Elites against extinction: The dark history of a cultural paranoia \u2014 Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nAssistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper is an expert in how writers, scientists, social theorists, and others have historically engaged with so-called x-risks: \u201cthreats that could bring about human extinction or permanent civilizational collapse.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That expertise shines through in his review of X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction <\/em>by Oxford University historian Thomas Moynihan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Assistant](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/09\/200814_Tyler_Harper_0044.jpg\")
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper photographed on Aug. 14, 2020. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDuring the Cold War, discussions around existential risks typically focused on nuclear holocaust; more recently, such discussions focus on threats posed by artificial intelligence and climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any focus on x-risk, whether by great thinkers or by so-called space barons like Elon Musk, is highly problematic, Harper writes, because human extinction historically has been \u201ca hobby horse of the eugenics movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thus, he argues, \u201cwe cannot claim to take existential risk seriously \u2014 and meaningfully confront the grave threats to the future of human and nonhuman life on this planet \u2014 if we do not also<\/em> confront the fact that our ideas about human extinction, including how human extinction might be prevented, have a dark history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Read the story: \u201cElites against extinction: the dark history of a cultural paranoia<\/a>,\u201d Los Angeles Review of Books<\/em>, Sept. 30, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDempsey Challenge<\/h3>\n\n\n\nDempsey Challenge raises record funds \u2014 Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em>, Sept. 25, 2021<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nSun Journal<\/em> reporter Vanessa Paolella \u201921 chronicled the in-person return of the Dempsey Challenge fundraiser following last year\u2019s virtual edition, noting that \u201cteams from Bates raised just under $30,000, earning the College Cup,\u201d a competition among Maine colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe walk\/run\/ride challenge raised more than $1.3 million for the Dempsey Center, a quality of life care center for individuals and families impacted by cancer, founded by actor Patrick Dempsey, who received an honorary degree from Bates in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cDempsey Challenge raises record funds<\/a>,\u201d Sun Journal<\/em>, Sept. 25, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nNora Demleitner \u201989<\/h3>\n\n\n\nNora Demleitner \u201989 appointed president of St. John\u2019s College, Annapolis \u2014 St. John\u2019s College News<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nIn September, St. John\u2019s College announced the appointment of Nora Demleitner \u201989 as president of the college\u2019s Annapolis campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demleitner is the Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. She will be the first female president in St. John\u2019s College\u2019s 325-year history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the Story: \u201cNora Demleitner appointed president of St. John\u2019s College, Annapolis<\/a>,\u201d St. John\u2019s College News, Sept. 23, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nTina Gibson-Davis \u201992 and Jordan Conwell \u201912<\/h3>\n\n\n\nWealth Inequality and Child Development: Implications for Policy and Practice \u2014 The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nCall it an academic mini-reunion: Tina Gibson-Davis \u201992 and Jordan Conwell \u201912 each made significant contributions to a recent volume of a journal in the social sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gibson-Davis, joined by scholar Heather Hill of the University of Washington, served as co-editor of the August 2021 volume of The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. <\/em>The issue focuses on the implications of childhood wealth inequality<\/a> in the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\nGibson-Davis and Hill also contributed their own article<\/a>, in which they note that the study of wealth inequality and child outcomes has so far received scant attention from scholars, even as patterns of American structural inequality and institutional racism, \u201cunder which black and Hispanic families have faced persistent discrimination in lending, credit, and housing markets,\u201d are well understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\nConwell\u2019s article, coauthored with Leafia Zi Ye<\/a> of the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, finds, among other things, that \u201cBlack and Hispanic children often have significantly worse math and reading scores than same-wealth whites by age 5, and these disparities often increase through age 14, particularly for Black-White comparisons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nUntil the other day, Gibson-Davis and Conwell weren\u2019t aware of their Bates connection \u2014 that fact was pointed out by Bates Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, always on the lookout for alumni in academe