![\"Banks,](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2019\/09\/190911_Portraits_1114.jpg\")
<\/a>An early inspiration for professor Lori Banks was the “Magic School Bus” television series. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Name<\/strong>: Lori Banks<\/p>\r\n Position<\/strong>: Assistant Professor of Biology<\/p>\r\n Degrees from<\/strong>: Baylor College of Medicine, Ph.D., Molecular Virology and Microbiology; Prairie View A&M University, B.S., Biology<\/p>\r\n Before Bates<\/strong>: Postdoctoral researcher in molecular virology and microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine<\/p>\r\n Her work<\/strong>: A protein biochemist engaged in preclinical drug development, Banks studies ways that microbial pathogens sense their host environments. She has studied gene expression in the anthrax bacterium and is currently exploring approaches to more effectively treat rotavirus.<\/p>\r\n Tell us more<\/strong>: \u201cA horrible downstream effect of rotavirus, especially in small kids, is that repeat infections can be associated with cognitive delays,\u201d Banks explains.<\/p>\r\n A rotavirus vaccine exists, \u201cbut in the parts of the world where it’s most endemic, the vaccine doesn’t work very well. So we have to attack the public health problem from a different perspective, that of treating people once they’re infected.\u201d Banks calls her search for an off-switch for the virus \u201cvery low-tech\u201d \u2014 but notes that it could eventually \u201cinform drug discovery work that affects millions.\u201d<\/p>\r\n A sense of purpose<\/strong>: Banks was headed to an anatomy class at Prairie View when she saw a newscast of the second World Trade Center tower going down. The Sept. 11 attacks and subsequent anthrax mailings galvanized her interest in biology research. It was a feeling she likens to the call that her grandparents\u2019 generation felt to mobilize for World War II. \u201cI remember thinking that I had this skill set or gift for thinking about biological and chemical questions,\u201d she says. \u201cFor me it was just like, \u2018We’re the people that are going to be out there saving lives, designing medicine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\r\n Sample lesson<\/strong>: \u201cOne of my favorite things to discuss with students is being aware of what your own personality is telling you, what skill sets you’re developing, what things you’re drawn to \u2014 and how you might be able to best serve the world, the community, your school, whatever, just by being you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Ian Khara Ellasante, new to the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies, is a poet as well as a scholar and teacher. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\r\n Name<\/strong>: Ian Khara Ellasante<\/p>\r\n Position<\/strong>: Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies<\/p>\r\n Degrees from<\/strong>: University of Arizona, Ph.D. and M.A., American Indian Studies; University of Memphis, B.A., Sociology and English.<\/p>\r\n Before Bates<\/strong>: Visiting scholar in residence, Washington & Jefferson College<\/p>\r\n Their work<\/strong>: \u201cThere are global similarities in the ways that indigenousness, embodied blackness, and marginalized gender identities are targeted and defined,\u201d says Ellasante, a cultural studies scholar. \u201cI am trans, nonbinary, queer, and a person of color. I work to translate the lived experiences at that type of nexus into scholarship that is broadly and compellingly legible.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Ellasante\u2019s recent work has involved the \u201cpeoplehood matrix,\u201d a theoretical construct developed by Indigenous scholars. In this concept, an Indigenous people\u2019s relationship to four elements \u2014 land, language, ceremonial cycle, and sacred history \u2014 can help delineate their cultural identity. \u201cI argue that when a people align around these four elements, they’re able to persist despite settler colonialism and enforced assimilation.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Finding their path<\/strong>: Ellasante is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ youth and young adults, focusing on housing instability and bullying in schools. As a researcher at the University of Arizona\u2019s Southwest Institute for Research on Women, \u201cI got a lot of experience in community-based participatory research.<\/p>\r\n \u201cIn that work, I saw a pathway: I could merge being an advocate, working within communities, with being a researcher and scholar. I have pursued it, and Bates feels like a good place for me to continue that path,\u201d thanks to the robust community-engaged programming of the college\u2019s Harward Center.<\/p>\r\n A sample lesson<\/strong>: \u201cEarly in the semester, I like to have students simultaneously write brief definitions of gender on the board. Then we can see that even in a small classroom, there can be many definitions of gender. Students can better understand its nuances, and the idea that gender is a social construct becomes very clear.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Stories are central to the work of Spanish professor Stephanie Pridgeon. (Theophil Syslo\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\r\n Name<\/strong>: Stephanie Pridgeon<\/p>\r\n Position<\/strong>: Assistant Professor of Spanish<\/p>\r\n Degrees from<\/strong>: Emory University, Ph.D., Spanish; University of Virginia, M.A., Spanish Language and Literature; College of Charleston, Honors College, B.A., Hispanic Studies and Latin American and Caribbean Studies<\/p>\r\n Before Bates<\/strong>: Visiting Assistant Professor of Hispanic Studies, The Catholic University of America. Pridgeon joined Bates as a visiting professor in 2016. For instance, in Revolting Jews on Screen<\/em>, a book manuscript under publisher review, she uses a variety of films to explore the contradictory effects of Jewish political involvement in Latin America. \u201cI became fascinated with all these retrospective stories about how fraught it was to identify simultaneously as Jewish and revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Why teach<\/strong>? \u201cI love hearing other people’s stories,\u201d says Pridgeon, \u201cand I love sharing stories with students and giving them an appreciation for the stories about, effectively, what it means to be human \u2014 the messiness of it, the nuances, and the challenges of everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Pridgeon values interactions with students that spark different directions for a course. Ditto for current events that change her teaching: for instance, the #MeToo movement gave her a new perspective on Argentinian novelist Claudia Pi\u00f1eiro\u2019s Tuya<\/em>, about a woman who finds out her husband is cheating on her. \u201cThose moments where our students can see that I’m learning with them and thinking about things in new ways with them are really productive.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Why the liberal arts<\/strong>? For Pridgeon, \u201cthe core of a liberal arts education has to do with understanding what it means to be human in a variety of cases and contexts. I\u2019m teaching the ability to gain knowledge and critical language skills in order to relate to somebody else\u2019s story, to relate to something that’s a part of human experience.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\r\nIan Khara Ellasante, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies<\/h5>\r\n
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\r\nStephanie Pridgeon, Assistant Professor of Spanish<\/h5>\r\n
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Her work<\/strong>: Pridgeon studies intersections of ethnicity, gender, religion, and politics as depicted in Latin American film and literature. She\u2019s drawn to characters \u201cwho don’t do what they\u2019d necessarily be expected to do based on a category with which they identify,\u201d she says.<\/p>\r\n
\r\nPaul Schofield, Assistant Professor of Philosophy<\/h5>\r\n