LEWISTON – Bates College has named two members of the anthropology faculty and one member of the religion faculty Dana professors.

They are Loring Danforth and Steven Kemper, Dana professors of anthropology, and John Strong, Dana professor of religion.

These professorships were established in 1966 with a matching grant from the Charles A. Dana Foundation to recognize exceptional teacher-scholars. With the additions, there are seven Dana professors at Bates.

A Lewiston resident, Danforth started at Bates in 1978. He earned his doctorate and master’s degree at Princeton University and his bachelor’s at Amherst College.

Danforth has conducted research on the Greek Civil War and on ethnic Macedonian populations. He is the author of “The Macedonian Conflict: Ethnic Nationalism in a Transnational World” and “Firewalking and Religious Healing: The Anastenaria of Greece and the American Firewalking Movement.”

Kemper, also of Lewiston, started at Bates in 1973. He earned his doctorate and master’s degree at the University of Chicago and his bachelor’s at Dartmouth College.

Kemper has made a dozen research trips to Sri Lanka and elsewhere in Asia. He wrote “The Presence of the Past” and “Buying and Believing: Sri Lankan Advertising and Consumers in a Transnational World.”

Strong, an Auburn resident who started at Bates in 1978, chairs the religion department.

He received his doctorate at the University of Chicago, his master’s degree at the Hartford Seminary Foundation and his bachelor’s at Oberlin College.

Strong’s books include “The Legend and Cult of Upagupta: Sanskrit Buddhism in North India and Southeast Asia,” “The Buddha: A Short Biography” and the forthcoming “Relics of the Buddha.”