Jessica Harris, a professor at Queens College and an expert in African American foodways, speaks at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives at Bates College, 70 Campus Ave.

Titled Cane Confluences: Sugar and Slaves in the Caribbean and Louisiana, the lecture is sponsored by the Multicultural Center and is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-8376.

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John Corrie directs the Bates College Choir.

A choral work popular for its drama and earthy power, Orff's Carmina Burana will be performed by the Bates College Choir, directed by John Corrie, at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall at Bates College, 75 Russell St.

Admission is free, but tickets are required. For more information, contact 207-786-6135 or this E-mail. (more...)

Robert Moses of The Algebra Project. Photo: Geri Reinhart Tse/National Visionary Leadership Project

Civil rights activist and noted mathematician Robert Moses offers two lectures at Bates College on Wednesday, Dec. 2.

Sponsored by the mathematics department in conjunction for the second year with the Multicultural Center, and with other offices at Bates, both lectures are open to the public at no cost. However, an RSVP is required because of limited seating. Please RSVP to Heidi Howard at 207-753-6993 or this E-mail by Monday, Nov. 30. (more...)

Bates physicist Nathan Lundblad

Assistant Professor of Physics Nathan Lundblad is the first member of the Bates College faculty to receive a Defense Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

Sponsored by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the grant is for $388,088 over three years. It will fund Lundblad's research into atomic activity at ultralow temperatures. Bates is the only liberal arts school in the nation and the only academic institution in Maine to receive a DEPSCoR grant this year. (more...)

"As a black African dancer, I am constantly expected to conform to stereotypical perceptions of the Western world and of African traditionalists. Africa is widely perceived on the one hand as a war zone ravaged by the Aids pandemic and poverty and on the other hand as exotic, colourful and primitive. I propose to deconstruct this stereotype through my personal history, my work as a performer and choreographer living in a city and my research on urban popular contemporary intercultural dance forms." Gregory Maqoma

In its first-ever concert held during the academic year, the internationally acclaimed Bates Dance Festival collaborated with the Bates College Concerts Committee to present Beautiful Me by the renowned South African company Vuyani Dance Theatre on Oct. 16 in Bates College's Schaeffer Theatre. The performance kicked off the troupe's North American tour.

A global fusion of rousing live music sets the pace for this solo tour de force by the exquisite dancer and choreographer Gregory Maqoma, a rising star on South Africa's dance and theater scene. Beautiful Me speaks honestly about the profound task of finding one's authentic voice and redefining our notion of postmodern African choreography.

During his week in residence at Bates, Maqoma and his company members -- Isaac Katlego Molelekoa; violin; Mandla Madienkosi Nhlapo, percussion; Bongani Kunene, cello; and Poorvi Bhana, sitar -- offered a noonday concert, gave master dance workshops, spoke to music and anthropology classses and with members of Amandla!, and met with faculty members whose teaching focuses on Africa.

For a glimpse of his experience at Bates, watch the following short video.

Each year, close to 90 percent of Bates students applying to medical or veterinary schools gain admission. That record of success is due in part to the work by Lee Abrahamsen, associate professor of biology and chair of the college's medical studies committee.

Because of her own experiences in college, Abrahamsen keenly understands that as students change and grow, they need help adjusting their career plans. "Sometimes we don’t think about what they’re capable of thinking and understanding in their freshman year versus their senior year."

Learn more about Abrahamsen and medical studies at Bates by watching a short video.

Robert Friedman '11 will go to Copenhagen to lobby for strict carbon-emission standards.

Robert Friedman, a Bates College junior, is one of 18 college students nationwide set to lobby international climate treaty negotiators next month on behalf of a Sierra Club youth organization.

An environmental studies major from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., Friedman will attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec. 7-18. Friedman is part of a delegation from the Sierra Student Coalition, a network of high school and college-aged environmental activists affiliated with the Sierra Club. (more...)

Russell Milholland and William Loopesko with their canoe and Durango. Photo courtesy of William Loopesko.

More than 100 years later, the Yukon River still bears the evidence of the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush: abandoned cabins, mining equipment, even shoes still scattered along the way.

Last summer, two Bates seniors set out to experience this historic episode first-hand. They retraced the fortune hunters' trail along the Yukon, from Lake Bennett in Canada across Alaska to the Bering Sea — a distance of nearly 2,000 miles, covered by foot and canoe. (more...)

The Lewiston Sun Journal, under the headline "War veteran attending Bates has heart still in Afghanistan," profiles Jared Golden '11, a Marine veteran from nearby Leeds who served in Iraq and Afghanistan before coming to Bates. A history and politics major, Golden returned to Afghanistan last summer to teach school. He tells about seeing a young girl who, because she attends school, had battery acid thrown on her face. Golden believes that without more U.S. military help, "there'd be more kids like her." View story from Sun-Journal, Nov. 9, 2009.

Timothy Fox '11, left, portrays Hamlet and Kevin Chambers '10 is Iago in the Bates theater department production of "All the World's a Grave."

Bates College presents John Reed's All the World's a Grave, a new play weaving together some of Shakespeare's most compelling characters and language, in performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday, Nov. 12-13 and 15-16, and at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15, in Schaeffer Theatre, 305 College St.

Professor of Theater Paul Kuritz directs this theater department production. Admission is $6 general admission and $3 for senior citizens and non-Bates students. For more information, please visit www.batestickets.com or call 207-786-6161.

Playwright John Reed holds a public "talkback" at 4 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, in Schaeffer Theatre. His visit is sponsored by the college Learning Associates program. (more...)