Interdisciplinary Events in French, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and Spanish
Vermont Business Magazine The Spring 2019 Language Series, hosted by the Isabelle Kaplan Center for Languages and Cultures at Bennington College, offers interdisciplinary talks and events that enhance and expand the understanding of language and cultures outside the classroom. All events are free, open to the public, and will take place on Bennington College’s campus.
“Bennington College’s Language Series allows us to bring exciting programming from around the world to Vermont,” said French faculty member Stephen Shapiro. “This term’s series presents the chance to meet and hear important contemporary Italian and French documentary filmmakers, as well as a contemporary playwright and critic working in Spanish. Students in Japanese and Chinese will also discuss their advanced work projects and experiences abroad. Many events are in English, and we encourage the community to come to campus.”
On Monday, April 15 from 7:00-8:15 PM in Tishman Lecture Hall, there will be a film screening of Towards Tenderness (subtitles in English), winner of the 2017 CÉSAR award for Best Short Film. A Q&A with director Alice Diop will follow (in English).
Towards Tenderness (Vers la Tendresse) explores the difficult terrain of masculinity in a modern city as men question the way society and others expect them to act. In an eloquent portrait of marginalized masculinity, Diop looks at the interior world of several young men living in Paris’ suburbs and presents their thoughts on race, love, sexuality, and identity. Her film is an intimate look at what it means to be a man living on the margins of a hostile world.
Diop is a French filmmaker who has directed several documentaries that explore the cultural diversity of French urban areas: La Tour des miracles, Clichy pour l'exemple, Les Sénégalaises et la Sénégauloise, as well as La mort de Danton for which received the "Étoile" (Star) Award from the Multimedia Authors Society in 2012. Towards Tenderness won the César for Best Short Film in 2017. Her most recent feature, On Call, received a second "Étoile" (Star) award in 2017. She is currently shooting an adaptation of a novel by François Maspero.
On Monday, April 22 from 7:00-8:00 PM in CAPA Symposium, Bennington students Hanako Gregory ’19, Kameyo Okamoto ’19, Madeleine Pasquale ’19, and Jackie Wong ’19 will present their Japanese advanced work projects. Their work involves Japanese film adaptation in the US, suggestions for early childhood language education in the US, analysis of Shintoism in Japanese literature, and comparison of economic bubble in Japan and China.
Note: The presentations will be given in English.
On Monday, April 29 from 7:00-8:00 PM in Dickinson 212, Bennington students Daniel Coelho ’19, Megan Swanson ’21, and Keely Durkin ’20 will present on Outside Chinese Study: From California to Taiwan to Beijing. They will share their experiences of studying abroad in Beijing, China; Tainan, Taiwan; and Middlebury College, California.
On Monday, May 6 from 7:00-9:00 PM in Barn 100, there will be a documentary showcase of the film Summer 82: When Zappa Came to Sicily. A Q&A via Skype with director Salvo Cuccia will follow. The film tells the story behind Frank Zappa’s missed concert in Palermo, during his Italian tour in 1982. Cuccia, a film director and visual artist, applies his eclectic experimentation to video art, performance, and new forms of fiction and documentary. His works have been screened at numerous international festivals, including Locarno, Festival dei Popoli, Turin, Mumbai, and Tribeca Film Festival.
On Monday, May 13 from 7:00-8:00 PM in CAPA Symposium, Rosario M. de Swanson, Professor of Spanish Language and Literature at Marlboro College, will discuss her recently published book.
Originally from Mexico, Rosario M. de Swanson holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from the University of Massachusetts, where she also obtained a Master's Degree in Literature from the Hispanic World and Contemporary Literary Theory. She also holds a BA in Latin American Literature and History from Smith College. She is currently a professor in the Department of Spanish, Literature and Gender Studies at Marlboro College. In 2011, she received the Victoria Urbano Award for her drama Metamorphosis before the Obsidian Mirror given by the International Association of Hispanic Women's Literature and Culture (AILCFH), now the Association for Gender and Sexuality Studies. Her creative work has appeared in Letras Femeninas, Grafemas and in various anthologies. She is the author of numerous articles on Latin American literature, Women's literature, and Afro-Latin American and Guinean literature, which have appeared in Hispanic Journal, Hispania, Alba de América, Revista Iberoamericana, and MARGES published by the research group Sur Les Noir- ES D'Amerique Latina of the University of Perpignan, France.
On Monday, May 20 from 7:00-8:00 PM in CAPA Symposium, Bennington student Doménica Montaño-Moncayo ’20 will present her advanced work in Spanish.
Language Series Spring 2019
Dates and times are subject to change. Please check www.bennington.edu/events for the most up-to-date information. These events are free, open to the public, and take place on Bennington College’s campus.
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Mon. April 15 | 7:00 - 8:15 PM
Film Screening: Towards Tenderness
Tishman Lecture Hall
There will be a film screening of Towards Tenderness, winner of the 2017 CÉSAR award for Best Short Film. A Q&A with director Alice Diop follows.
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Mon. April 22 | 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Japanese Advanced Work Presentations
CAPA Symposium
Bennington students Hanako Gregory ’19, Kameyo Okamoto ’19, Madeleine Pasquale ’19, and Jackie Wong ’19 will present their Japanese advanced work presentations.
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Mon. April 29 | 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Outside Chinese Study: From California to Taiwan to Beijing
Dickinson 212
Bennington students Daniel Coelho ’19, Megan Swanson ’21, and Keely Durkin ’20 will present.
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Mon. May 6 | 7:00 - 9:00 PM
When Frank Zappa Came to Sicily
Barn 100
There will be a documentary showcase of the film Summer 82: When Zappa Came to Sicily. A Q&A via Skype with director Salvo Cuccia follows. Cuccia, a film director and visual artist, applies his eclectic experimentation to video art, performance, and new forms of fiction and documentary. His works have been screened at numerous international festivals, including Locarno, Festival dei Popoli, Turin, Mumbai, and Tribeca Film Festival.
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Mon. May 13 | 7:00 - 8:00 PM
El Drama de Rosario Castellanos
CAPA Symposium
Rosario M. de Swanson, Professor of Spanish Language and Literature at Marlboro College, will discuss her recently published book.
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Mon. May 20 | 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Ni Una Menos: Historias del Machismo en Ecuador
CAPA Symposium
Bennington student Doménica Montaño-Moncayo ’20 will present her advanced work in Spanish.
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BENNINGTON COLLEGE
Bennington College is a liberal arts college in southwestern Vermont that has distinguished itself as a vanguard institution within American higher education. It was the first to include the visual and performing arts in a liberal arts education. It is the only college to require that its students spend a term—every year—at work in the world. Bennington students work intensively with faculty to forge individual educational paths around their driving questions and interests.
Rooted in an abiding faith in the talent, imagination, and responsibility of the individual, Bennington invites students to pursue and shape their own intellectual inquiries, and in doing so to discover the profound interconnection of things.
Source: Bennington. 4.1.2019 bennington.edu.