Bates has more than 30 endowed professorship for its teaching faculty. This page describes the program, the selection processes, the selection criteria, and the current endowed professors.

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Newly Endowed Professors

Dale E. Chapman, Alice Swanson Esty Professor of Music 

The Alice Swanson Esty Professorship of Music was established from a 1997 gift to the College by Alice Swanson Esty, Class of 1925. In celebration of her love of music and her longstanding commitment to Bates, the gift supports a professor of music. The professorship recognizes faculty who are exceptional in teaching, scholarship, and service. 

Professor Dale Chapman arrived at Bates in 2004 after a fellowship at Mount Allison University, Canada. His research has focused upon the cultural and political significance of musical style, examining the means through which genres such as jazz, techno, and hip hop produce social meanings in the act of performance. More specifically, he is interested in the relationship between music and political economy, in the ways that musical practices are intimately bound up with broader socioeconomic processes and dynamics. His research has appeared in the Journal of the Society for American Music, Popular Music, the Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, and in the Grove Dictionary of American Music, second edition. He is presently at work on a book manuscript, to be entitled, The Jazz Bubble: Neoclassical Jazz in Neoliberal Culture.

Professor Chapman teaches courses devoted to jazz history, popular music, and African American music, and his coursework is cross-listed in Africana and American Studies. In addition, he has served as chair of the Department of Music and has overseen the music programming at the college. 

Eugene S. Choo, Elmer W. Campbell Professor of Economics

The Elmer W. Campbell Professorship was established from a 1983 gift to the college by Elmer W. Campbell, Class of 1927. It recognizes a faculty member in economics who is exceptional in teaching, service, and scholarship.  

Professor Choo arrived at Bates in 2025 from his prior position as the Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor and head of studies for economics at Yale-National University of Singapore (Yale-NUS). Earlier in his career, he was an associate professor of economics (with tenure) at the University of Calgary and an assistant professor of economics at the University of Toronto.

Professor Choo’s research focuses on the economics of the family and empirical industrial organization. He has published in the journals Econometrica, the Journal of Political Economy, Demography, and The Economic Journal. In addition, he published Advances in Econometrics, Volume 32, `Structural Econometric Models’ (co-edited). He has given invited seminar presentations at the University of Chicago, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of British Columbia among many other presentations. Beyond his service at Yale-NUS, Professor Choo served on key committees at the National University of Singapore. At Bates, he is currently serving on the Committee for Teaching and Learning and is also one of three senior members of our economics department.

Carrie Diaz Eaton, Gene Clough Professor of Digital and Computational Studies

The Gene Clough Digital and Computational Studies Professorship was established from a collective gift to the college from the Segal Family Foundation, the Bonney Family Fund, the Frank Family Endowment Fund, and Kerry O’Leary Sclar ’89, and Jeremy M. Sclar ’88. The professorship, named in honor of a legendary and inspiring faculty member who had a 38-year career at Bates, supports a professor of Digital and Computational Studies with a track record of exceptional teaching, scholarship, and service. This is the inaugural awarding of the Clough professorship. 

Professor Diaz Eaton arrived at Bates in 2018, having been an associate professor of Mathematics at the School for Environmental Citizenship & Center for Biodiversity, Unity College. In addition, they have been a visiting researcher and semester program director for the Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics at Brown University and a visiting researcher and working group organizer for the Institute for Mathematical and Statistical Innovation at the University of Chicago.

Professor Diaz Eaton is also the executive director and principal investigator of the Institute for a Racially-Just, Inclusive, and Open STEM education (RIOS Institute) and faculty mentor, Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum, AAC&U. RIOS is housed at Bates, but founded to support a national network of organizations, education researchers, and professional staff, including 300 leaders representing 70+ organizations, that support higher education instructors to make changes in their projects oriented towards social justice. Diaz Eaton was awarded the Society for Mathematical Biology John Jungck Excellence in Education Prize for interdisciplinary computational and mathematical biology education and mentorship and was a National Science Foundation SIARM Fellow in STEM Education Research, 2021-2024 and a Linton-Poodry Leadership Institute Fellow, Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, 2018.

At Bates, Professor Diaz Eaton is currently the chair of DCS and has worked with the Center for Inclusive Teaching and the Harward Center on projects to develop interdisciplinary STEM education at Bates.

