Dance Magazine highlights Bates Dance Festival
Dance Magazine included the annual Bates Dance Festival in a roundup of “exciting” summer performances. The magazine noted several performances from the festival, which took place July 10 through 31, including Cynthia Oliver’s Turn. Turning. TURNT., Kyle Marshall’s Femenine, and Jesse Factor’s The Marthaodyssey.
Lauren Ashwell profiled in Blog of the APA
The American Philosophical Association featured Professor of Philosophy Lauren Ashwell as part of an ongoing blog series introducing APA members. Philosophy News also shared the profile.
Ashwell is an APA board member and serves on several committees for the organization, including the Committee on Academic Careers and Placement, which she has chaired for the last three years. Her favorite part of her work at Bates, Ashwell told Blog of the APA, is the interactions she has with students.
“They have such interesting responses to philosophical work, and it often helps me think about that work in a new light,” Ashwell said. “They also come up with such a wide range of thesis topics, and that’s often a good excuse to learn something new.”
Ashwell teaches courses in logic, metaphysics, epistemology, language, and feminist and social philosophy.
Bermuda’s The Royal Gazette covers panel on homophobia featuring Myron M. Beasley
Associate Professor of American Studies Myron M. Beasley spoke on a panel discussing the root causes of homophobia, in June and the event was covered by Bermuda’s daily newspaper, The Royal Gazette.
The panel, which took place in Hamilton, Bermuda, examined how British colonial rule of Bermuda contributed to homophobic ideals still present today. Beasley spoke about the various ways that the effects of colonialism can be seen, including in buildings and highways designed to control certain populations and through “archaic” laws with their bases in religion.
“Religion is the thing that many of us wrestle most with when we’re dealing with internalised homophobia and internalised racism and is the thing that we really work against when it comes to mental health,” Beasley said.
Coverage of the new Maine MILL building and Rachel Ferrante ’10
Rachel Ferrante ’10, executive director of Lewiston’s Maine Museum of Innovation, Learning, and Labor, or Maine MILL, spoke with Maine Public about the museum’s new building prior to its grand opening in June.
Maine MILL’s new, larger home is, like its previous space, a former industrial mill. A $15 million renovation and years of community support transformed the Camden Yarns Mill into a museum that tells the labor story of Lewiston, with testimonies and artifacts like the pickup truck-sized textile loom in the center of the museum’s lower level.
The expanded facility allows the museum to offer more learning and community engagement opportunities, Ferrante told Maine Public, including a classroom, a design lab, and a permanent exhibition space commemorating the victims of the October 2023 Lewiston mass shooting.
Ferrante hopes that the new museum, with its community-generated repertoire of artifacts and stories, will inspire residents to continue preserving and celebrating Lewiston and Auburn’s history.
“This provides the permanent ability to keep doing that into the future, and so our hope is that people are proud of this place, and therefore proud of this city,” Ferrante told Maine Public.
The Portland Press Herald, the Lewiston Sun Journal, WGME, and Mainebiz covered the museum’s grand opening.
Montgomery Advertiser revisits higher education career of Robert Witt ’64
The Montgomery Advertiser included Robert Witt ’64 in a story exploring why the University of Alabama’s five most recent presidents, including Witt, continued working after leaving the presidency.
Witt spent decades as a leader in higher education, including at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at Arlington before joining Alabama as its president. During his tenure from 2003 to 2012, student enrollment grew significantly, the Advertiser reported. Witt also hired football coach Nick Saban, whose leadership led Alabama to six national titles.
After leaving his role as president, Witt worked as the chancellor of the University of Alabama System until 2016, the Advertiser reported. That year, Bates awarded Witt an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Mara Tieken lends expertise on phenomenon of school closures
Central Maine news interviewed Mara Tieken, a professor of education whose research focuses on rural schools and rural school closures, for a story about potential school closures and consolidations in rural Maine.
Many areas of the state face potential school closures in the near future, Central Maine reported, as the state’s school-age population and birthrate both decrease. Across the state, 45 schools closed between 2016 and 2025, the paper reported.
Tieken explained that school closures can negatively impact rural communities, both by disrupting the lives of students and driving economic growth away from the communities.
“When a student goes through a closure, what can sometimes happen is, it’s a traumatic experience,” Tieken told Central Maine. “That then might lead to less attachment to school, decreased feelings of being successful in school and I could see then how that would have a long-term impact on things like college-going.”
Investing in Maine’s rural communities, which are key to the state’s identity, Tieken said, and pursuing educational policy that supports rural education could help prevent school closures.
Tieken was also interviewed on the podcast No Jargon, which features top researchers from around the country as guests. In the episode entitled “When Schools Close,” Tieken discussed the forces causing school closures to increase in the U.S., how closures affect communities, and how community members can respond to threats of school closure.
School closure is often a school district’s response to decreased enrollment or financial concerns Tieken explained, but in many cases, closures beget the aforementioned negative community effects without ultimately offering cost savings.
“When school closure happens, we often think of it as a very local problem, but we’ve got enough data now to show that this is not a local problem,” Tieken said on the podcast. “This is happening in red states and blue states. This is happening in urban places and rural places. This is happening everywhere. … We need to start building coalitions across geography.”
Emily Daughters ’94 hired as chief people officer for Pearl Meyer, Consulting.us announces
Pearl Meyer, an executive compensation and leadership consulting firm, hired Emily Daughters ’94 as chief people officer, Consulting.us reported.
“I am excited to build on Pearl Meyer’s strong culture, create opportunities for colleagues to grow, and help our teams remain creative, resilient, and focused on clients,” Daughters said in Pearl Meyer press release.
In her new role, Daughters will oversee Pearl Meyer’s human resources strategy and operations, including hiring new talent and bolstering employee experience.
Daughters has spent more than two decades in human resources leadership, both in the legal sector and at management consulting firm Roland Berger. After graduating from Bates, Daughters earned a J.D. from Northeastern University and worked as a litigation associate.
New York Times Books newsletter recommends Jessica Anthony’s 2024 novel The Most
MJ Franklin, an editor at The New York Times Book Review, included The Most by Associate Professor of English Jessica Anthony ’96 in a newsletter recommending novels related to swimming.
Franklin’s recommendations were inspired by a recent family vacation spent swimming in a Maine lake, though Anthony’s 2024 novel actually takes place in Delaware, in the 1950s. The Most is the story of a family that has recently relocated from New England and is wrapped in the throes of marital discontent, driving the matriarch, Kathleen, to step into her apartment complex pool and refuse to get out.
The short novel is made wonderful by Anthony’s smart, insightful writing style, Franklin said.
“One of the joys of ‘The Most’ is how dishy it is,” Franklin wrote. “Here is a couple vigorously and continually making bad choices. There are schemes and affairs and cover-ups. But what elevates it from a pulpy melodrama to a National Book Award-nominated triumph is Anthony’s stylish and incisive prose.”
Faculty Featured
Lauren M. Ashwell
Professor of Philosophy
Myron M. Beasley
Associate Professor of American Studies
Mara C. Tieken
Professor of Education
Jessica L. Anthony
Associate Professor of English
Categories BatesNews
