Emily J.M. Knox, interim dean and professor at the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present “Book Banning in the 21st Century” at Boston College on October 14 at 7 p.m. in Devlin 110. Knox has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on book banning and is author of Book Banning in 21st-Century America (Bloomsbury). First published in 2015, with a second edition earlier this year, Book Banning examines contemporary cases of book challenges in schools and public libraries across the United States. Knox’s scholarly work focuses on information access, intellectual freedom and censorship. She also is the author of the award-winning book Foundations of Intellectual Freedom and a former editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy. Her lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by Boston College Libraries, the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and the Communication Department. The event is free and open to the public, but advance registration is required.
Emily Knox on book banning
‘The Taste of Rain in Buenos Aires’
When a vision disorder stole his ability to read, 2005 Boston College graduate Will Dowd found himself exiled from the world of books—until he discovered an unusual path back through the landscape of dreams. Armed with an experimental dream-inception device from MIT, Dowd embarked on a yearlong odyssey into his own unconscious. His new book, The Taste of Rain in Buenos Aires (Etruscan Press, 2026), chronicles 20 dream narratives born from this first-of-its-kind experiment. Part literary experiment, part exploration of consciousness, The Taste of Rain in Buenos Aires reveals how dreams, like books, can become portals to other worlds. A regular editorial cartoonist for The Boston Globe, Dowd’s writing and artwork have appeared in The Washington Post, NPR, The Boston Globe Magazine, Lithub, and elsewhere. He is a poetry editor for Post Road Magazine. Dowd’s previous book, Areas of Fog, was named a Massachusetts Book Award “Must Read.”
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‘From Suffrage to Sisterhood’
Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College Senia Pašeta studies the intersection of Irish women’s political and social activism with the Irish nationalism that took root in the late 19th century, and ultimately sparked Irish independence from Great Britain in 1922. A professor of modern history at the University of Oxford, Pašeta is the author of Modern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction, Irish Nationalist Women 1900-1918, and Before the Revolution: Nationalism, Social Change and Ireland’s Catholic Elite, 1879-1922. Her current book project scheduled for release next year, Political Women in Ireland, 1880-1918, is a more expansive survey of women’s multifaceted political activism, its historical foundations, and adaptation to wider political challenges. Pašeta will discuss her research on the continuity and transformation in Irish feminism at the Burns Scholar Lecture on September 30 in the Burns Library Thompson Room at 6 p.m. (preceded by a 5 p.m. reception). Her lecture, “From Suffrage to Sisterhood: A History of Feminism in Modern Ireland,” is free and open to the public. Learn more at BC News.
A mystery in Massachusetts
Boston College graduate Stephen Paul Sayers’ new book, Beneath Still, Dark Water (Milford House Press, 2026), is a haunting suspense novel set against the backdrop of a divisive historical event in Massachusetts: the forced displacement of 2,500 Swift River Valley residents to build the Quabbin Reservoir. In 1938, homes and businesses are burned to the ground as the state prepares to create the reservoir. A once-thriving community becomes a ghost town. Then a local girl disappears. But secrets have a way of floating to the surface. Twenty-five years later, Harrison “Brick” Bricker’s alcohol-ravaged memories begin to return, forcing him to confront what really happened before the dark waters settled over the place he once called home. Sayers is on the faculty at the University of Missouri. His previous works include The Carousel Man and the Caretakers trilogy.
Meet Kuro
A little black cat named Kuro introduces children to Latin American and Caribbean cultures in the bilingual book, Mi Familia Cubana con Kuro/My Cuban Family with Kuro by Yvette Ramirez. Readers will go on an adventure and learn about the customs, foods, and music of Kuro’s Cuban/Salvadoran family. A 2012 Boston College graduate, Ramirez is founder of Kuro Libros, which is dedicated to empowering parents and children to engage with Latin American and Caribbean culture and language, promoting cultural acceptance and compassion. The goal is to build confidence and resilience, using Kuro the cat as a guide to help young readers understand who they are, where they came from, and how they contribute to the world.
