{"id":63082,"date":"2012-06-15T14:08:46","date_gmt":"2012-06-15T18:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=63082"},"modified":"2025-12-22T09:40:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T14:40:09","slug":"bates-in-brief-academics-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2012\/06\/15\/bates-in-brief-academics-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates in Brief Academics: Fanny Dickens, retiring professors, new professorships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Resurrecting Fanny<\/p>\n

James Parakilas settles at the piano. He begins to play. The notes, composed about 180 years ago, not been played \u2014 or heard \u2014 by anyone since.<\/p>\n

Hearing the music, too, is English professor Lillian Nayder. She rediscovered the music in the archives of Britain\u2019s Royal Academy of Music while researching the life of the composer, Fanny Dickens, elder sister of Charles.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

As English professor Lillian Nayder continues researching the Dickens family, she\u2019s finding that Fanny\u2019s got talent. Image courtesy of the Rare Book Department, Free Library of Philadelphia.<\/p><\/div>\n

Parakilas, the Moody Family Professor of Performing Arts, transcribed the music for piano and brought it back to life.<\/p>\n

Parakilas plays on: an anthem for four voices in F major, a single chant in D minor and a canon in F major. None takes longer than one minute to perform. \u201cFanny\u2019s timing and use of intervals in these pieces is quite sophisticated, and she handles multiple voices in different ranges quite well,\u201d Parakilas tells Nayder.<\/p>\n

Today, the pieces are as forgotten as their composer.<\/p>\n

Nayder is the author of The Other Dickens: A Life of Catherine Hogarth, a look at Charles\u2019 poor treatment of his estranged wife (Fall 2011 Bates Magazine). She is now turning to other women in Dickens\u2019 life, as she drafts a historical novel that examines the complex relations among his sisters and sisters-in-law.<\/p>\n

As Nayder listens to Parakilas play, she envisions a young woman with considerable musical talent, with her own strong power of expression. She is getting to know her a little better.<\/p>\n

\n

A Great IDea<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College.<\/p><\/div>\n

Five former John Kelsey students flash their Bates pedigree \u2014 in the form of their Bates student IDs \u2014 at a May 19, 2012, event honoring John Kelsey\u2019s retirement as psychology professor and chair of the neuroscience program. The 2010 grads honoring Kelsey are, from left, Rebecca Lange, Lauren Shapiro, Tom Berry, Alexia Zhang and John Bladon.<\/p>\n

\n

Academics Facts<\/h3>\n

\u201cStimulus from association with a superior mind\u201d is the founding mission of Bates honors program.<\/p>\n

Seniors didn\u2019t \u201chand in\u201d their honors theses this year \u2014 they uploaded digital versions.<\/p>\n

New English course: \u201cLiterary Imagination and Neuroscience,\u201d by Sanford Freedman.<\/p>\n

Great teachers \u201ckindle fire in another soul because [their] own souls were first aflame,\u201d said President Gray.<\/p>\n

Aspiring railroad systems engineer Joanna Moody \u2019I4 won a Goldwater Scholarship.<\/p>\n

\n

Honoring John Cole<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College.<\/p><\/div>\n

John Cole, the Reynolds Professor of History, and daughter Elizabeth acknowledge warm applause at the surprise April 27 reception honoring the conclusion of his teaching career after 45 years on the Bates faculty.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Six Professorships Appointed<\/h3>\n

And a few words about the Bates names behind the endowed chairs recently assumed by senior Bates professors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Marcus Bruce ’77<\/p><\/div>\n

Marcus Bruce \u201977<\/strong>: Benjamin E. Mays Professor of Religious Studies<\/em><\/p>\n

Mays \u201920 is considered the \u201cschoolmaster of the civil rights movement.\u201d Established by trustee emeritus James Orr P\u201994.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jane Costlow<\/p><\/div>\n

Jane Costlow<\/strong>: Clark A. Griffith Professor of Environmental Studies<\/p>\n

Griffith \u201953 is a Massachusetts cranberry farmer with the Ocean Spray cooperative.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Rebecca Herzig<\/p><\/div>\n

Rebecca Herzig<\/strong>: Christian A. Johnson Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies<\/p>\n

Johnson was a Swedish immigrant turned NYC industrialist who created a philanthropic foundation.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Glen Lawson<\/p><\/div>\n

Glen Lawson<\/strong>: Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry<\/p>\n

Dana professorships honor Bates\u2019 preeminent teacher scholars.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lynne Lewis<\/p><\/div>\n

Lynne Lewis<\/strong>: Elmer W. Campbell Professor of Economics<\/p>\n

Campbell \u201927 rose from clerk to VP at a local bank. His first gift was $100 in 1954.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Erica Rand<\/p><\/div>\n

Erica Rand<\/strong>: Whitehouse Professor of Art and Visual Culture and Women and Gender Studies<\/p>\n

David Whitehouse \u201936 was an executive with Container Corp. in Caracas, Venezuela.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

What\u2019s Your Major?<\/h3>\n

An accounting of all academic majors for the Class of 2011:<\/p>\n

134 Humanities Majors <\/strong><\/p>\n

Art and Visual Culture 28
\nChinese 4
\nEast Asian Studies 4
\nEnglish 32
\nFrench 11
\nGerman 2
\nJapanese 3
\nMusic 7
\nPhilosophy 10
\nReligious Studies 4
\nRhetoric 8
\nRussian 2
\nSpanish 10
\nTheater 9<\/p>\n

210 Social Sciences Majors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anthropology 13
\nEconomics 50
\nHistory 34
\nPolitics 44
\nPsychology 47
\nSociology 22<\/p>\n

70 Natural Sciences Majors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Biology 24
\nChemistry 12
\nGeology 7
\nMathematics 19
\nPhysics 8<\/p>\n

83 Interdisciplinary Majors<\/strong><\/p>\n

African American Studies 1
\nAmerican Cultural Studies 7
\nBiological Chemistry 21
\nClassical and Medieval Studies 4
\nEnvironmental Studies 27
\nInterdisciplinary Self-Designed 6
\nWomen and Gender Studies 10
\nNeuroscience 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lillian Nayder rediscovered the music of Fanny Dickens in the archives of Britain\u2019s Royal Academy of Music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":["lillian-r-nayder"],"_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":[1],"tags":[10574,10856,4569,11031],"class_list":["post-63082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-batesnews","tag-bates-in-brief-2","tag-bates-magazine","tag-james-parakilas","tag-magazine-spring-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63082","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\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63082"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171555,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63082\/revisions\/171555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}