Mount David Summit highlights student work across disciplines

The seventh Mount David Summit, Bates College’s annual celebration of student academic achievement, begins with festivities at 2:30 p.m. Friday, March 28, in Perry Atrium, Pettengill Hall, 4 Andrews Road (Alumni Walk).

More than 350 students are participating in this year’s summit. In concurrent sessions throughout the afternoon at Pettengill Hall, participants present research posters, short talks, readings, dramatic performances, art exhibitions and video screenings.

The Mount David Summit and related events are open to the public at no cost. For more information call Kerry O’Brien at 207-786-6065 or e-mail her.

The summit culminates in two performances: the Bates College Modern Dance Company presents student choreography at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St., and the Bates College Choir performs Parts II and III of Handel’s “Messiah” at 8 p.m. in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St.

The Mount David Summit is an opportunity for students to share recent research, service-learning and creative work. Climate change, health and disease, education, international relations and social justice feature prominently in student research this year. More than 100 research posters in two sessions represent work in anthropology, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, environmental studies, English, French, geology, history, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, politics, psychology, Russian and theater.

Here’s a look at some summit presentations, held in Pettengill except as noted:

A panel of students from the Balkans discuss implications of the recently declared independence of Kosovo;

Working with visiting playwright and performance artist Tim Collins, 32 students in Eric Hoogland’s politics course “U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East” present an original play exploring what could happen if oil were discovered in the Gaza Strip (Pettigrew Hall, Gannett Theater);

Three students read their poetry, and others offer literary criticism in genres ranging from Arthurian legend to Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri;

Library Horror Movie, a film made by students in the first-year seminar “Film Art,” is screened;

Students in the course “Mapping and GIS” present posters on a range of topics they analyzed using global positioning technology, from the tsunami threat in the Pacific Northwest to voting patterns in the U.S. presidential primaries.

The event title “Mount David” is borrowed from a Bates landmark: the wooded rocky outcropping at the corner of Mountain Avenue and College Street.

See a full summit schedule.