From various academic journals, here is a selection of scholarly articles researched and written by members of the Bates faculty and their students, plus an explanation of each paper’s meaning in easy-to-grasp language.

Title: “Recovery of the Biphasic Hypoxic Ventilatory Response in Neonatal Rats After Chronic Hyperoxia”

Publication: Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology

Authors: Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences Ryan Bavis and Bates student and alumni coauthors: Tanner Dirstine ’16 2, Andrew D Lachance ‘17, Antonio Jareno ‘22, Maya Reynoso Williams ‘22

What It Explains: How young mammals’ breathing recovers after long exposure to an excess supply of oxygen. Greater understanding of decreased oxygen levels (hypoxia) and increased levels (hyperoxia) is vitally needed in neonatal care.

Ryan Bavis, the Helen A. Papaioanou Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences at Bates, delivers a lecture celebrating his appointment to the endowed chair in 2017. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

Title: “‘Auch bei uns im fernen Transsilvanien’: The Transylvanian Saxons and the Long Shadow of the Third Reich in the Work of Bettina Schuller”

Publication: Edinburgh German Yearbook 15

 Author: Associate Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi

What It Explains: How a memoir about growing up in the 1930s and ’40s in a Transylvanian Saxon enclave, in what is today Romania, sheds light on the relationship between the Third Reich and ethnic German groups in Eastern Europe.

“It was a great day to be talking under the trees.”

— Associate Professor of History Joe Hall, describing the first meeting of his first-year seminar, “This Land is Whose Land?” on the Historic Quad.

The class, along with all other first-year seminars, met for the first time on Thursday morning, Sept. 1, 2022, as an opportunity for classmates to connect with each other and their instructor, who will also serve as their first-year advisor.

Swipe left for a few additional moments from yesterday’s first-year seminars, including:

“Beyond Nelson Mandela: Themes and Personalities in South African History,” taught by Assistant Professor of History Patrick Otim;

“Arts and Spirituality: Art Making and Aesthetic Experience as Conduits for Reflection and Connection,” taught by Lecturer in the Humanities and Multifaith Chaplain Brittany Longsdorf; and

“Reading Refugees and Migration in European Children’s Literature,” taught by Associate Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi.
Associate Professor of German Raluca Cernahoschi meets with her students for the first time in the First-Year Seminar “Reading Refugees and Migration in European Children’s Literature” on Sept. 1, 2022. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)

Title: “Cannibal Nihilism: Meat and Meaninglessness in the Anthropocene Imaginary”

Publication: Science Fiction Studies

Author: Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper

What It Explains: How cannibalism, which frequently appears in environmentally oriented speculative fiction, is used for more than its shock value. Instead, it serves as a proxy for a more complex conversation about the very viability of political hope in a world defined by so many environmental crises.

Stacy Lynn Waddell (Washington, D.C., 1966) The Dawn of Our Kindred Sower of Parable (for Octavia Butler) 2020 22-karat gold leaf on canvas Stacy Lynn Waddell's portrait celebrates author Octavia E. Butler on a monumental scale, using the allure of a brilliant, untarnished gold surface to draw our attention to her face. The first science fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Genius Award (in 1995) and the first Black woman recognized in this field, Butler was a pioneer. She wrote over fifteen books addressing questions of race, sex, and power. Butler's 1993 book Parable of the Sower envisions a dystopian America of the 2020s, proposing an alternative philosophy to a world of rampant corporate greed, environmental damage, and wealth inequality. (From the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum)

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper’s article examines the frequent appearance of cannibalism in works of environmentally oriented speculative fiction, including Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler, whose portrait by Stacy Lynn Waddell, seen here, is in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (Peter E / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Title: “Chemistry, Structure, and Function of Lone Pairs in Extended Solids”

Publication: Accounts of Chemical Research

Author: Assistant Professor Chemistry and Biochemistry Geneva Laurita and coauthor Sam Seshadri of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara

What It Explains: How the familiar concept of the “lone pair,” which refers to paired-up electrons within some molecules and materials, might have a more exciting role in designing new materials with practical applications in electronics, energy, and drug delivery.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Geneva Laurita (center) congratulates Loren Andrews ’22 (right) after she spoke at a campus gathering to celebrate the opening of Bonney Science Center in October 2021. At right is Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty Malcolm Hill. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/Bates College)
Categories Academic Life