Leana E. Amáez to join Bates College as vice president for equity and inclusion

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Leana E. Amáez to join Bates College as vice president for equity and inclusion

Tuesday, December 20, 2022 8:58 am

Leana Amáez, who joins Bates on Feb. 27, 2023, is a seasoned equity and inclusion leader and longtime advocate for underrepresented populations. “I am thrilled to welcome Leana to Bates to lead our work in equity and inclusion — work that is central to our mission and to the success and well-being of every member of our community,” said Bates President Clayton Spencer.

“Peace begins with us.”That was the theme of this year’s United World College Day that a group of Davis United World Scholars at Bates celebrated by gathering with staff from the Center for Global Education in front of Roger Williams Hall. UWC Day is the annual global celebration of the UWC mission and values, which takes place on Sept. 21 every year, to coincide with the UN International Day of Peace. Each year, UWC Day is celebrated by thousands of people worldwide, including students and staff at UWC schools and colleges, national committees, UWC alumni and friends. Associate Dean for International Student Programs James Reese likes to recognize the day at Bates with a photograph and gathering.The spirit of friendship was in the air as students broke up from their large group to exchange hugs and words with classmates. Newcomers Rosina Makwabe ’26 of Arusha, Tanzania, and Verina Chatata ’26 of Blantyre, Malawi, who met at Bates, laughed and hugged. “I’m happy to have a friend,” Makwabe said.A $5 million scholarship gift to Bates College has expanded access for talented international students who come to Bates from the highly respected secondary schools of the United World Colleges movement.The gift, from Jonathan Blair Frank ‘89 and Tena Fishman Frank ’89, provides need-based financial aid for UWC students at Bates under the Davis United World College Scholars Program.The world’s largest international undergraduate scholarship initiative, the Davis UWC Scholars Program is dedicated to bringing together “promising students from diverse cultures and supporting their undergraduate educations at selected American colleges and universities…to create greater international understanding among the world’s future decision makers.”Bates is among 99 U.S. colleges and universities that have partnered with the Davis UWC Scholars Program, which helps provide college access to 3,800 students from 165 nations.(Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)Yvonne Chu ’25 of Changzhou, China, with Alan Wang ’24 of Henan, China

Bates photographers’ favorite images of 2022

Thursday, December 15, 2022 9:16 am

This end-of-the-year list — a tradition now in its ninth year — gathers our photographer's favorite images, both stills and video, that capture their own magic moments of 2022.

Bates’ 148th Commencement ceremony itself takes place at 10 a.m. Sunday, May 25, on the Historic Quad, Campus Avenue and College Street (or Merrill Gym in case of rain). Some 448 students will receive bachelor’s degrees, and President A. Clayton Spencer will confer honorary degrees on four notable Americans: John Seely Brown, visionary thinker and computer scientist; Glenn Close, renowned actress; David Shaw P’00, leading entrepreneur; Isabel Wilkerson, Commencement speaker and author of the acclaimed social history The Warmth of Other Suns.

‘Moments from the fall’: Meet 13 new Bates College professors

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 4:45 pm

View profiles of 13 new professors, tenure-track appointees or appointed as tenured faculty members, featuring photographic portraits, areas of scholarly expertise, an example of a Bates course they teach, and a telling moment from the nearly completed fall semester.

The 10 most-viewed BatesNews stories of 2022

Thursday, December 8, 2022 2:13 pm

As the year ticks to a close, here’s a top-10 countdown of the 2022 BatesNews stories with the most views, plus the average time readers spent on each story.

Bates College announces promotions of 13 professors

Thursday, December 8, 2022 9:43 am

Meet these newly promoted Bates professors, and hear each explain the meaning of being a Bates professor. Says one, "I get to help our students be fully themselves and see them thrive, alongside folks who care about it as much as I do.”

Negro voting in Cardoza [i.e., Cardozo] High School in [Washington,] D.C. / [MST].SummaryPhotograph showing a young African American woman casting her ballot.Trikosko, Marion S, photographer. Negro voting in Cardoza i.e., Cardozo High School in Washington, D.C. / MST. Washington D.C, 1964. Nov. 3. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688167/.

Q&A: Navigating your ballot and what’s at stake in the 2022 midterms, with Jenna Dela Cruz Vendil ’06

Friday, November 4, 2022 10:46 am

Whether it’s your first time voting or you still think Dewey defeated Truman, you might have ballot questions.

Q&A: Ceci Clark Craft ’05 helps these World Series ballplayers ‘build a mental game’

Thursday, October 27, 2022 3:44 pm

Craft’s rise to prominence in Major League Baseball mirrors, and in some ways has pioneered, the growing awareness among pro sports teams that mental performance is as important as physical strength and athletic skills.

‘This is Angela Lansbury,’ said a familiar voice, and kind encouragement followed

Friday, October 14, 2022 3:47 pm

Jon Cavallero, now a Bates professor of rhetoric, film, and screen studies, was just starting his scholarly life when an interview with Angela Lansbury ended on just the right note.

Meet Bates grad Frederick Stinchfield, who scored Garcelon’s first touchdown and later tackled FDR’s court-packing scheme

Friday, October 14, 2022 10:08 am

On this day 123 years ago, a diminutive athlete plunged into the Garcelon end zone for the historic field's first score and later became one of the country's leading lawyers who took on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the court of public opinion.

Join Professor Houchins and panelists Professor Lori Banks, Professor Alison Melnick Dyer, Professor Anelise Shrout, and Professor Mark Tizzoni on Monday, September 19 @ 12:00 in Pettengill G21. The panel will be moderated by Professor Charles Nero, Rhetoric, Film, and Screen Studies. Bag lunches will be available for take-away after the panel. Please register by Wednesday, September 14, 2022.Making one's class uncomfortable—causing students to squirm when discussion excavates some of their repressed assumptions—is impolite, at the least—or even more, downright transgressive. These are occasions that demand extraordinary courage.How do we engage with the issues of race, white supremacy, and unequal structures of power, when we face the possibility of backlash from unreceptive students? Are our class objectives flexible enough to accommodate such topics and still accomplish promised pedagogical goals? Will students who do not see the relevance of issues of race to their intellectual enterprise complain about the perceived detour in their course of study?Many students feel vulnerable when discussing topics of race, even in Africana classes, where such discourses are central to the project. Why should their instructors be any more confident than they? Perhaps our exploring where discourses of race and social power are exposed, as well as occluded, in the foundational principles of our disciplines will provide us with new knowledge to shape curricula that will provide places to engage these dangerous topics.

Faculty talk about the courage to transgress, to ‘squash those narratives’ created by racism and white supremacy

Thursday, October 6, 2022 5:40 pm

Bates professors gather to talk about transgression for a purpose: to achieve a better understanding of how the creation of knowledge that we accept as true can be rooted in can be rooted in racism, white supremacy, and ruthlessly unequal structures of power.