Boston College Associate Professor of English and Irish Studies Marjorie Howes and Joseph Valente (University of Buffalo) have co-edited Irish Revival: A Complex Vision (Syracuse University Press, 2023), a collection of essays offering a nuanced reinterpretation of the Irish Revival utilizing the theoretical concept of “complexity,” recently developed in the information and biological sciences. From the publisher: “Taken as a whole, these essays show that the Revival’s various components operated as parts of a network but without any overarching aim or authority. [The volume’s] contributors examine how relationships among the Revival’s individual parts involved conflict and cooperation, difference and similarity, continuity and disruption. It is this combination of convergence without unifying purpose and divergence within a broad but flexible coherence that Valente and Howes capture by reinterpreting the Revival through complexity theory.” Howes is the author of Yeats’s Nation: Gender, Class, and Irishness and Colonial Crossings: Figures in Irish Literary History.
The Irish Revival, reconsidered
The enduring Jesuits
Historian and researcher Claudio Ferlan explores the rich tapestry of the Society of Jesus in the new book The Jesuits: A Thematic History. From roots of education to global missions and social activism, Ferlan weaves together the threads of Jesuit identity, revealing the spirit that has animated the Jesuit order. This comprehensive volume, spanning continents and epochs, offers a scholarly perspective accessible to both the seasoned academic and casual reader. The book is a product of the Institute of Jesuit Sources and its imprint, IJS Studies – Research on Jesuits and the Society of Jesus. IJS is housed at Boston College’s Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies. Ferlan discusses his book in this interview.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged history, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Jesuits, Society of Jesus
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Trey’s adventures continue
Boston College graduate Tyrese Rice, a star point guard during his years on the Heights (2005-2009), has published two more titles in his children’s book series: Trey and the German Voyage and Trey’s Spanish Extravaganza. According to Rice, his book series is “for every kid who has big dreams and a strong will to turn them into reality. These books also show children how understanding and using their experiences, good and bad, can guide them into great heights.” After graduation, Rice played professional basketball in Europe for more than 10 years. He is now CEO and founder of Trusted Legacy, which offers programs centered on empowerment, development, and performance with the aim of improving mental and physical well-being.
Risen from the Ashes
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, a human rights atrocity that left approximately one million Tutsi dead over the course of about 100 days. Marcel Uwineza, a Jesuit priest and Boston College graduate, was a young teen in Rwanda in 1994. He “illustrates the profound and enduring dynamics between the goodness and mercy of God on one hand, and the proclivity of sinful human nature to rebel against the divine call to Love God and neighbor on the other” in his memoir, Risen from the Ashes: Theology as Autobiography in Post-Genocide Rwanda (Paulines Publications Africa). During the genocide, he was beaten and his home and all his family’s belongings were burned. His two brothers and a sister were killed. In Risen from the Ashes, Fr. Uwineza reviews the history that led to the genocide against the Tutsi and recounts the painful experience of being a witness to the horrors. He also writes of his journey to the priesthood and the liberating power of forgiveness—specifically, the moment when he forgave the man who killed his siblings. Fr. Uwineza is also co-editor of Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Challenges and Hopes (Georgetown University Press, 2023), a scholarly examination of the Catholic Church’s role in the genocide against the Tutsi and its attempts at reconciliation that was drawn from a conference Fr. Uwineza co-organized in Rwanda. Fr. Uwineza graduated from Boston College with a licentiate in systematic theology, master’s in theology, and Ph.D. in systematic theology. He currently serves as principal (president) of Hekima University College in Kenya. Read more in BC News.
Theology and imagination
Sense of the Possible by Callid Keefe-Perry offers an introduction to the ways in which theologians have thought about imagination—the powerful human capacity to envision a future that has not yet come. Containing perspectives from Scripture, theology, philosophy, and congregational studies, Sense of the Possible explores how it is that imagination can be part of a faithful Christian life. Each chapter comes with recommended readings and discussion questions that can be used in churches or classrooms. Keefe-Perry is an assistant professor of contextual education and public theology at the Clough School of Theology and Ministry. He spoke about his publication in this video from BC Libraries.
