Best-selling author Kanan Makiya, professor of Middle Eastern studies at Brandeis University, will speak about his new book, The Rope (Pantheon Books, 2016), on Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. in McGuinn Auditorium. The Rope is unflinching novel about Iraqi failure in the wake of the 2003 American invasion, as seen through the eyes of a Shi‘ite militiaman whose participation in the execution of Saddam Hussein changes his life in ways he could never have anticipated. Makiya is also the author of Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq, The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem, and Cruelty and Silence: War, Tyranny, Uprising, and the Arab World, among other titles. A book signing will follow the lecture. Read an interview with the author in the New York Times. Sponsor: Islamic Civilization and Societies Program.
After Baghdad fell
The Francis pontificate
Richard Gaillardetz, Joseph Professor of Catholic Systematic Theology, will present “The Francis Pontificate: Historical Anomaly or the Beginning of a Postmodern Papacy?” on Nov. 10 at 5:30 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. He will talk about whether or not the first Jesuit pope is setting a new ecclesial trajectory for the ministry of the Bishop of Rome. Gaillardetz is author or co-author of several books, including Keys to the Council: Unlocking the Teaching of Vatican II; An Unfinished Council: Vatican II, Pope Francis, and the Renewal of Catholicism, and Go Into The Streets! The Welcoming Church of Pope Francis. Sponsors: School of Theology and Ministry and the Church in the 21st Century Center.
Burns Scholar lecture
Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies Louis de Paor will present: “Lethal in Two Languages: Flann O’Brien and Máirtín Ó Cadhain” on Nov. 9 at 4:30 p.m. in the Thompson Room of Burns Library. De Paor’s talk will focus on the parallels and differences between two of Ireland’s most accomplished writers and contrarians, on the historical context in which they emerged, and their contributions to world literature. De Paor’s published works include an anthology of 20th-century poetry in Irish, Coiscéim na haoise seo, co-edited with Seán Ó Tuama, a critical edition of the poems of Liam S Gógan, Míorúilt an chleite chaoin, and Leabhar na hAthghabhála, a bilingual anthology of 20th-century poetry in Irish with English translations. A reception in the Irish Room of the Burns Library will follow his lecture. An RSVP is requested. Sponsors: Center for Irish Programs and the Burns Library.
Minding the gap
One of the country’s leading experts on the mindset of today’s college students, Jean Twenge, will present “Minding the Gap: What generational data can tell us about mental health, happiness, and resilience among today’s college students” on Nov. 7 at 3 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. Twenge is the author of the groundbreaking books Generation Me: Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before and The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement (co-authored with W. Keith Campbell). Her research on today’s youth, which has been covered in Time, Newsweek, the New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, and the Washington Post, is based on a dataset of 11 million young people throughout the U.S. She is professor of psychology at San Diego State University. Sponsor: the Division of Student Affairs.Going back home
Professor of English Elizabeth Graver, author of The End of the Point and other novels, has written an essay for Tablet magazine about taking her nearly 80-year-old mother back to her childhood home in Queens, NY. Graver and her mother made an unexpected connection with the family living in the bungalow in Cambria Heights.
Isolation and justice
Judith Resnik, the Arthur Liman Professor of Law at Yale Law School, will present “Not Isolating Isolation: Whippings, Solitary Confinement, Prisoner Disenfranchisement, and the Bounding of Licit Punishment” on Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. in Barat House on the BC’s Newton Campus. Resnik is an award-winning scholar and author who teaches federalism, procedure, courts, prisons, equality, citizenship, feminism, and local and global interventions to diminish inequalities and subordination. Her publications include Representing Justice: Invention, Controversy, and Rights in City-States and Democratic Courtrooms (with Dennis Curtis); Federal Courts Stories (co-edited with Vicki C. Jackson), and Migrations and Mobilities: Citizenship, Borders, and Gender (co-edited with Seyla Benhabib). Resnik is the founding director of the Arthur Liman Program, which joined with the Association of State Correctional Administrators in publishing Time-in- Cell: The Liman-ASCA 2014 National Survey of Administrative Segregation in Prison, a report on both the numbers of people and the conditions in solitary confinement nationwide. Resnik is a recipient of the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the Commission on Women of the American Bar Association; the Outstanding Scholar of the Year Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation; the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Prize, awarded to outstanding faculty in higher education in the fields of psychology or law, and the Arabella Babb Mansfield Award, the highest honor presented by the National Association of Women Lawyers. Sponsor: Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy.
Roots of Gothic fiction
Jim Shanahan of Dublin City University will present “Suffering Rebellion: Ireland and the Roots of Gothic Fiction” on Nov. 2 at 4:00 p.m. in Connolly House on Hammond Street. Shanahan has published widely on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction, with particular emphasis on Irish historical fiction relating to the 1798 rebellion, and the novels of Charles Lever. He has also contributed articles to the Literary Encyclopedia Online and more than 120 articles to the Dictionary of Irish Biography. Sponsor: Center for Irish Programs. RSVP requested.
Disability bioethics
Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, co-director of the Disability Studies Initiative at Emory University, will present “Disability Bioethics: Toward Theory and Practice” on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. in the Murray Room of Yawkey Center. Garland-Thomson, who is a professor of English at Emory, is an expert in the fields of disability studies, American literature and culture, bioethics, and women’s studies. Her work develops the field of critical disability studies in the health humanities, broadly understood, to bring forward disability access, inclusion and identity to communities inside and outside of the academy. She is the author of Staring: How We Look and Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American Culture and Literature, and editor of Freakery: Cultural Spectacles of the Extraordinary Body. Her current book project is “Habitable Worlds: Toward a Disability Bioethics.” Sponsor: Park Street Corporation Speaker Series.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged disability, ethics, Institute for the Liberal Arts, Park Street Series
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Undocumented and coming of age in America
Roberto Gonzales, author of Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America, will give a lecture as part of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice’s conversation series “After Obama: What is the future of our ‘Nation of Immigrants’?” Gonzales’ talk will be on Nov. 3 at noon in Campion Hall, room 139. His book is the result of a 12-year project following 150 teens and young adults in the Los Angeles area and detailing how their lives are shaped and stunted by their lack of legal status. RSVP Required. | NBC News interview with Gonzales
Daniel
Professor of German Studies Michael Resler has published Daniel Von Dem Blühenden Tal, a critical edition of Daniel, one of the earliest post-classical Arthurian romances. His volume includes the normalized Middle High German text with an introduction, selected bibliography, index of proper names, and a reproduction of the first verse of the original manuscript. Resler spoke about the story of Daniel with Jonas Barciauskas of BC Libraries.
BC Bookmarks 