Stories about "Academic Life"
A day in the life of a ‘heluva building,’ Ladd Library at Bates College

Friday, April 11, 2025 10:16 am

A full day inside Bates College's Ladd Library — March 12, 2025 — reveals the quiet, the buzz, and the people who bring it to life.

Bates’ newest major, digital and computational studies, blends computer science with critique, community engagement

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 2:09 pm

Barry Lawson is a Bates computer science professor who chairs the Program…

Angela Duckworth, psychologist and author of the cultural phenomenon ‘Grit,’ to deliver 2025 Bates Commencement address

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 8:17 am

Duckworth's fellow honorary degree recipients at the May 25 Bates Commencement are trailblazing marriage equality attorney Mary Bonauto, award-winning documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson, and champion of public leadership and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.

Skills-focused ‘Tuck Business Essentials’ joins the course offerings for 2025 Short Term at Bates 

Wednesday, March 26, 2025 5:49 pm

For Bates students curious about the business world comes a Practitioner-Taught Course taught by faculty from the Tuck School of Business and led by Peter Friedman ’92, a Tuck graduate and the new course’s practitioner-in-residence.

Remembering Sylvia Hawks, 1948–2025

Tuesday, March 25, 2025 3:58 pm

Sylvia Hawks’ work resume has no gaps: Fifty-one years, all spent supporting…

CatFacts: Celebrating ‘Great Day’ success with fun facts, like a Muhammad Ali statue for Lewiston

Friday, March 14, 2025 2:39 pm

This year's Great Day was another great success for Bates and the Bates Fund

"My introduction to business was through Aristotle." -- Thomas Moser, a master craftsman whose handmade furniture beautifies public spaces around the world, explaining the importance of a liberal arts education. Students in the "Short Term Practicum: Brand Culture Building" (including Lois Masson '16 of Petit-Lancy, Switzerland, and Clarke Shipley '17 of Andover, Mass., pictured here) listened to the internationally acclaimed furniture designer as he offered them a tour of his Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers workshop in Auburn, Maine. Moser, a former speech professor and debate coach at Bates, received an honorary doctor of humane letters from the college in 2015. This course, taught by brand strategist Peter Bysshe '93, takes students behind the scenes of brand culture consultants in an effort to not only humanize intimidating large corporate cultures, but also to arm students with tools to observe, measure, and build, manage or contribute to smaller cultures in which they may find themselves after graduating.
Remembering Thomas Moser, the debate coach turned world-renowned furniture maker

Thursday, March 13, 2025 4:43 pm

A master craftsman of fine furniture and former Bates faculty member and director of debate, Thomas Moser, who died March 5 at the age of 90.

Sophie Hafter ’25 of Brooklyn, N.Y., crafts faux birch trees for upcoming performance of ‘The Seagull’ by Anton Chekov Serene but surreal: Sophie Hafter ’25 and the art of making theatrical magic How magic is made: Sophie Hafter ’25 crafts faux birch trees for upcoming performance of ‘The Seagull’ The magic touch: Sophie Hafter ’25 brings theater to life with scenic arts creations Shown in the set shop where she paints the paper that will be wrapped around cardboard to make birch trees for the Schaeffer Theatre stage; shown on Alumni Walk with her paper trees amidst the real birch trees; and then back in Schaeffer Theatre where she continues fashioning trees. Shown with Professor of French and Francophone Studies Kirk Read who performs in the play, and with director Joshua N Hsu. Konstantin is a young playwright struggling with his artistic identity and complicated relationship with his famous actor mother, Arkadina. Konstantin’s also in love with Nina, a naive aspiring actor, who’s also infatuated with the more successful writer Trigorin, Arkadina’s lover. Aspirations, family, and romantic entanglements inevitably collide, testing Konstantin and Nina’s sense of worth and purpose. Chekhov’s wry classic skillfully intertwines the ordinary with the poetic, illustrating the duality of human existence: an existence where our dreams give us the drive to move forward, but our decisions haunt us at every turn. “The Seagull” is a darkly comedic exploration of unfulfilled ambitions, unrequited love, and the bittersweet nature of artistic success. Content Warning This production includes strong sexual content, mental illness, self-harm, intentional self-injury, discussion of suicide, alcohol abuse, offstage gunshots, simulations of using tobacco, and a realistic-looking firearm prop.
As the multitalented stage manager for ‘The Seagull,’ Sophie Hafter ’25 barks up the right trees

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 10:00 am

It’s winter, but birch trees have sprouted in Schaeffer Theatre — crafted by stage manager Sophie Hafter '25, whose scenic artistry helps "The Seagull" glide between realism and the avant-garde.

Bates Faculty in the News: Feb. 28, 2025

Friday, February 28, 2025 10:08 am

English professor Therí Pickens’ new poetry collection earns praise in Library Journal, Rebecca Herzig’s research on women and facial hair informs The New York Times, and Paul Shea explains Samsung’s stock buyback strategy for Marketplace.

Let’s get reel: A sampler of Bates campus life

Friday, February 28, 2025 2:50 am

From a 50-year-old tradition to a first-year dorm room, these four reels capture the everlasting energy of the Bates campus.

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