and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gibson-Davis is a professor of public policy and sociology at Duke\u2019s Sanford School of Public Policy. Conwell is an assistant professor of sociology and educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMarshall Hatch Jr. \u201910<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe documentary All These Sons<\/em> centers young Black men in Chicago who are at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of gun violence \u2014 Chicago Tribune<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nColumnist Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune <\/em>writes about the new film documentary All These Sons<\/em>, which focuses on the \u201cemotional lives of a handful of young men in Chicago\u201d who are supported by the MAAFA Redemption Project<\/a>, co-founded by the Rev. Marshall Hatch Jr. \u201910 and the Inner City Muslim Action Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe film focuses on the never-ending need for funding for organizations like Hatch\u2019s as well as on the implications of non-Black filmmakers having the power to tell a story about young Black Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cColumn: The documentary \u2018All These Sons\u2019 centers young Black men in Chicago who are at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of gun violence<\/a>,\u201d Chicago Tribune<\/em>, June 17, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
![\"Rev.](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/02\/crop2-Bates_08082020_0037.jpg\")
Marshall Hatch poses before a stained- glass window that spells \u201cRemembrance\u201d within New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church, the home of the MAAFA Redemption Project in Chicago\u2019s West Garfield neighborhood. (Sebasti\u00e1n Hidalgo for Bates College).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSarah Sherman-Stokes \u201905<\/h3>\n\n\n\nTerriers running the Boston Marathon with a mission \u2014 BU Today<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nBU Today<\/em> profiled members of the Boston University community who ran the Boston Marathon to support a cause, including Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a clinical associate professor of law at the BU School of Law and associate director of the school\u2019s Immigrants\u2019 Rights & Human Trafficking Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\nShe raised money for the Political Asylum\/Immigration Representation Project, which provides pro bono legal services to asylum seekers and unjustly detained immigrants in Massachusetts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She told BU Today<\/em> that work at Bates with immigrants motivated her to enter immigration law. She also studied abroad, in Central America, hearing \u201cstories from folks whose parents or grandparents or siblings had made the journey north to the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n- Read the Story: \u201cTerriers running the Boston Marathon with a mission<\/a>,\u201d BU Today<\/em>, Oct. 8, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMyron Beasley, American studies faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\nCollard greens: From down South to down East \u2014 Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nPortland Press Herald<\/em> food and books editor Peggy Grodinsky interviewed several Mainers, including Associate Professor of American Studies Myron Beasley, for a story about collard greens, a Southern favorite but, for Northerners like Grodinsky, somewhat mystifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBeasley\u2019s research includes exploring the intersection of cultural politics, material culture, and social change; he\u2019s also an expert in how food intertwines with culture and history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though not a facile cooker of collards, Grodinsky recalls, when she lived in New York City, enjoying \u201crice and beans with a tangle of bright green collard ribbons (shockingly good) at a hole-in-the-wall Brazilian restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beasley, who did academic research in Brazil \u201chelped me identify those, surmising they were a classic Brazilian preparation of collards saut\u00e9ed with oil, garlic and a bit of water, then mixed with a \u201cdressing\u201d of onions, lemons, jalape\u00f1os and cilantro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Olin](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/200205_Olin_Arts_Center_Afternoon_0601.jpg\")
In February 2020, Myron Beasley, associate professor of American studies, offers advice about summer jobs and art spaces to Ollie Penner \u201922 of Pasadena, Calif., an art and American studies double-major. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n- Read the story: \u201cCollard greens: From down South to down East<\/a>,\u201d Portland Press Herald<\/em>, Oct. 10, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nEmily Kane, sociology faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\nCalifornia to make retailers to offer gender-neutral kids\u2019 sections \u2014 Bloomberg Equality<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nMedia outlets including Bloomberg Equality<\/em> reported on a new California law that requires big retailers to create gender-neutral departments for some toys and child care items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cEven before California took this step, companies had been tweaking how they merchandise products for kids,\u201d according to reporter Augusta Saraiva. \u201cIn 2015, Target