Space for Indigenous artists
In recent years, studios like Marvel and DC have seen enormous success transforming comics into major motion pictures. At the same time, bookstores have made more room for comic books and graphic novels on their shelves. Yet despite the popular appeal of these media, Indigenous artists continue to find their work given little attention by mainstream publishers, booksellers, production houses, and academics. In his book Indigenous Comics and Graphic Novels: Studies in Genre (University Press of Mississippi, 2024), James J. Donahue, a Boston College graduate, unravels the disparities of representation in the fields of comics studies and comics publishing. Donahue documents and analyzes the works of several Indigenous artists, including Theo Tso, Todd Houseman, and Arigon Starr. The author emphasizes that the creation of artistic and critical spaces for Indigenous comics and graphic novels should be an essential concern for the comics studies field. Indigenous Comics and Graphic Novels was shortlisted for the 2025 Charles Hatfield Book Prize from the Comics Studies Society. Donahue, who earned a master’s degree from BC in 1998, is a professor of English at SUNY Potsdam, where he has taught since 2007.
The War on Terror
Boston College Assistant Professor of Communication Renée Pastel considers media representations of the “War on Terror,” notably films, television shows, and online videos, in her new book War in Pieces: “War on Terror” Media and the Fracturing of American Identity (Rutgers University Press, 2026). Focusing on the period of 2001-2013, War in Pieces points to four central figures in depictions of the conflicts: the war journalist, the active-duty service member, the veteran, and the military family. As consensus about America’s response to 9/11 ebbed, and as Americans sought to deal with various post-9/11 cultural anxieties, explains Pastel, these four main narrative figures helped uphold a continued sense of unified national identity—even as different audiences came away with divergent understandings of the war and its ramifications. Read more in BC News.
‘The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution’
Mark Peterson, the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University, will speak on his most recent book, The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History, at Boston College on September 16 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. Peterson’s narrative paints an arresting picture of a dynamic republic whose frame of government has changed enormously to meet the challenges of the modern age but whose written constitution has changed very little. The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution reveals how this widening disconnect threatens the very existence of American democracy. Peterson issues a call to action for a nation confronted by challenges its founders could never have imagined. Peterson is also the author of The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630–1865 and The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England. His lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by the History Department. The event is fee and open to the public, but advance registration is required.
Posted in Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged American history, American politics, democracy
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‘Light of the East’
Light of the East: The Calcutta School of Jesuit Indology on Hindu Advaita Non-Dualism brings together key writings of Jesuit theologians and Indologists William Wallace, Pierre Johanns, Georges Dandoy, and Michel Ledrus, missionary-scholars who played a pioneering role in early 20th-century Catholic engagement with Indian religious thought. Edited by Sean M. Doyle, the volume gathers essential primary sources—many long out of print—into a single, accessible collection, along with introductory context on the Calcutta Jesuits and their intellectual contributions. As leaders of the Calcutta School of Indology, these Jesuits developed a careful and respectful approach to Hindu spirituality and their work remains one of the most rigorous bodies of comparative theological reflection on Hindu traditions. Light of the East was published by the Institute of Jesuit Sources, which is dedicated to preserving, editing, and publishing the foundational texts and studies of Jesuit history, spirituality, and pedagogy. Since 2014, Jesuit Sources has been part of Boston College’s Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies.
Under a spell
Bestselling author Jen Calonita, a Boston College graduate, has written a new book about two sisters who happen to be witches. Practically Magic (Avon/Harper Collins, 2026) tells the story of Kat and Harriet Hadley of Mystic Hollow. Harriet casts a curse to protect Kat from heartbreak. Kat is so furious, she loses control—and every spell a Hadley witch has ever cast starts reversing. The sisters must race to repair the balance of magic—and their relationship. In its review, Publishers Weekly writes: “Tidy storytelling charmingly blends tender lessons about sisterly bonds and self-reliance with sweetly predictable romance, making for a feel-good, pumpkin-spice-latte-coded outing.” Calonita has written more than 40 books for teens and middle grade readers. Her books have sold more than a million copies and have been translated into 15 languages.
