{"id":126767,"date":"2019-09-05T15:34:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T19:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=126767"},"modified":"2026-01-12T15:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:13:21","slug":"lining-up-for-convocation-five-bates-professors-share-what-theyre-excited-to-teach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2019\/09\/05\/lining-up-for-convocation-five-bates-professors-share-what-theyre-excited-to-teach\/","title":{"rendered":"Lining up for Convocation, five Bates professors share what they’re excited to teach"},"content":{"rendered":"

As faculty lined up on Alumni Walk in full academic regalia before Opening Convocation, we asked some of them to look ahead to the courses they\u2019re most excited to teach this fall.<\/p>\n

\"Assistant<\/a>

Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Geneva Laurita. (Theophil Syslo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Geneva Laurita chatted with colleagues under one of Alumni Walk\u2019s many birch trees. She\u2019s excited to teach \u201cDescriptive Inorganic Chemistry,\u201d which deals with carbon-free materials like metals.<\/p>\n

Long required for majors, the course will have a lab component this year.<\/p>\n

In fact, the new lab component was designed last spring as part of a Short Term program known as “Course (Re)Design,” which gives faculty the chance to create a new course or redesign and existing one.<\/p>\n

In Laurita’s case, she and students under her guidance worked together to develop the course’s new lab experiments, giving her future students the opportunity for hands-on experience and exploration of research techniques.<\/p>\n

Across the way, Lecturer in Theater Cliff Odle and Associate Professor of Theater Chris McDowell waited on a cast-stone bench for the Convocation procession to begin.<\/p>\n

Odle is teaching an introductory playwriting course \u2014 one step, he says, toward building up the college\u2019s playwriting program. He wants students to submit plays to the prestigious Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.<\/p>\n

\"Odle<\/a>

In addition to his playwriting course, Lecturer in Theater Clifford Odle (center right) teaches a First-Year Seminar, “Politics and Performance on Stage and Screen,” shown in the Fireplace Lounge of Commons, as well as a beginning acting course. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

The class is where budding playwrights start to shine. \u201cWe\u2019ll find out who the drivers are,\u201d Odle said.<\/p>\n

Last year, one of Odle\u2019s students sent an original play to an important playwriting conference.<\/p>\n

McDowell, meanwhile, is teaching \u201cPattern Drafting and Draping\u201d to aspiring designers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt uses a part of the brain that students don\u2019t always get to tap into,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s analytical and mathematical, but it also involves creation.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the 11 a.m. start of Convocation approached, more and more faculty filled Alumni Walk. Stephanie Wade, a lecturer in humanities and assistant director of Writing at Bates, is teaching \u201cFeed Your Mind: Food Justice and Community Gardens,\u201d a First-Year Seminar where new students will work in \u2014 as well as write about \u2014 local community gardens.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love seeing my students learn about community and about each other through food,\u201d Wade said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting and frightening how much is relevant.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Professor<\/a>

Professor of Politics Stephen Engel. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n

Finally, the academic procession stepped off toward the Historic Quad.<\/p>\n

Professor of Politics Stephen Engel walked and talked about his upcoming course on constitutional law, which will examine timely topics like presidential pardon power, and how it might or might not apply to a president pardoning himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting and frightening how much is relevant,\u201d Engel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A redesigned chemistry course, a class for costume designers, and the “exciting and frightening” relevance of constitutional law. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1005,"featured_media":126779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":[],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[12031,2579,11558],"class_list":["post-126767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-faculty-staff","tag-cliff-odle","tag-convocation","tag-geneva-laurita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126767"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171630,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126767\/revisions\/171630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}