stopped displaying gender-based signs on its children\u2019s departments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quoting Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, Saraiva said that it will take a while for gender-neutral clothes and toys to become mainstream. But \u201cespecially among relatively affluent urban consumers, there is movement in that direction, and it will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cCalifornia to make retailers to offer gender-neutral kids\u2019 sections<\/a>,\u201d Bloomberg Equality<\/em>, Oct. 11, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJennifer Ruma Bova \u201991<\/h3>\n\n\n\nDesigning for home decor with Jenny Bova \u2014 Pattern Observer<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nCo-founder of Bova Creative<\/a> Jenny Ruma Bova \u201991 is an interior-design expert for both commercial and residential spaces with a special focus on surface design.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn a Q&A with the trade publication Pattern Observer<\/em>, she talked about trends in interior design:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cTrends in home decor tend to move much more slowly than fashion,\u201d she said. \u201cQuick-to-market, lower-end products tend to be more trendy \u2014 think HomeGoods and At Home, both good resources for specific jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If a client wants to embrace current trends, she encourages pieces that are \u201cinexpensive or easy to change: paint colors, wallpaper, pillows, and accessories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current trends include back to nature, \u201cvery evident in all things botanical and of the outdoors. People stuck at home for the last 18 months are bringing their love of the garden inside with textiles. Suddenly the spaces where we spend our time have become very important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cDesigning for home decor with Jenny Bova<\/a>,\u201d Pattern Observer<\/em>, Oct. 12, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDale Chapman, music faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\nJazz venues have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. They are hoping the worst is over \u2014 The Washington Post<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/11\/the-jazz-bubble-dale-chapman-9780520279377-200x300.webp\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nAssociate Professor of Music Dale Chapman, author of The Jazz Bubble: Neoclassical Jazz in Neoliberal Culture<\/em><\/a>, is quoted in a Washington Post<\/em> story about a decades-long trend of jazz club closures that\u2019s been exacerbated by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\nChapman explains that gentrification and rising rents are fueling the trend in larger cities. \u201cMany of the most prominent clubs, even the ones that are well established and very famous, have tremendously high overheads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cJazz venues have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. They are hoping the worst is over<\/a>,\u201d The Washington Post<\/em>, Oct. 15, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAndrea Emshoff Nelson \u201900<\/h3>\n\n\n\nSwimmer enjoys open and cold-water challenges \u2014 Sun Gazette<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Sun Gazette <\/em>of Virginia reported on Andrea Emshoff Nelson \u201900 completing the 20 Bridges Manhattan Swim around the New York City borough on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe 28.5-mile event \u201cis one of the big open-water swims that I wanted to do, and I felt great the whole time,\u201d Nelson told reporter \u200b\u200bDave Facinoli. Nelson, who was a competitive diver at Bates, lives in Arlington, Va., where she is a member of the Wave One Open Water swimming group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The swim is considered one leg of the triple crown of open-water swims that Nelson hopes to complete. The others are the 21-mile English Channel swim and the 20-mile swim from Catalina Island to the California mainland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cSwimmer enjoys open and cold-water challenges<\/a>,\u201d Sun Gazette<\/em>, Oct. 12, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nElizabeth Strout \u201977<\/h3>\n\n\n\nElizabeth Strout gets meta in her new novel about marriage \u2014 The New York Times<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/11\/9780812989434-us-200x300.webp\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMedia outlets are lavishing praise on the new novel from Elizabeth Strout \u201877, Oh William!<\/em> The novel\u2019s narrator is Lucy Barton, whom readers met in My Name is Lucy Barton<\/em> (2016) and Anything is Possible<\/em>. This time, we see her as she\u2019s mourning the death of her second husband, and revisiting her relationship with her first husband, William Gerhardt.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe New York Times<\/em> notes that \u201cStrout works in the realm of everyday speech, conjuring repetitions, gaps and awkwardness with plain language and forthright diction, yet at the same time unleashing a tidal urgency that seems to come out of nowhere even as it operates in plain sight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe effect, notes The Guardian<\/em>, is a \u201cconfiding intimacy\u201d in the prose, \u201cas if the reader were catching up with an old friend in a particularly confessional mood. At the same time it invites the reader to speculate on what isn\u2019t being told and what the speaker doesn\u2019t even realise she is telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nRead the stories: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \u201cElizabeth Strout gets meta in her new novel about marriage<\/a>,\u201d The New York Times<\/em>, Oct. 18, 2021<\/li>
