Endowed Chairs

The Alice Swanson Esty Professorship of Music

The Alice Swanson Esty Professorship of Music was established from a 1997 gift to the College by Alice Swanson Esty, Class of 1925. In celebration of her love of music and her longstanding commitment to Bates, the gift supports a professor of music. The professorship recognizes faculty who are exceptional in teaching, scholarship, and service. 

Dale E. Chapman, Professor of Music

Professor Dale Chapman arrived at Bates in 2004 after a fellowship at Mount Allison University, Canada. His research has focused upon the cultural and political significance of musical style, examining the means through which genres such as jazz, techno, and hip hop produce social meanings in the act of performance. More specifically, he is interested in the relationship between music and political economy, in the ways that musical practices are intimately bound up with broader socioeconomic processes and dynamics. His research has appeared in the Journal of the Society for American Music, Popular Music, the Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, and in the Grove Dictionary of American Music, second edition. His most recent work is a book entitled The Jazz Bubble: Neoclassical Jazz in Neoliberal Culture.

Professor Chapman teaches courses devoted to jazz history, popular music, and African American music. His coursework is cross-listed in Africana and American Studies. In addition, he has served as chair of the Department of Music and has overseen the music programming at the college.