Black Studies

How have the cultures, histories, and experiences of people of African descent shaped our worlds? How do Black intellectual traditions challenge hegemonic notions of academic disciplinarity? What might it mean to write, research, and create in relation to community visions for freedom?

Students who choose to study Black Studies explore and participate in the history of the African and Afro-diasporic community of thinkers and makers. Bennington’s interdisciplinary and student-designed approach to learning helps students draw on various resources to gain new insights and develop their own perspectives on the representations of Blackness and the Black body.

Black Studies interrogates the assumptions, objects of study, practices and limits of other established disciplines. Students who focus on Black Studies complete culminating projects that include research on specific issues, development of informed and innovative thinking, and/or creation of new ways to express and communicate understanding of Black Studies. Black Studies graduates work in scientific research, policy development, law, education, social studies and advocacy/activism, dance, theater and performance, literature and creative writing, and curatorial contexts and art.

Field Work Term

As with all areas of study at Bennington, students of Black Studies are encouraged to support, enhance, and contextualize their classroom learning with a range of experiential and professional development opportunities. When participating in their annual Field Work Term experience, students of Black Studies may choose to center this learning through their choice of a professional organization with whom to intern, their proposal of an independent study or research project that aligns closely with their interdisciplinary studies, or collaborative work with a thinker, artist, and professional whose work in this space they admire. 

Study Away

Many students also choose to support and enhance their learning with a term studying away from Bennington, either internationally or domestically. Students who study away will find the opportunity to explore the world, and their academic interests, through another lens, while also creating the time and space to center voices they may not regularly hear. Whether your unique blend of interdisciplinary interests within Black Studies draws you to sail the Mississippi while studying the unique conservation efforts being led by queer communities of color in this essential watershed; unpack the intersection of fashion, music, and Sankofa within the “Afro-Chic” communities of Accra; or to connect with a Howard University-designed curriculum researching the role of race and identity in South America’s largest Afro-diasporic community in Cali, Colombia, we are confident that you will be able to find a program away that aligns to and enhances your academic interests at Bennington!

Black Studies Resources

Crossett Library

Black Studies Library Guide: This resource guide was created by Crossett Library staff and Deja' Haley, '20 to highlight and make more visible materials related to Black Studies.

Usdan Gallery

Usdan Gallery exhibitions and programs support teaching across the curriculum. Examples of projects related to Black Studies include solo exhibitions by artists Alexandra Bell (Fall 2017). Torkwase Dyson (Fall 2018), and Allana Clarke (Fall 2022); the Covid-era public collaborations “Bring It Home” and “Carrie Mae Weems Resist COVID / Take 6!” (2020–21); the Milford Graves retrospective “A Mind-Body Deal” (Spring 2024); and the group exhibition “We Have Reach” (Spring 2025).

Information about all Usdan programming is on the Usdan Gallery website.