- \u201cOh William!<\/em> by Elizabeth Strout review \u2014 the return of Lucy Barton<\/a>,\u201d The Guardian<\/em>, Oct. 20, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCarter Casner \u201907<\/h3>\n\n\n\nFright Court \u2014 Judge John Hodgman<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nCarter Casner \u201907 and his wife, Jessie Givens Casner, appeared on the comedic court-show podcast Judge John Hodgman<\/em> to settle a spooky dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\nJessie brings the \u201csuit\u201d against Carter, challenging his longstanding belief (and oft-told, she adds) that his childhood home in Providence, R.I., was haunted. The hosts chortle when hearing that the historic 1843 home was once a Unitarian chapel: \u201cNot the spookiest of denominations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the podcast, Casner notes that while he believes his house was haunted, he doesn\u2019t believe in ghosts or the afterlife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presenting such an apparent contradiction is classic Carter, says Jessie, who tells the amused hosts that her husband was a philosophy major and studied rhetoric at Bates. \u201cHe lives to argue every point in the world. That\u2019s his fun. It\u2019s part of why he likes telling this story: \u2018I don\u2019t believe in ghosts, but I grew up in a haunted house, so let\u2019s debate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Listen to the story: \u201cFright Court<\/a>,\u201d Judge John Hodgman<\/em>, Oct. 20, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCorey Harris \u201991<\/h3>\n\n\n\nBluesman Corey Harris mixes traditional American & West African blues with protest on \u2018Insurrection Blues\u2019 \u2014 Glide Magazine<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/11\/coreyharris-900x900-1-300x300.webp\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nInsurrection Blues<\/em> is the 20th album by roots artist Corey Harris and his first in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFor the album, \u201cHarris went back to the roots of American blues as well as unearthing traditional West African tunes,\u201d writes Jim Hynes for Glide Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cHarris weaves gospel, Delta blues, and the roots of these forms in an acoustic tour de force worthy of the MacArthur Fellowship and honorary music doctorate from his alma mater, Bates College in Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cBluesman Corey Harris mixes traditional American and West African blues with protest on \u2018Insurrection Blues\u2019<\/a>,\u201d Glide Magazine<\/em>, Nov. 2, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSulo Dissanayake \u201908 <\/h3>\n\n\n\nPower of Play \u2014 The Founder<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nSulo Dissanayake \u201808 was interviewed on The Founder with Tashiya Segel<\/em>, a series produced by Daily Mirror<\/em> of Sri Lanka that profiles entrepreneurs and their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDissanayake is founder and artistic director of Power of Play<\/a>, a venture that uses puppetry, performance, and storytelling in service of educational programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n“Performance is an ancient, timeless art,” Dissanayake said. “There is nothing like a physical performance. You can’t replace that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The power of puppetry is seen in how it provides an avenue for “discussing tough, taboo topics that no one wants to talk about \u2014 including sexual violence. Puppets make it easier,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Back](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2015\/05\/150507_Sulo_Gamelan_0391-LO.jpg\")
In 2015 at Bates, Sulo Dissanayake ’09 works with rod puppets during a rehearsal for a show that was part of a Bates course in Indonesian performance. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n“When you see a puppet, you are fascinated, when you are fascinated you laugh, when you laugh your barriers drops, and you can actually listen to what the puppet is saying rather than judging the message or where it is coming from.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- View the video: \u201cPower of Play<\/a>,\u201d The Founder<\/em>, Oct. 16, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nElizabeth Tito \u201987<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\u2018Less is more\u2019 for Santa Rosa breast cancer surgeon \u2014 The Press Democrat<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Press Democrat <\/em>of Santa Rosa, Calif., profiled Elizabeth Tito \u201987, the medical director and surgeon at the Breast Center at Santa Rosa Hospital. Tito works with breast cancer patients, and has a \u201cfierce commitment\u201d to her them. <\/p>\n\n\n\nTito stays informed on the latest research on breast cancer, and her individualized, patient-centered approach focuses on reducing intrusive treatment and maximizing at-home care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe field is catching up to me, finally,\u201d Tito told Press Democrat<\/em> reporter Nashelly Chavez.<\/p>\n\n\n\nSeveral of Tito\u2019s patients also spoke with Chavez, emphasizing how Tito\u2019s approach to care and her clear and simple explanations make them feel involved and informed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201c\u2018Less is more\u2019 for Santa Rosa breast cancer surgeon<\/a>,\u201d The Press Democrat<\/em>, Oct. 29, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCassidy Meyer \u201925, Claire Barlass \u201925, Maggie Amann \u201925 <\/h3>\n\n\n\nNot your typical 5K; participants run in wedding dresses to raise money for Good Shepherd \u2014 WGME News<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThree first-year students were interviewed by television station WGME for a story about an unusual fundraiser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/files\/2021\/11\/IMG_0770.webp\")
