Scholarship in Action

They are jumping for joy. Women’s varsity rowing teammates Oli Seline ’24 (left) of Delaware, Ohio, and Olivia Dekker ’24 of Bethesda, Md., high five it at the conclusion of their last-ever Bates lab in Bonney 360. The teammates are students in Assistant Professor of Biochemistry Geneva Laurita’s Short Term course, “Chemistry and the Arts.” Seline is a biochemistry major with a GEC in “Visible Ideas,” while Dekker is a biochemistry major with a minor in art and visual culture. The course explores the connection between chemistry and various topics in the arts and arts-related fields. The students learn about the chemistry behind these topics, exploring the literature behind various artistic practices, and applying hands-on techniques in the laboratory involved in various art processes This year, Laurita asked students to focus on the origins of color, different crafts, print making, jewelry making, dyeing, and art conservation. Laurita is the recipient of a major National Science Foundation grant of $581,984. The NSF CAREER award, considered to be one of the foundation’s most prestigious awards for faculty members who are just beginning their teaching and research careers, is based on both her scientific research in solid state materials and how she brings undergraduates into that vital area of scientific exploration. 3:18 What the particular lab was about...the lab handout. Kate Baumler, intern for Geneva’s NSF grant, wearing, black shirt Benji Richards, ’27, wearing tan shirt Finian Gunny ’27, gray pullover and blond hair Charlotte Maffie ’25 with pink tie dyed and hair in bun Sister Alice Maffie ’27 in t-shirt and pony tail Nina Greeley ’24 with hair in bun and pink t-shirt Riley Lund ’26 in gray sweatshirt Jahan Baker-Wainwright ’25 in green golf Rohini Kandasamy ’27 in dark tan Life is cool t-shirt and low bun Chemistry and the Arts S28, the origin of different crafts, print making, jewelry making, dyeing and art soncserv

Dec 11, 2025

Faculty member Geneva Laurita wins national teaching award

Featuring: Geneva Laurita

Dec 4, 2025

In the News: December 2025

Featuring: Francesco G. Duina Matt Coyne Darby K. Ray Kamal A. Kariem

Nov 13, 2025

The logics of acceptance: Francesco Duina in conversation about his new book and the sociology of economic inequality

Featuring: Francesco G. Duina

Nov 13, 2025

Purposeful Work biopharmaceutical roadshow introduces students to dynamic career possibilities

Featuring: April L. Horton

Oct 30, 2025

Meet new faculty in chemistry, religious studies, and rhetoric

Featuring: Scotty Farley Halla A. Attallah Lauren L. Buisker

Oct 30, 2025

Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz, professor of politics, receives Kroepsch Award

Featuring: Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz

Oct 10, 2025

Meet new faculty in psychology, environmental studies, and anthropology

Featuring: Ellen F. Finch Christine M. Martinez Kamal A. Kariem

 Drone photography operated and captured by Theophil Syslo on October 10, 2024. (Theophil Syslo | Bates College)

Oct 10, 2025

In the News: Oct. 10, 2025

Featuring: Stephanie Kelley-Romano

Oct 8, 2025

Asha Tamirisa receives LEF Foundation award

Featuring: Asha K. Tamirisa

Oct 7, 2025

Justin Baumann awarded funding from Maine EPSCoR

Featuring: Justin H. Baumann

Oct 6, 2025

Eric LeFlore awarded funding for Bobcat research

Featuring: Eric G. LeFlore

Oct 6, 2025

Yun Garrison receives American Psychological Foundation award

Featuring: Yunkyoung Garrison

Oct 6, 2025

Jason Castro receives NIH INBRE pilot funding

Featuring: Jason B. Castro

Oct 6, 2025

Sandra Goff receives NSF HEGS funding

Featuring: Sandra H. Goff

Oct 6, 2025

Ryan Cole receives NSF EMBRACE grant

Featuring: Ryan K. Cole

Oct 2, 2025

Meet new Bates faculty from physics and astronomy, classical and medieval studies, and mathematics

