This roundup includes alumni achievements from the class of 1977 to 2026; faculty recognition, publication, and appearances; and coverage of President Garry W. Jenkins\u2019 participation in the annual Presidents\u2019 Dinner for media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jamie Hollander \u201924 co-authored an article published in Nature Communications<\/em> in September. The article, \u201cSubglacial geology and thermal conditions regulate methane emissions from Svalbard glaciers,\u201d<\/a> investigates how meltwaters beneath glaciers control the transport and emission of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. Underground methane \u2014 which in these systems can come from carbon-rich bedrock, gas hydrates, or the microbial breakdown of buried organic material, is trapped by overlying glaciers \u2014 preventing it from being released into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mechanisms and magnitude of how and when glacial meltwaters release methane are poorly understood due to limited studies, so the researchers sampled 19 glacial melt rivers across Svalbard, Norway\u2019s northernmost archipelago. (Hollander spent 10 months here and in Troms\u00f8, a city on mainland Norway\u2019s northern coast, on a Fulbright student study\/research grant<\/a>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Findings demonstrate that the meltwater samples were supersaturated with methane. Ground-penetrating radar surveys show that glacier beds with temperate ice, glacial ice that remains at or above its melting point, facilitate the release of methane gas through meltwaters. Because of its thawed state, temperate ice is more connected to the hydrological system through which subglacial meltwaters move, meaning methane beneath the temperate ice is easily absorbed by passing meltwaters. Glaciers with cold ice instead of temperate ice are frozen to their beds, meaning there are limited opportunities for water to pass beneath them and collect methane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These results suggest that glacial thawing, which is accelerated by climate change, increases subglacial methane release and could be beneficial in predicting future natural methane emissions as the earth continues to warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In September, President Garry W. Jenkins was one of a dozen private college and university presidents invited to attend the ninth annual Presidents Dinner for media at the National Press Club, hosted by Bucknell University President John Bravman. The entirely on-the-record conversation covered a wide range of topics about the challenges colleges and universities around the United States are facing, particularly the antagonistic relationship with the federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Politico<\/em> covered the event and included a quote from Jenkins in its Oct. 7 story headlined \u201cColleges seek answers amid Trump push to cancel tax exemptions over diversity programs,\u201d<\/a> which takes a deep look at how American institutions of higher education are responding to Trump administration rules sent out on Sept. 3. It quotes Edward Blum, whose Students for Fair Admissions group won the key Supreme Court case throwing out affirmative action in college admissions in 2023. Blum, Politico writes, \u201csees the IRS rules as a way to not only enforce that landmark decision but to influence other aspects of campus life as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the regulations should also be used to prevent schools from considering race in decisions over who they hire and promote, for example, and when they make contracting decisions.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is an extension of that [case], but it is also a logical next step in the use of race in public policy in the United States,\u201d said Blum. \u201cThe doctrine that that presented has power and energy outside the admissions process.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Politico<\/em> describes the widespread confusion over new rules from the Trump administration and writes that \u201csome wonder if the vagueness is deliberate because it will prompt schools to censor themselves.\u201d Steven Bloom, assistant vice president for government relations at the American Council on Education, told Politico<\/em> it is likely that anticipatory compliance could cause institutions to go overboard to scrub their campuses of anything that could potentially be a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jenkins was quoted on the way the administration is using the tax exemption to demand compliance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course, we should and do comply with Students for Fair Admissions,\u201d Garry Jenkins, president of Bates College, a liberal arts school in Maine, said in reference to the Supreme Court case Blum\u2019s group won. \u201cBut to take and use the IRS in this way is a significant and, frankly, frightening change.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier, in a Sept. 14 article headlined \u201c3 Takeaways From a Dinner with Presidents\u201d<\/a> reporter Josh Moody used the same quote from Jenkins (all the on-the-record comments are available to any reporters who attended the dinner). Moody quoted Jenkins in a passage about admissions policies and scholarships:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Presidents also expressed alarm about the Trump administration\u2019s threat to<\/em> <\/em>strip private colleges of their tax-exempt status<\/em><\/a> if they maintain admissions policies or scholarships intended to support minority students, which the federal government considers equivalent to racial discrimination.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course, we should and do comply with Students for Fair Admissions [which ended affirmative action], but to use the IRS in this way is a significant and frankly frightening change in policy,\u201d Bates College President Garry W. Jenkins said.