From left, Maggie Amann, Claire Barlass, and Cassidy Meyer strike a pose before venturing out for the “Running of the Brides.” (Photography courtesy of Maggie Amann) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nDubbed the \u201cRunning of the Brides,\u201d the 5k race\/walk asked participants to don wedding dresses. Sponsored by a wedding venue in nearby New Gloucester, the event raised nearly $500 for the Good Shepherd Food Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cassidy Meyer of Carbondale, Colo., Claire Barlass of Duluth, Minn., and Maggie Amann of Scarborough, Maine, found the event on Facebook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI thought of course Maggie found a 5k in wedding dresses and then I was super excited to come and run in a wedding dress,” Barlass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- Read the story: \u201cNot your typical 5K; participants run in wedding dresses to raise money for Good Shepherd<\/a>,\u201d WGME<\/em> News<\/em>, Oct. 31, 2021<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBates Museum of Art<\/h3>\n\n\n\nThe Hartley show at Bates is a must-see, but don\u2019t delay \u2014 Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Bates College Museum of Art\u2019s soon-closing exhibit, Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts<\/em> was featured in the Portland Press Herald<\/em>, and is an \u201c\u200b\u200bastounding exhibition,\u201d according to the museum\u2019s director, Dan Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Tyler Harper is an expert in how writers, scientists, social theorists, and others have historically engaged with so-called x-risks: \u201cthreats that could bring about human extinction or permanent civilizational collapse.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That expertise shines through in his review of X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction <\/em>by Oxford University historian Thomas Moynihan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the Cold War, discussions around existential risks typically focused on nuclear holocaust; more recently, such discussions focus on threats posed by artificial intelligence and climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Any focus on x-risk, whether by great thinkers or by so-called space barons like Elon Musk, is highly problematic, Harper writes, because human extinction historically has been \u201ca hobby horse of the eugenics movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, he argues, \u201cwe cannot claim to take existential risk seriously \u2014 and meaningfully confront the grave threats to the future of human and nonhuman life on this planet \u2014 if we do not also<\/em> confront the fact that our ideas about human extinction, including how human extinction might be prevented, have a dark history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sun Journal<\/em> reporter Vanessa Paolella \u201921 chronicled the in-person return of the Dempsey Challenge fundraiser following last year\u2019s virtual edition, noting that \u201cteams from Bates raised just under $30,000, earning the College Cup,\u201d a competition among Maine colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The walk\/run\/ride challenge raised more than $1.3 million for the Dempsey Center, a quality of life care center for individuals and families impacted by cancer, founded by actor Patrick Dempsey, who received an honorary degree from Bates in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September, St. John\u2019s College announced the appointment of Nora Demleitner \u201989 as president of the college\u2019s Annapolis campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Demleitner is the Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. She will be the first female president in St. John\u2019s College\u2019s 325-year history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Call it an academic mini-reunion: Tina Gibson-Davis \u201992 and Jordan Conwell \u201912 each made significant contributions to a recent volume of a journal in the social sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gibson-Davis, joined by scholar Heather Hill of the University of Washington, served as co-editor of the August 2021 volume of The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. <\/em>The issue focuses on the implications of childhood wealth inequality<\/a> in the U.S. