Category Archives: Boston College Authors
Exhortation and advice
Francesco Sacchini (1570–1625) was a much-respected rhetorician, biographer, and official historian of the Society of Jesus. At his death, he left behind two essays—The Protrepticon (“exhortation”) and the Paraenesis (“advice”)—valuable, ever-ready resources for those assigned to teach the younger students … Continue reading
Key to student engagement
Education experts Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves have written a new book aimed at educators looking to promote active engagement in the classroom and improve student learning. Based on examples from seven years of research, Five Paths of Student Engagement: … Continue reading
Alliance politics
Accommodative wedge strategy, a form of divisive statecraft and diplomacy designed to isolate adversaries from allies and potential supporters through inducements, is a powerful tool in the international politics arsenal. In his new book, The Power to Divide: Wedge Strategies … Continue reading
Faculty authors honored
Faculty in the Philosophy and Theology departments have been honored for their work by organizations recognizing outstanding Catholic books, magazines, newspapers, and other communications vehicles. The Catholic Media Association (formerly Catholic Press Association) … Continue reading
Spotlight on overlooked books
Writers Elizabeth Graver and Carlo Rotella, both professors in the English Department, have contributed essays to the new book B-Side Books: Essays on Forgotten Favorites (Columbia University Press, 2021). Edited by John Plotz of Brandeis University, B-Side Books pays homage … Continue reading
The end of religious empires and the rise of the modern state
Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State (Princeton University Press, 2021), a new book by Boston College Professor of Political Science Jonathan Laurence, explores the surprising similarities in the rise and fall of the Islamic and … Continue reading
Pandemic parenting
Education professors from across the country who have been parenting school-aged kids during COVID contributed first-person essays for a new book, co-edited by Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Rebecca Lowenhaupt and George Theoharis of Syracuse University. According … Continue reading
Catherine the Great, a Dutch Golden Age masterpiece, and a shipwreck
In 1771, a merchant ship out of Amsterdam, Vrouw Maria, crashed off the stormy Finnish coast, taking her historic cargo to the depths of the Baltic Sea. The vessel was delivering a dozen Dutch masterpiece paintings—including The Nursery by Rembrandt’s … Continue reading
Christianity’s earliest mystic
In the new book Paul: Christianity’s Premier Apostolic Mystic (Cascade Books, 2021), Boston College Professor Emeritus of Theology Harvey Egan, S.J., a renowned scholar of Christian mysticism, writes about Saint Paul the Apostle, Christianity’s earliest mystic. Fr. Egan focuses on … Continue reading
Writings from Maxim D. Shrayer
BC Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Maxim D. Shrayer writes about his foray into the labyrinth of Russian bureaucracy in the essay “A Return to Kafka” for Tablet, a daily online magazine of Jewish news, ideas, and culture. … Continue reading