Student Engagement


Maddie Korbey ’22 presents her Religious Studies thesis research at the Mount David Summit.

Three Religious Studies majors presented their research at the Mount David Summit in April 2022 on a panel titled, “Religious Studies at the Cutting Edge:  Life and Death, Love and War, Local and Global.”  From left:  Alex Platt ’23, Cynthia Baker (moderator), Maddie Korbey ’22, and Insha Afsar ’22.

St. Paul’s, Khushi Choudhary, November 2021, London, UK
St. Paul’s, Khushi Choudhary, November 2021, London, UK

Khushi Choudhary ’23 chanced upon what appears to be an imprisoned woman outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. The figure is actually an allegory of Ireland and sits with her harp within the Statue of Queen Anne outside the cathedral. Choudhary, however, is interested in the photography of sculpture and architecture and looks for interesting compositional possibilities.

Bella Stone and Anna Kreitzer

Bella Stone, Anna Kreitzer, Malik Velmar, Joan Buse, Rex Hirschhorn, and Maya Seckinger present posters at a 2018 public event highlighting research in Professor Alison Melnick’s “Death and the Afterlife” course.

Malik Velmar
Joan Buse and Rex Hirschhorn
Maya Seckinger
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Senior majors Andrew Segal and Ahmed Sheikh join Professor Alison Melnick in meeting new Bates students interested in Religious Studies at the Academic Fair during fall orientation.  August 2016.

Keila Ching '18 of Honolulu, Hawaii, a student in "Epics of Asia" taught by Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Alison Melnick, performs her final project in the Black Box Theater. For their finals, the students were asked to reinterpret an epic myth in a format of their choice, and Ching opted to create a shadow puppet performance featuring a prologue to the Tibetan myth of Gesar of Ling

Keila Ching ’18 of Honolulu, Hawaii, a student in “Epics of Asia” taught by Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Alison Melnick, performs her final project in the Black Box Theater. For their finals, the students were asked to reinterpret an epic myth in a format of their choice, and Ching opted to create a shadow puppet performance featuring a prologue to the Tibetan myth of Gesar of Ling. Spring 2016 (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

Short Term course (ECREs23) Gimme Shelter:  Making Housing Affordable, Making Affordable Housing.  Spring 2016.

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Religious studies majors Emilie Muller ’16 of Concord, N.H., Esperanza Gilbert ’16 of Brooklyn, Wendy Goldman ’16 of Dresden, Maine, Melissa Carp ’16 of Newton, Mass., and Alex Tritell ’16 of Bethesda, Md., pose for a photograph before their presentations.  April 2016.

Religious Studies at the Mt. David Summit

Senior Religious Studies majors Alex Tritell (right) and Ahmed Sheikh (left) present at the Mount David Summit with classmate Ezra Oliff-Lieberman.  April 2016.

Justice Reform 2016

Religious Studies seminar students present community-engaged projects at a poster session in conjunction with the “Chaos or Community:  Conversations on Criminal Justice Reform in Maine” symposium at Bates.  April 2016.


Associate Professor of Religious Studies Cynthia Baker slices an apple for students in her first-year seminar, "The Nature of Spirituality." She asked them to dip the fruit into honey as an expression of hope for a sweet school year. The ritual is inspired by an age-old Jewish New Year tradition. Baker and her students had just climbed Mount David, a 389-foot granite outcropping near campus, where they followed the apples and honey with a discussion of "Nature," a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay published in 1836. Today, all members of the Class of 2019 met with their first-year seminar instructors for class discussion and academic advising

Professor of Religious Studies Cynthia Baker slices an apple for students in her first-year seminar, “The Nature of Spirituality.” She asked them to dip the fruit into honey as an expression of hope for a sweet school year. The ritual is inspired by an age-old Jewish New Year tradition. Baker and her students had just climbed Mount David, a 389-foot granite outcropping near campus, where they followed the apples and honey with a discussion of “Nature,” a Ralph Waldo Emerson essay published in 1836. Today, all members of the Class of 2019 met with their first-year seminar instructors for class discussion and academic advising. Fall 2016 (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

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Religious Studies majors present their research at the Mount David Summit, April 2015.