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gibson-Davis and Hill also contributed their own article<\/a>, in which they note that the study of wealth inequality and child outcomes has so far received scant attention from scholars, even as patterns of American structural inequality and institutional racism, \u201cunder which black and Hispanic families have faced persistent discrimination in lending, credit, and housing markets,\u201d are well understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Conwell\u2019s article, coauthored with Leafia Zi Ye<\/a> of the University of Wisconsin\u2013Madison, finds, among other things, that \u201cBlack and Hispanic children often have significantly worse math and reading scores than same-wealth whites by age 5, and these disparities often increase through age 14, particularly for Black-White comparisons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until the other day, Gibson-Davis and Conwell weren\u2019t aware of their Bates connection \u2014 that fact was pointed out by Bates Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, always on the lookout for alumni in academe and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gibson-Davis is a professor of public policy and sociology at Duke\u2019s Sanford School of Public Policy. Conwell is an assistant professor of sociology and educational policy studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Columnist Nina Metz of the Chicago Tribune <\/em>writes about the new film documentary All These Sons<\/em>, which focuses on the \u201cemotional lives of a handful of young men in Chicago\u201d who are supported by the MAAFA Redemption Project<\/a>, co-founded by the Rev. Marshall Hatch Jr. \u201910 and the Inner City Muslim Action Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The film focuses on the never-ending need for funding for organizations like Hatch\u2019s as well as on the implications of non-Black filmmakers having the power to tell a story about young Black Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BU Today<\/em> profiled members of the Boston University community who ran the Boston Marathon to support a cause, including Sarah Sherman-Stokes, a clinical associate professor of law at the BU School of Law and associate director of the school\u2019s Immigrants\u2019 Rights & Human Trafficking Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She raised money for the Political Asylum\/Immigration Representation Project, which provides pro bono legal services to asylum seekers and unjustly detained immigrants in Massachusetts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She told BU Today<\/em> that work at Bates with immigrants motivated her to enter immigration law. She also studied abroad, in Central America, hearing \u201cstories from folks whose parents or grandparents or siblings had made the journey north to the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Portland Press Herald<\/em> food and books editor Peggy Grodinsky interviewed several Mainers, including Associate Professor of American Studies Myron Beasley, for a story about collard greens, a Southern favorite but, for Northerners like Grodinsky, somewhat mystifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beasley\u2019s research includes exploring the intersection of cultural politics, material culture, and social change; he\u2019s also an expert in how food intertwines with culture and history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Though not a facile cooker of collards, Grodinsky recalls, when she lived in New York City, enjoying \u201crice and beans with a tangle of bright green collard ribbons (shockingly good) at a hole-in-the-wall Brazilian restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beasley, who did academic research in Brazil \u201chelped me identify those, surmising they were a classic Brazilian preparation of collards saut\u00e9ed with oil, garlic and a bit of water, then mixed with a \u201cdressing\u201d of onions, lemons, jalape\u00f1os and cilantro.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Media outlets including Bloomberg Equality<\/em> reported on a new California law that requires big retailers to create gender-neutral departments for some toys and child care items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven before California took this step, companies had been tweaking how they merchandise products for kids,\u201d according to reporter Augusta Saraiva. \u201cIn 2015, Target stopped displaying gender-based signs on its children\u2019s departments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quoting Professor of Sociology Emily Kane, Saraiva said that it will take a while for gender-neutral clothes and toys to become mainstream. But \u201cespecially among relatively affluent urban consumers, there is movement in that direction, and it will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-founder of Bova Creative<\/a> Jenny Ruma Bova \u201991 is an interior-design expert for both commercial and residential spaces with a special focus on surface design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a Q&A with the trade publication Pattern Observer<\/em>, she talked about trends in interior design:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTrends in home decor tend to move much more slowly than fashion,\u201d she said. \u201cQuick-to-market, lower-end products tend to be more trendy \u2014 think HomeGoods and At Home, both good resources for specific jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If a client wants to embrace current trends, she encourages pieces that are \u201cinexpensive or easy to change: paint colors, wallpaper, pillows, and accessories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Current trends include back to nature, \u201cvery evident in all things botanical and of the outdoors. People stuck at home for the last 18 months are bringing their love of the garden inside with textiles. Suddenly the spaces where we spend our time have become very important.