The U.S. Constitution
In their new book, Keeping the Republic: A Defense of American Constitutionalism (University Press of Kansas, 2024), BC Professors of Political Science Dennis Hale and Marc Landy examine why the United States Constitution has come under fire throughout its history. Frustrated with perceived obstacles to achieving political or legislative aims, critics—from statesmen and pundits to ordinary citizens—complain that an obsolete or undemocratic Constitution hampers the process of governing. Landy and Hale argue that, by placing effective limits on the exercise of power, the Constitution is simply doing the job it was created to do: providing for a free government. According to Keeping the Republic, the key to the Constitution is that it establishes a republic, not a democracy—perhaps an underappreciated nuance but an important one, in that a republic guards individual rights against the will of the majority. The Constitution builds incentive to reach and broaden coalitions, say the authors. Keeping the Republic is the first book co-authored by Hale and Landy, longtime colleagues who have been friends since their undergraduate years at Oberlin College. Read more in BC News.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Political Science department, U.S. government
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Kinship
Kinship, a new poetry collection from Boston College Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Maxim D. Shrayer, weaves together some of the principal themes in modern Jewish history, exploring such topics as ancestry in Eastern Europe, the Shoah, antisemitism, the refusenik experience, exile, displacement and immigration, and Zionism and Israel. “Shrayer’s richly orchestrated and formally elegant verse captures with poignancy and passion what it feels like to be a Jewish poet with Soviet roots, living in America during Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine,” the publisher, Finishing Line Press, notes of the 33-poem collection. Shrayer has authored and edited more than 25 books in English and Russian, including the poetry collection Of Politics and Pandemics and the memoirs Waiting for America, Leaving Russia, and Immigrant Baggage. Read more on Shrayer and Kinship in BC News.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged English Department, Jewish Studies program, poems, poetry
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Poet Solmaz Sharif
Solmaz Sharif, author of the poetry collection Customs, will give a public reading as part of a two-day residency at Boston College. Her reading will take place on April 25 in Devlin 101 beginning at 5 p.m. Look, an earlier poetry collection from Sharif, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award and the winner of the 2017 American Book Award for poetry. Sharif’s work has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review, the New York Times, and other publications. Her work has been recognized with a “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize, Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, and Holmes National Poetry Prize from Princeton University. She is currently the Shirley Shenker Assistant Professor of English at University of California, Berkeley. Sharif’s BC residency is co-sponsored by the American Studies Program, English Department, Literature Core and Institute for the Liberal Arts.
The gift of life
Tom O’Keefe, a 1995 Boston College graduate, has run the Boston Marathon five times. After noting a lack of diversity among the participants in various marathons and road races, he founded Stride for Stride, a non-profit organization dedicated to making races more accessible and diverse. Stride for Stride buys race bibs for immigrant, BIPOC, and low-income runners and since its launch in 2018 has grown to a team of more than 350 runners from some 25 countries. One of these Stride for Stride runners, Jorge Rosales, gave O’Keefe a life-giving gift earlier this year. Rosales donated a kidney to O’Keefe, who was living with end-stage chronic kidney disease. O’Keefe details the heartwarming story in the new book, Kindness: How a Simple Act of Kindness Can Save Your Life. More on their story from Boston’s ABC affiliate WCVB.
Growing up awkward in the ’80s
Fans of 1980s nostalgia and coming-of-age stories will find lots to like in Misfit (Flatiron Books/Macmillan, 2023), a memoir written by comedian Gary Gulman, who graduated from Boston College in 1993. In Misfit, Gulman takes readers through his school-age years, with stories about his family, neighbors, teachers, heroes, antagonists, and, generally, about being an awkward kid in the suburbs of Boston in the 1980s. Gulman, who has performed his comedy on numerous late night TV talk shows, is the creator of the acclaimed HBO comedy special, “The Great Depresh.” He spoke about his book on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” and with Vanity Fair, among other media outlets.
BC Bookmarks 