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps<\/em>, a documentary by Carolina Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia, associate professor of art and visual culture, was featured in the Camden International Film Festival on Sept. 17. News Center Maine talked with Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia<\/a> about the experience of showing the film here in Maine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was like a homecoming,\u201d said Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia, who described the joy of being in a theater to hear reactions to the film. In the \u201cmagical space\u201d of the theater, she said, \u201cthe film becomes alive in a way that is hard to describe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The documentary, which began as a way for Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia to understand her mother\u2019s experience as a domestic worker, blends genres and includes moments of fiction. Describing the collaborative process of creating the film with her mother, she told News Center Maine, \u201cThe fiction became this tool to talk about hard things, to play with our own stories. So it just became a place of honesty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n How to Clean a House in 10 Easy Steps<\/em> was a Best of the Fest film in Camden. The festival was the Maine premiere of the film, which won a Golden Gate Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Sept. 22, the judges of the Booker Prize announced their shortlist of six authors for the award, given annually for a book written in English and published in the United Kingdom and\/or Ireland between Oct. 1, 2025 and Sept. 30, 2026. Strout\u2019s latest novel The Things We Never Say<\/em> was included on the shortlist. The novel is about the inner life of a longtime high school teacher, the kind and decent Artie Dam, living in coastal Massachusetts in the time before the 2024 presidential election. Amid the disquiet of the era, Artie confronts secrets about the lives of his students and within his own marriage and family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The judges described The Things We Never Say<\/em> as \u201ca novel that engages with the deeply divisive politics of present-day America, without itself becoming divisive. This is the kind of book we need now: a calm antidote to contemporary events.\u201d The 2026 judging panel is made up of Mary Beard, Raymond Antrobus, Jarvis Cocker, Rebecca Liu, and Patricia Lockwood. The Booker Prize website offers a full guide<\/a> to the shortlisted books. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In its coverage, NPR noted that this is the third time Strout has been up for a Booker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Strout was shortlisted in 2022 for her book<\/em> Oh William! and she was longlisted in 2016 for<\/em> My Name is Lucy Barton. Of her latest work, NPR critic<\/em> <\/em>Maureen Corrigan said<\/em><\/a>: “Talk about enchantment. Every time Elizabeth Strout brings out a new novel \u2014 which is often \u2014 I think to myself: She can’t pull off another great book again. And then she does.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Other coverage included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n BBC: \u201cBooker Prize judges reveal shortlisted novels after selection ‘tussle’<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The New York Times<\/em>: \u201cNovels by Marlon James and Douglas Stuart Lead Booker Prize Shortlist<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Publishers Weekly:<\/em> \u201c2026 Booker Prize Shortlist Announced<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The winner will be announced at a ceremony on Nov. 9. <\/p>\n\n\n\n David Treadwell, a columnist for The Times Record<\/em> of Brunswick\/Bath, whose work appears in the Portland Press Herald<\/em> as well, wrote glowingly of the work Aidan Stark-Chessa \u201926 has been doing since high school in a piece headlined \u201cYoung Maine entrepreneur Aidan Stark-Chessa wants to make the world a better place.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Treadwell describes how Stark-Chessa \u201cleapt into action\u201d as a 17-year-old during COVID, when he was a student at Maine Coast Waldorf School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He created a pandemic-response concierge service, which promised to deliver essential goods within 24 hours. He built a website and sales strategy within two weeks and partnered with local businesses to source products. His innovative idea earned media coverage in the<\/em> Boston Globe. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But Treadwell\u2019s main focus is on Stark-Chessa\u2019s push, while still a Bates student, to create a non-alcoholic cocktail. His business plan won him a Bobcat Ventures first prize in 2024 and enabled him to move forward with a gingery, fizzy concoction called Honeysuckle, now being produced under his label, the Weeping Willow Co. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Treadwell writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Stark-Chessa knows, after you have developed a product, you have to get it on shelves; always a challenge. Bates College has bought several cases for student events. Morning Glory in Brunswick now stocks Honeysuckle, and he was delighted when a non-alcoholic bar in San Diego purchased several cases. At some point he hopes to take Honeysuckle national.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery day is different when you\u2019re creating a business,\u201d he says. \u201cYou have to be creative and flexible. And you should be guided by ethical principals<\/em> [sic] while making decisions. I want to make the world a better place by giving people good (alternatives) to drinking alcohol.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Aug.10 issue of The New Yorker<\/em>, critic Zachary Fine wrote extensively about the artistic life of William Pope.L in a piece called Pope.L\u2019s Pleasing Refusal to Be Interpreted<\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pope.L, who was a senior lecturer in theater at Bates from 1990 to 2012, died Dec. 23, 2023, and was widely lauded in coverage of his death<\/a> as an uncompromising conceptual and performance artist. Fine was reviewing a new exhibition of his drawings, Certainly an Act: Works on Paper by Pope.L<\/em>, which opened June 26 at the Drawing Center in New York and closed Sept. 27. Fine writes of Pope.L\u2019s performance art in the streets of New York \u2014 which the Guggenheim winner also brought to the streets of Portland, Maine \u2014 and his experiments with everything from Spam to peanut butter as a medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Successful artists are often excellent brand managers. They have coherent \u201cperiods\u201d of activity, when one material or idea predominates, and provide neatly packaged interpretive frameworks for the reception (and collection) of their art. Part of what makes Pope.L so great, in my book, is that he couldn\u2019t care less about crafting an image or a brand. His work thrives on the incoherence of his own restless curiosity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n An article in the Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/a> headlined \u201cFall art exhibits lean into retrospectives\u201d included coverage of the Bates College Museum of Art exhibition, \u201cCarl Sprinchorn: Points of View,\u201d which opened Oct. 1. The Bates exhibition showcases over 70 works by Sprinchorn. