At Bennington, students work closely with faculty to design the content, structure, and sequence of their study and practice—their Plan—taking advantage of resources inside and outside the classroom to pursue their work. 

From the carbon footprint of data centers to biotechnology’s blurring of science and design, the pathways for inquiry within Media Studies are ever-expanding. The study of media at Bennington explores media history and theory, as well as scholarly and artistic work in the emergent fields of sound studies, visual culture, media archaeology, and the digital humanities. We work from an expanded definition of media that includes not only printed and digital texts and imagery, but also the material infrastructures that make mediation possible, from undersea fiber optic cables to the ring of telecommunications satellites orbiting the earth. Students learn how to analyze the circulation of media artifacts and their meanings in relation to structures of power, the construction of social difference, and the range of possibilities for interpreting the past, perceiving the present, and imagining the future.