Featuring: Sarah A. Conley Emma Ianni Cigole Thomas

Sep 25, 2025

Meet new Bates faculty in biology, environmental studies, and religious studies

Featuring: Ifrah Shahi Anderson Moss-Weaver Robin B. McDowell

Sep 4, 2025

Pulling mussels: Bates researchers spend the summer studying Maine’s disappearing shellfish

Featuring: Justin H. Baumann

Jun 25, 2025

At Bates, a ginkgo seedling carries survival from 1945 Hiroshima to today

Featuring: Keiko Konoeda Hanna S. McGaughey Daniel Slane

May 13, 2025

Bates announces faculty promotions, including tenure awards, for 2025

Featuring: Ian Khara Ellasante Myronn E. Hardy Asha K. Tamirisa Lauren M. Ashwell Carrie Diaz Eaton Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz Mara C. Tieken Larissa M. Williams Jessica L. Anthony Laura C. Balladur

May 9, 2025

Bates Faculty in the News: Therí Pickens’ debut poetry collection gains media attention and sparks a busy spring, on and off campus

Featuring: Therí Pickens

Apr 25, 2025

Bates Faculty in the News: April 25, 2025

Featuring: Carolina González Valencia Mara C. Tieken Asha K. Tamirisa Carrie Diaz Eaton Paul E. Schofield

 Photo E. LeFlore

Apr 10, 2025

LeFlore studies lion movements in Botswana to understand the keys to their survival

Featuring: Eric G. LeFlore

Apr 8, 2025

Bates’ newest major, digital and computational studies, blends computer science with critique, community engagement

Featuring: Barry G. Lawson Anelise H. Shrout Carrie Diaz Eaton Andy E. Ricci Jason B. Castro

Mar 27, 2025

Mark Lewis Tizzoni examines early Christian communities in Roman Africa in a new paper

Featuring: Mark L. Tizzoni

Mar 14, 2025

Picture Story: Chekhov’s ‘The Seagull,’ between avant-garde and traditional

Featuring: Katalin Vecsey

Feb 25, 2025

Bates named a Fulbright Top Producer for 14th straight year

Featuring: Beverly J. Johnson

Feb 13, 2025

Keiko Konoeda’s new work examines how a sense of competence or incompetence impacts engagement in digital storytelling

Featuring: Keiko Konoeda

 Ryan Bavis, Bates Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences, posing in his Bonney Science Center laboratory and office. Bavis is collaborating with his friend and colleague Peter MacFarlane, assistant professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine on their discovery of a novel animal model mimicking sudden infant death syndrome. Last year, the National Institutes of Health awarded the scientists a $2.8 million grant to study the model over five years. MacFarlane is the project’s principal investigator, and $307,495 is allocated to Bates. Dr. Richard Martin of Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital and professor at CWRU’s School of Medicine is also a co-investigator on the project.

Feb 5, 2025

Two scientists, a friendship, and a problem to solve: Ryan Bavis, Peter MacFarlane receive $2.8 million NIH grant to study sudden infant death syndrome

Featuring: Ryan W. Bavis

 Mara Tieken

Feb 3, 2025

Mara Tieken

Featuring: Mara C. Tieken

Jan 24, 2025

MLK Day keynote: Why nonviolent protest has become less successful (when it might be needed most)

Featuring: Tyler A Harper

 Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken, winner of the 2024 Kroepsch Teaching Award, teaches students in her course “EDUC 231 - Perspectives on Education” in Pettigrew 30 on January 16, 2025. EDUC 231 - Perspectives on Education This course introduces students to foundational perspectives (anthropological, historical, philosophical, psychological, and sociological) on education and helps students apply these perspectives to contemporary schools and classrooms. The course considers several large questions: What should be the purpose of education in a democratic society? What should be the role of the school? Who should participate in making decisions about schools? In what ways do schools reflect and perpetuate larger social inequities, and, alternately, how can they contribute to a more just and inclusive society? Students must complete at least thirty hours of fieldwork.