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Associate Professor of Music Dale Chapman, author of The Jazz Bubble: Neoclassical Jazz in Neoliberal Culture<\/em><\/a>, is quoted in a Washington Post<\/em> story about a decades-long trend of jazz club closures that\u2019s been exacerbated by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chapman explains that gentrification and rising rents are fueling the trend in larger cities. \u201cMany of the most prominent clubs, even the ones that are well established and very famous, have tremendously high overheads,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sun Gazette <\/em>of Virginia reported on Andrea Emshoff Nelson \u201900 completing the 20 Bridges Manhattan Swim around the New York City borough on Aug. 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 28.5-mile event \u201cis one of the big open-water swims that I wanted to do, and I felt great the whole time,\u201d Nelson told reporter \u200b\u200bDave Facinoli. Nelson, who was a competitive diver at Bates, lives in Arlington, Va., where she is a member of the Wave One Open Water swimming group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The swim is considered one leg of the triple crown of open-water swims that Nelson hopes to complete. The others are the 21-mile English Channel swim and the 20-mile swim from Catalina Island to the California mainland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Media outlets are lavishing praise on the new novel from Elizabeth Strout \u201877, Oh William!<\/em> The novel\u2019s narrator is Lucy Barton, whom readers met in My Name is Lucy Barton<\/em> (2016) and Anything is Possible<\/em>. This time, we see her as she\u2019s mourning the death of her second husband, and revisiting her relationship with her first husband, William Gerhardt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New York Times<\/em> notes that \u201cStrout works in the realm of everyday speech, conjuring repetitions, gaps and awkwardness with plain language and forthright diction, yet at the same time unleashing a tidal urgency that seems to come out of nowhere even as it operates in plain sight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The effect, notes The Guardian<\/em>, is a \u201cconfiding intimacy\u201d in the prose, \u201cas if the reader were catching up with an old friend in a particularly confessional mood. At the same time it invites the reader to speculate on what isn\u2019t being told and what the speaker doesn\u2019t even realise she is telling you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read the stories: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carter Casner \u201907 and his wife, Jessie Givens Casner, appeared on the comedic court-show podcast Judge John Hodgman<\/em> to settle a spooky dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jessie brings the \u201csuit\u201d against Carter, challenging his longstanding belief (and oft-told, she adds) that his childhood home in Providence, R.I., was haunted. The hosts chortle when hearing that the historic 1843 home was once a Unitarian chapel: \u201cNot the spookiest of denominations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the podcast, Casner notes that while he believes his house was haunted, he doesn\u2019t believe in ghosts or the afterlife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Presenting such an apparent contradiction is classic Carter, says Jessie, who tells the amused hosts that her husband was a philosophy major and studied rhetoric at Bates. \u201cHe lives to argue every point in the world. That\u2019s his fun. It\u2019s part of why he likes telling this story: \u2018I don\u2019t believe in ghosts, but I grew up in a haunted house, so let\u2019s debate.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Insurrection Blues<\/em> is the 20th album by roots artist Corey Harris and his first in three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the album, \u201cHarris went back to the roots of American blues as well as unearthing traditional West African tunes,\u201d writes Jim Hynes for Glide Magazine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHarris weaves gospel, Delta blues, and the roots of these forms in an acoustic tour de force worthy of the MacArthur Fellowship and honorary music doctorate from his alma mater, Bates College in Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sulo Dissanayake \u201808 was interviewed on The Founder with Tashiya Segel<\/em>, a series produced by Daily Mirror<\/em> of Sri Lanka that profiles entrepreneurs and their businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dissanayake is founder and artistic director of Power of Play<\/a>, a venture that uses puppetry, performance, and storytelling in service of educational programming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Performance is an ancient, timeless art,” Dissanayake said. “There is nothing like a physical performance. You can’t replace that.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The power of puppetry is seen in how it provides an avenue for “discussing tough, taboo topics that no one wants to talk about \u2014 including sexual violence. Puppets make it easier,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “When you see a puppet, you are fascinated, when you are fascinated you laugh, when you laugh your barriers drops, and you can actually listen to what the puppet is saying rather than judging the message or where it is coming from.