Like first-year students, new professors duly learn the Bates nomenclature — the difference between Pettengill and Pettigrew, College and Campus, and Kelsey and Kessler.

But a rookie professor’s zeal to explore his new surroundings can reflect more than just practical considerations.

Jonathan Skinner, the new assistant professor of environmental studies seen here, is a former Rhodes Scholar, widely published poet, and editor of the journal ecopoetics. His writings examine the “creative-critical” edges between writing and ecology.

A native of New Mexico — he is a graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe — Skinner’s scholarly travels have taken him to the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
Now, he’ll immerse himself and his work at Bates and Lewiston, “a lively hub of learning and cultural mingling,” he says, a prime spot from which to launch an exploration “of our complex relationship to what surrounds us, from the urban to the rural to the coastal and mountain environments.”