Stephen M. Engel, Charles A. Dana Professor of Politics

The Dana Professorship is the longest-standing endowed chair program at Bates. In 1966 the Charles A. Dana Foundation of New York awarded the college a matching grant to establish an endowed professorship fund that would recognize exceptional teacher-scholars among the Bates faculty. The first Dana professor was named in 1968. Over the next half century, a distinguished group of faculty members has been honored with Dana professorships and recognized for their exemplary teaching, the value of their research, and their service to the college. Dana professors may hail from any discipline, underscoring the depth of talent of the Bates faculty.

Professor Engel arrived at Bates in 2011 from Marquette University where he was an assistant professor of political science. He is also an affiliated scholar of the American Bar Foundation, and he served the college as an associate dean of faculty from 2022 to 2025. Professor Engel’s research and teaching focuses on American political development, constitutional law, and social movements, particularly LGBTQ+ socio-political and legal mobilization. 

He has authored four books: The Unfinished Revolution: Social Movement Theory and the Gay and Lesbian Movement (Cambridge University Press 2001), American Politicians Confront the Courts: Opposition Politics and Changing Responses to Judicial Power (Cambridge University Press 2011), Fragmented Citizens: The Changing Landscape of Gay and Lesbian Lives (NYU Press 2016), and Disrupting Dignity: Rethinking Power and Progress in LGBTQ+ Lives, co-authored with Timothy Lyle (NYU Press, 2021). He has also co-edited The Progressives’ Century: Political Reform, Constitutional Government, and the Making of the American State (Yale University Press 2016). His articles have been published in Studies in American Political Development, Perspectives on Politics, Constitutional Studies, and Law & Social Inquiry. His research has been supported by grants from and fellowships with the National Science Foundation, American Bar Foundation, among others. 

At Bates, Professor Engel has received the Kroepsch Award for Excellence in Teaching. He has served as chair and co-chair of the Politics Department. 

Nathan E. Lundblad, Phillips Professor of Physics

The Phillips Professorship was established from a gift “to recognize and honor the significance and enduring quality of the contributions made to the college by President [Charles F. Phillips] and Mrs. Phillips.” The professorship recognizes faculty who are exceptional in teaching, scholarship, and service. Phillips professors may hail from any discipline, underscoring the depth of talent of the Bates faculty.

Professor Nathan Lundblad arrived at Bates in 2009 after being a postdoctoral fellow, Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University of Maryland. He has held positions as visiting scientist, ICFO, Castelldefells, Spain and as Visiting Associate Research Professor, JQI, University of Maryland.

His research focuses on the physics of matter cooled to just barely above absolute zero, and explores the phenomenon of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) terrestrially and in microgravity. He performs experiments (with students) at Bates and (with collaborators) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology using ultracold atoms trapped in ultrahigh vacuum with magnetic fields and lasers. In 2023, he won the 2023 NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal “for research into the dynamics of ultracold shell structures on the International Space Station which has opened a pathway to deeper understanding of the Bose-Einstein condensed bubble.” He also won the 2022 International Space Station Research Awards’—Compelling Results Award—PhysicalSciences. 

Professor Lundblad has been a co-principal investigator for several multi-million NASA grants. His articles have been published in Nature, Quantum Science and Technology, and Physical Review A.

Professor Lundblad has been chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, a member of the Academic Affairs Council (AAC) as chair of the Natural Sciences and Mathematics Division, among other key service roles.

Previously Announced, Current Endowed Professorships

Amy Bradfield Douglass, Whitehouse Professorship of Psychology

Francesco Duina, Charles A. Dana Professorship of Sociology

Rebecca M. Herzig, Charles A. Dana Professorship of Gender and Sexuality Studies

Beverly Johnson, Charles A. Dana Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences

Karen Melvin, Thomas Hedley Reynolds Professor of History

Lillian Nayder, Charles A. Dana Professorship of English

Katharine A. Ott, Thomas Sowell Professorship of Economics and Mathematics

Therí Alyce Pickens, Charles A. Dana Professorship of English and Africana

Sonja Pieck, Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies

Daniel Riera-Crichton, Betty Doran Stangle Professor of Economics

Paula J. Schlax, Stella James Sims Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Paul Shea, Dowling Family Professor of Economics

Peter Wong, Phillips Professor of Mathematics