Summit 2011
Mount David Summit Highlights Student Research across Disciplines
The tenth Mount David Summit, Bates College’s annual celebration of student academic achievement, will take place on Friday, April 1, 2011.
The idea of setting aside a day to highlight the excellence of Bates students’ academic work was the brainchild of dean of the faculty Jill N. Reich.”At Bates we believe that each student can develop as a scholar,” says Reich. “As students begin to generate new knowledge, they need to communicate what they know, defend their ideas, and share their insights. The Mount David Summit provides a moment when students, faculty, staff, families, and community members can learn from our students. The students become our teachers.”
The first Mount David Summit was launched in 2002 and featured the work of 50 students. Over the last decade, the Summit has grown into one of the premier events in the Bates calendar. More than 350 students will participate in this year’s Summit. In Pettengill Hall and other locations, concurrent sessions will take place throughout the afternoon, in which students will present research posters, short talks, panel discussions, a photography exhibition, and film screenings. The Summit will culminate in evening arts events. A concert by Bates College Modern Dance Company at 7:30 PM in Schaeffer Theatre will feature the work of student choreographers in collaboration with student composers and lighting designers. At 8 PM in the Olin Concert Hall, the College Choir will perform two great masterpieces of Franz Joseph Haydn, Te Deum and the Lord Nelson Mass.
Among the many Summit presentations are these examples:
- students will present more than 100 research posters in African studies, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, economics, English, environmental studies, geology, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, politics, psychology, and sociology. Topics range from drug-resistant bacteria to dam removal on the Penobscot River, and from tax evasion in Pakistan to marine turtle conservation in Bali;
- psychology and neuroscience students will present posters and talks covering such topics as PTSD in veterans, teaching teachers of special education, drug and nicotine addiction and withdrawal, the reliability of eyewitness testimony, and behaviors around social networking.
- creative writing thesis students will read from their works, student poets will give a reading, and others will discuss Russian poetry.
- talks by history thesis students will range from the Punic Wars to race relations in colonial New York and Japanese legal reforms;
- two student films, one on teenage dress in Senegal and one on college and community, will be screened and discussed;
- anthropology, sociology, Spanish, and women and gender studies majors will give short talks on their current senior thesis research;
- a roundtable discussion on public scholarship will be presented by students working in the community through the Harward Center for Community Partnerships;
- students who have held museum internships at the Bates Museum of Art and other museums will discuss their work.
To view the 2011 Mount David Schedule, please click the links below for access to the three poster sessions, talks and panels.