Visiting Faculty Sophie Brunau-Zaragoza Teaches At Bennington for the Spring Term

This 2024 spring term, Sophie Brunau-Zaragoza is on campus teaching courses on ecology and literature in French. With a background teaching at Brown university, Brunau-Zaragoza is an amazing addition to the teaching staff this term.

Brunau-Zaragoza completed her initial bachelors degree in Tors, France. The French education system is different from the one utilized here in Bennington. The structure of it is closer to the traditional college experience in the United States with a major difference being the environment and community. When asked about it she said, “I studied in France where you don’t have the choice of your courses at all. You pick your major and then you have to take the courses they give you.” She said that if she were here for longer than a semester she would have reached out to some of the professors who’s courses and interests align with hers to discuss co-teaching a course. However, that takes a lot of planning from all parties and designing the curriculum and was simply not feasible to do in her short time here.

Brunau-Zaragoza says about Bennington, “it’s a different vibe than a lot of other campuses.” According to Brunau-Zaragoza, the campus is also “a lot less manicured than other campuses.” Brunau-Zaragoza also noted that she loves being here surrounded by “literary creative minded students.” Brunau-Zaragoza studied literature through college and before that she had delved into theater studies. However, as Brunau-Zaragoza is only a visiting faculty member, she hasn’t had the chance to look into anything offered by the school aside from the Language Evenings. She said she loves having students that have studied theater in her classes. 

She came into her field as a big fan of the fantasy genre but currently she reads more for work than anything. She loves French speculative fiction that is ecologically minded and uses science fiction and fantasy as a basis. Those two genres are what she fell in love with and are the reason she went into her field.

While Brunau-Zaragoza is at Bennington, she is living on campus. She leaves us at the end of this spring semester but students are fortunate to have her on campus for the time she’s here.