Jan 24, 2025

Teaching teachers: Associate Professor of Education Mara Tieken receives 2024 Kroepsch Award for excellence in teaching

Featuring: Mara C. Tieken

 Headshot of Nathan Lundblad

Jan 16, 2025

Nathan Lundblad

Featuring: Nathan E. Lundblad

 Photo of J. Cavallaro

Jan 9, 2025

Jonathan Cavallero’s new work examines the impact of race and gender on television directors.

Featuring: Jonathan J. Cavallero

Dec 6, 2024

Faculty in the News: Michael Sargent’s research spotlighted on Hidden Brain

Featuring: Michael Sargent

 dressed up woman voting in a very showy way

Nov 8, 2024

Takeaways after the 2024 U.S. election from three Bates politics professors

Featuring: John R. Baughman Clarisa Pérez-Armendáriz Stephen M. Engel

Oct 25, 2024

Faculty in the News: Michael Rocque on the decline in hunting and a shift in ‘what guns mean and what they symbolize’ in the U.S.

Featuring: Michael Rocque

Oct 3, 2024

Ryan Bavis

Featuring: Ryan W. Bavis

 unhoused person in an encampment outside.

Sep 20, 2024

Faculty in the News: Philosophy professor Paul Schofield on homelessness being a ‘unique form of injustice’

Featuring: Paul E. Schofield

 Moments from Convocation on September 3, 2024., 2024. (Theophil Syslo | Bates College)

Sep 6, 2024

Opening Convocation at Bates offers timeless and timely advice to the Class of 2028

Featuring: Sonja K. Pieck

 Associate Professor of Biology Larissa Williams teaches students in Bio s39f a lesson on “uses of Genetic analysis to understand the population of dynamics of crabs in Maine.” They met in Bonney 370 laboratory and received instruction on how to use a pipette, including closing their eyes in preparing to click the instrument. The course’s instructor is Jesse Minor ’00, a lecturer in biology.

Aug 13, 2024

Bates biology professor and three young graduates publish ‘worrisome’ research findings of a common industrial chemical’s harmful effects

Featuring: Larissa M. Williams

Aug 6, 2024

Nick Balascio

Featuring: Nick Balascio

Aug 5, 2024

Ida Piedmonte

Featuring: Ida D. Piedmonte

Aug 2, 2024

Jamie Haverkamp and Sandra Goff

Featuring: Jamie A. Haverkamp Sandra H. Goff

 Associate Professor Carrie Diaz Eaton teaches in front of a chalkboard

Aug 2, 2024

Carrie Diaz Eaton

Featuring: Carrie Diaz Eaton

Aug 2, 2024

Larissa Williams

Featuring: Larissa M. Williams

Aug 2, 2024

Ryan Cole

Featuring: Ryan K. Cole

Jun 21, 2024

Stephen Engel: As we mark Pride 2024, remember our predecessors’ fight and demand for recognition

Featuring: Stephen M. Engel

Apr 24, 2024

Bates announces faculty promotions, including tenure awards, for 2024

Featuring: John R. Baughman Marcelle M. Medford Katharine A. Ott Michael Rocque Anelise H. Shrout Jonathan J. Cavallero Senem Aslan Justine K. Wiesinger

Mar 25, 2024

Aleks Diamond-Stanic and Jeff Oishi

Featuring: Aleksandar M. Diamond-Stanic

Mar 8, 2024

Patrick Otim

Featuring: Patrick W. Otim

 Assistant Professor of Chemistry Geneva Laurita teaches CHEM 108A - Chemical Reactivity/Lab on Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. A continuation of CHEM 107A. Major topics include thermodynamics, kinetics, equilibrium, acid/base behavior, and electrochemistry. Laboratory: three hours per week.

Feb 10, 2023

National Science Foundation awards $582K grant to Bates chemistry and biochemistry professor

Featuring: Geneva Laurita