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Press Democrat <\/em>of Santa Rosa, Calif., profiled Elizabeth Tito \u201987, the medical director and surgeon at the Breast Center at Santa Rosa Hospital. Tito works with breast cancer patients, and has a \u201cfierce commitment\u201d to her them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tito stays informed on the latest research on breast cancer, and her individualized, patient-centered approach focuses on reducing intrusive treatment and maximizing at-home care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe field is catching up to me, finally,\u201d Tito told Press Democrat<\/em> reporter Nashelly Chavez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Several of Tito\u2019s patients also spoke with Chavez, emphasizing how Tito\u2019s approach to care and her clear and simple explanations make them feel involved and informed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three first-year students were interviewed by television station WGME for a story about an unusual fundraiser. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dubbed the \u201cRunning of the Brides,\u201d the 5k race\/walk asked participants to don wedding dresses. Sponsored by a wedding venue in nearby New Gloucester, the event raised nearly $500 for the Good Shepherd Food Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cassidy Meyer of Carbondale, Colo., Claire Barlass of Duluth, Minn., and Maggie Amann of Scarborough, Maine, found the event on Facebook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI thought of course Maggie found a 5k in wedding dresses and then I was super excited to come and run in a wedding dress,” Barlass said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bates College Museum of Art\u2019s soon-closing exhibit, Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts<\/em> was featured in the Portland Press Herald<\/em>, and is an \u201c\u200b\u200bastounding exhibition,\u201d according to the museum\u2019s director, Dan Mills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDempsey Challenge<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Dempsey Challenge raises record funds \u2014 Lewiston Sun Journal<\/em>, Sept. 25, 2021<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nNora Demleitner \u201989<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Nora Demleitner \u201989 appointed president of St. John\u2019s College, Annapolis \u2014 St. John\u2019s College News<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nTina Gibson-Davis \u201992 and Jordan Conwell \u201912<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wealth Inequality and Child Development: Implications for Policy and Practice \u2014 The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMarshall Hatch Jr. \u201910<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The documentary All These Sons<\/em> centers young Black men in Chicago who are at risk of becoming victims or perpetrators of gun violence \u2014 Chicago Tribune<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSarah Sherman-Stokes \u201905<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Terriers running the Boston Marathon with a mission \u2014 BU Today<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nMyron Beasley, American studies faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Collard greens: From down South to down East \u2014 Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nEmily Kane, sociology faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
California to make retailers to offer gender-neutral kids\u2019 sections \u2014 Bloomberg Equality<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nJennifer Ruma Bova \u201991<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Designing for home decor with Jenny Bova \u2014 Pattern Observer<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDale Chapman, music faculty<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Jazz venues have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. They are hoping the worst is over \u2014 The Washington Post<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAndrea Emshoff Nelson \u201900<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Swimmer enjoys open and cold-water challenges \u2014 Sun Gazette<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nElizabeth Strout \u201977<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Elizabeth Strout gets meta in her new novel about marriage \u2014 The New York Times<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCarter Casner \u201907<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Fright Court \u2014 Judge John Hodgman<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCorey Harris \u201991<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Bluesman Corey Harris mixes traditional American & West African blues with protest on \u2018Insurrection Blues\u2019 \u2014 Glide Magazine<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nSulo Dissanayake \u201908 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Power of Play \u2014 The Founder<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nElizabeth Tito \u201987<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Less is more\u2019 for Santa Rosa breast cancer surgeon \u2014 The Press Democrat<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nCassidy Meyer \u201925, Claire Barlass \u201925, Maggie Amann \u201925 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Not your typical 5K; participants run in wedding dresses to raise money for Good Shepherd \u2014 WGME News<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nBates Museum of Art<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Hartley show at Bates is a must-see, but don\u2019t delay \u2014 Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/h5>\n\n\n\n