A 2022 Field Work Term Reading List
While students embark on Field Work Term, an annual work-learning term during which students gain hands-on experience and test their classroom ideas in the world of work, Bennington faculty and staff offer their reading recommendations to keep everyone’s intellectual juices flowing wherever they are.
Elizabeth Costello
By J.M. Coetzee
Recommended by Barbara Alfano, Director of First-Year Forum and Faculty—Cultural Studies and Languages
First Person Singular
Recommended by Barbara Alfano, Director of First-Year Forum and Faculty—Cultural Studies and Languages
Homeland Elegies
By Ayad Akhtar
Recommended by Noah Coburn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Pedagogy
Mutiny
By Phillip B. Williams, Faculty—Literature
Recommended by Camille Guthrie, Director of Undergraduate Writing Initiatives
God of Nothingness
By Mark Wunderlich, Director of the Bennington Writing Seminars
Recommended by Camille Guthrie, Director of Undergraduate Writing Initiatives
White Skin, Black Fuel
"While not exactly a light holiday read, this all-too-timely work examines the linkages between the climate crisis, fossil fuels, and resurgent right-wing politics in Europe, the U.S., and Brazil."
Recommended by John Hultgren, Faculty—Society, Culture, and Thought
My Grandmother's Hands
Recommended by Alfredo Medina Jr., Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and College Diversity Officer
White Tears/Brown Scars
By Ruby Hamad
Recommended by Alfredo Medina Jr., Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and College Diversity Officer
A Gentleman in Moscow
Recommended by Mirka Prazak, Faculty—Society, Culture, and Thought and Jared Della Rocca, Director of Library Services
Dopesick
"Harrowing read about the oxycontin/heroin epidemic and how Big Pharma promoted the spread"
Recommended by Carly Rudzinski, Associate Registrar
An Atlas of Impossible Longing
"Intimate portrait of an Indian family coping with life issues."
Recommended by Carly Rudzinski, Associate Registrar
Are You Somebody?
"Memoir of a Dublin woman - loves, education, and Irish family."
Recommended by Carly Rudzinski, Associate Registrar
Spying on the South
"Fascinating exploration of Frederick Law Olmsted's journey from the 1850's (before his career in park design)."
Recommended by Donald Sherefkin, Faculty—Visual Arts
Between Queens and the Cities
Recommended by Oceana Wilson, Dean of the Library
The Pilgrim Hawk
"A short, savagely perceptive novel about rich expats in France in the 1920s by a well-known gay American writer from the 40s and 50s who has been largely forgotten. New York Review of Books has reissued the book beautifully."
Recommended by Benjamin Anastas, Faculty—Literature
Oreo
"There is nothing else like this satiric novel about Oreo's heroic journey through New York City to discover her birthrights as a biracial child of Black and Jewish culture--it's wild, funny, and so forward looking that it stumped everyone when it was first published in 1974."
Recommended by Benjamin Anastas, Faculty—Literature
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
By Alexander Chee
Recommended by Rage Hezekiah, Assistant Director of Academic and International Student Services
Let Me Tell you What I Mean
Recommended by Rage Hezekiah, Assistant Director of Academic and International Student Services
Inheritance
Recommended by Rage Hezekiah, Assistant Director of Academic and International Student Services
Real Life
"I'm not saying grad school is (always) evil for BIPOC--but it's not (always) not evil."
Recommended by Vanessa Lyon, Faculty—Visual Arts
Passing
"Bracket the so-called tragic Mulatta trope and revel in the gorgeous imagery, fearless dialogue, and ubiquitous queerness of this Harlem Renaissance novel--then maybe watch the Netflix adaptation."
Recommended by Vanessa Lyon, Faculty—Visual Arts and Sue Rees, Faculty—Visual Arts and Drama
Playing in the Dark
"Perhaps never-more-relevant-than-here-and-now literary criticism engaging canonical writers such as Melville, Cather, and Hemingway from the late, incomparable, writer and novelist."
Recommended by Vanessa Lyon, Faculty—Visual Arts
High Conflict
"'Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.' --Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, 13th century. This book is a guide to that field. Indispensable. Rich. Personal. Political. How to get out of our traps."
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
The Overstory
"No hidden secret, this bestseller won the Pulitzer Prize. But if you love enchanting fables to lead you into the mysteries of the visible and invisible world that surrounds us, read The Overstory. It will change your life."
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
An American Sunrise
"'To heal was to be familiar with what destroyed.' --Ray Young Bear, Meskwaki poet. This gorgeous and painful meditation on the trails of tears blazed by the indigenous peoples as they were driven from their lands is a guide to our history and the roots of our plundering the continent. Joy Harjo opens up the trails for you. Read a poem a day and then go on a walking meditation. Harjo connects the systematic expulsion of the indigenous peoples with the waves of migration hitting our southern border today. Read her words. Open your eyes. Find a way to help us all come home."
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
Normal People
"'Marianne had the sense that her real life was happening somewhere very far away, happening without her, and she didn’t know if she would ever find out where it was and become part of it.' I know so many Bennington students who have felt that way. Sally Rooney articulates it so clearly that reading this book I felt I could breath under water. She finds shimmering mystery in the ordinary and a toughness about class struggle that exists on a cellular level. Page turner with staying power."
Recommended by Jean Randich, Faculty—Drama
Why Are You Doing This?
Recommended by Wade Simpson, Acquisitions Coordinator—Crossett Library
Lincoln in the Bardo
"Very unusual format and very moving."
Recommended by Tom Bogdan, Faculty—Music
Diamonds
By Camille Guthrie, Director of Undergraduate Writing Initiatives
Recommended by Ann Pibal, Faculty—Visual Arts
The Secret to Superhuman Strength
Recommended by Stephen Shapiro, Faculty—Cultural Studies and Languages
Universal Tonality
"This is an interesting read especially because William Parker will be a visiting faculty member for the first 7 weeks this coming spring. William is a composer and acoustic bass player who is very prolific in his compositional output. He's been here in the past with Bill Dixon, and will teach courses on the philosophy of music, improvisation, and his own discography through a listening course, which is voluminous."
Recommended by Michael Wimberly, Faculty—Music
Jose Limon: An Artist Re-viewed
"June Dunbar's book on the great modern dancer/choreographer who was at Bennington, Jose Limon, consists of a series of essays by those who have worked with, or teach Limon's dance techniques."
Recommended by Michael Wimberly, Faculty—Music
Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence
"I first encountered Sue's work through First Year Forum some years ago when we were teaching about microaggressions and biases. Perhaps there are some lessons that can support our work towards antiracism."
Recommended by Michael Wimberly, Faculty—Music