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The paper\u2019s art critic, Jose S. Arango, described the Bates exhibition, which will be up through Dec. 19, as \u201can essential Part II\u201d to a comprehensive show on Sprinchorn currently at the Ogunquit Museum of American Arts. He described Sprinchorn as an \u201cunder-recognized contributor to the history of modernism.” Arango writes: \u201cThrough this exhaustive survey we can perhaps understand that his reappraisal has something to do with the fact that he was tackling issues that are, arguably, even more pressing today than they were then: the denuding of the environment, homosexuality (and by extension gender fluidity), immigration and labor.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Associate Professor of English Myronn Hardy\u2019s poem \u201cMushrooms\u201d was highlighted in the Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/a>. The poem was chosen by Maine poet Megan Grumbling for \u201cDeep Water,\u201d the paper\u2019s weekly poetry column.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love this poem\u2019s sense of spacious joy, its embodiment in feet and movement, and its collective vision of a more elysian world for all,\u201d Grumbling wrote in her introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Professor of Art and Visual Culture and Gender and Sexuality Studies Erica Rand was interviewed about her new book Skating Away from the Binary<\/em> on The End of Sport<\/em><\/a> \u2014 a Harbinger Media Network podcast that analyzes sports culture and politics through a critical lens. In the episode, Rand discusses how her writing for this book was inspired by her experiences as an adult skater and skating coach. She also talks about gender roles, racialization, institutional policies, and more in the world of figure skating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The October 2026 issue of Down East<\/em> magazine<\/a> featured Bates alumna Rachel Ferrante \u201910 in her role as executive director of the Maine Museum of Innovation, Labor, and Learning (Maine MILL). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Down East<\/em> talked to Ferrante about her efforts to create an authentic display for the historic Jacquard loom in Maine MILL, as well as her broader goal of commemorating the rich manufacturing heritage of Lewiston-Auburn and central Maine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ferrante noted that the loom, through its innovative system of punchcards, is a significant precursor to modern digital computation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSmartphones, AI, they\u2019re part of a continuum that started here,\u201d Ferrante told Down East<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maine MILL, on its website<\/a>, highlights this connection between Maine\u2019s industrial history and contemporary conversations about technological advancement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Camille Borders, who joined Bates faculty this fall as an assistant professor of history, was included in an Oct. 2 article in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education<\/em> about new faculty appointments nationally.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The article described Borders\u2019 scholarly work and how it \u201cseeks to understand how Black people in America built, resisted, and thrived under the shadows of social and political domination.\u201d A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Borders earned a master\u2019s degree in U.S. history at the University of Oxford in England and a Ph.D. in history at Princeton University. Her area of expertise is 19th and 20th century U.S. history with a focus on women\u2019s history and Black feminist thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\nPresident Garry W. Jenkins quoted in both<\/strong> Politico<\/em><\/strong> and<\/strong> Inside Higher Education<\/em><\/strong> about governmental pressures on the higher education sector<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Associate Professor of Art and Visual Culture Carolina Gonz\u00e1lez Valencia interviewed on News Center Maine<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Elizabeth Strout \u201977 featured in multiple news outlets for making the Booker Prize shortlist<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Column in<\/strong> The Times Record<\/em><\/strong> praises entrepreneur Aidan Stark-Chessa \u201926 for trying to \u2018make the world a better place\u2019 <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Former faculty member William Pope.L\u2019s art and career featured in<\/strong> The New Yorker<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Portland Press Herald<\/em> features Bates College Museum\u2019s Exhibition ‘Carl Sprinchorn: Points of View’ <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The<\/strong> Portland Press Herald<\/em><\/strong> highlights Myronn Hardy\u2019s poem \u2018<\/strong><\/strong>Mushrooms\u2019 <\/strong> in its weekly poetry column<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Erica Rand talks on<\/strong> The End of Sport<\/em><\/strong> podcast about her new book<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Rachel Ferrante \u201810 in<\/strong> Down East<\/em><\/strong> Magazine<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Assistant Professor of History Camille Borders in<\/strong> Journal of Blacks in Higher Education<\/em><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Jeff Price \u201987 discusses bringing the Heisman Trophy to Bates in the Sun Journal<\/em> <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n