics

Topics in Video Game Programming — CS4113.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Justin Vasselli

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Video Game development draws on many different sub-disciplines of computer science. The game engine that the game is built on is a combination of graphics and physics programming; non-player characters, both friend and foe, are driven by Artificial Intelligence; network programming connects players from across the room to across the globe. This course will

Science and Mathematics

Traditional Music Ensemble — MPF4221.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: John Kirk

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

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 will also 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

Music

Transformation — ARC4310.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Don Sherefkin

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This studio will will focus on the development two projects; the first emphasizing the contextual approach of architectural design, developing and transforming spatial patterns found in a given environment through documentation and analysis. The second project will be concerned with transformational processes in the design of buildings based on given functional elements.

Visual Arts

Traveling in Italian Film — ITA4401.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Barbara Alfano

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

In Italian culture, as it happens for every culture, the idea of travel is deeply connected to the country’s social and historical contexts, and to the questioning of personal identity. In this respect, travel becomes a mirror for the traveler. In the case of Italian cinematic narratives, is the mirror sending back surprising images, disclosing secrets, or repeating stereotypes

Visual Arts Cultural Studies and Languages

Truth and Consequences: The Uses (and Misuses) of Literary Persona — LIT2514.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Paul La Farge

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This will be a class about writers who have invented literary personae which complicate (and in some cases frustrate) the reading of their work. Questions about the uses of persona, the historical contexts in which persona become valuable, and the boundaries of the “literary” – the places where works of literature create anxiety by impinging on ideas about authority,

Literature

Ukulele Comprehensive — MIN2230.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: John Kirk

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

A comprehensive course on learning skills on the ukulele. We will learn the history of the uke and both traditional and contemporary styles. Music theory and playing techniques will be covered and students will be expected to perform as a group or individually at Music Workshop. Students must have their own soprano or tenor ukulele.

Music

Varied Vessels — CER4226.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Aysha Peltz

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This intermediate to advanced-level course is for students interested in continuing their studies in ceramics with a focus on the vessel. Students who are on campus may work in the ceramics studio and can choose any ceramic building technique they would like to continue exploring: hand-building, slip casting, throwing, digital printing. Students who are studying remotely will

Visual Arts

Victorian Children’s Literature: Girls in the Underworld — LIT2515.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Jenny Boully

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

Quintessential to the Victorian cult of the girl-child, both Alice Liddell and Wendy Darling have emerged as contemporary mythic icons of both traditional and subversive femininity. In this class, we will investigate how girl-children are entrapped and enchanted in the works of men, focusing on J.M. Barrie’s Peter and Wendy and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books,

Literature

Violin/Viola — MIN4345.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Kaori Washiyama

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

Studies in all left-hand position and shifting and an exploration of various bow techniques. Students can select from the concerto, sonata suites repertoire, short pieces and etudes for study designed to develop technique, advance musicianship and prepare for performance.

Music

Visual Arts Lecture Series — VA2999.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Carly Rudzinski

Days & Time:

Credits: 1

Each term, Bennington offers a program of five-six 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 in the Visual Arts and to stimulate campus dialogue around topical issues of contemporary art and culture

Visual Arts

Walls — VA2236.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Farhad Mirza

Days & Time:

Credits: 2

In this course we will study what the wall does literally and symbolically. In architecture, walls are expected to delimit space and to support the roof. The built wall is where two diverse areas meet—one might say that the wall expresses the relationship between them. Walls make the existential struggle between an exterior and an interior tangible. We will discuss work by

Visual Arts

Wearable Paper Prints Experiment — PRI4215.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Thorsten Dennerline

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

This course will explore the potential of wearable paper prints. To start, we will learn and practice simple printing methods that allow us to make prints into “use objects” that can be worn on the body. We will begin by looking at simple examples of paper dresses, party favors, disposable protection gear, and halloween costumes, as well as historical examples ranging from Dada

Visual Arts

Witchcraft and Magic in Premodern Europe — HIS4104.01

Spring 2021

Instructor: Carol Pal

Days & Time:

Credits: 4

What is magic? What is a witch? Who is a witch? And in the increasingly rational culture of Europe after the Renaissance, how and why did nearly 100,000 people – predominantly women – come to be tried for the crime of witchcraft? In many ways, the investigation of these questions hangs on another question: how do we differentiate science, magic, and religion? In premodern

Society Culture and Thought