The story of Boston College alumnus and 9/11 hero Welles Crowther is the subject of a new book, The Red Bandanna (Penguin Press, 2016) by award-winning ESPN correspondent Tom Rinaldi. When Welles Crowther was a young boy, his father gave him a red handkerchief for his back pocket. He was always spotted with his signature accessory, even when volunteering at the local fire department. He graduated from BC in 1999 and took a finance job at the World Trade Center. After the towers fell, Welles’ parents came to accept that he was lost, but the mystery of his final hours painfully lingered. Months after the attacks, Welles’ mother read a news account from several 9/11 survivors who said they and others had been led to safety by a stranger, carrying a woman on his back, down nearly 20 flights of stairs then returning back up to search for others. The survivors never got his name, but one remembered a single detail clearly: the man was wearing a red bandanna. Rinaldi tells the inspirational account of Welles’ courageous and selfless actions on 9/11, introduces readers to some of those whose lives have been touched by Welles and shares how Welles’ red bandanna has become a symbol of strength of character and service to others. A New York native, Rinaldi is the recipient of 15 Sports Emmy awards and six Edward R. Murrow awards. Kirkus Reviews calls The Red Bandanna “a moving, deeply felt tribute to a courageous individual who sacrificed his life to save others.” | Read an excerpt in Parade magazine. | “Good Morning America” | NPR’s “Here & Now” | New York Post
Legacy of the Red Bandanna
Back to 1973
Boston College alumna Catherine Chant blends time travel, romance, and rock n’ roll in her new novel, Nothing Stays the Same. It tells the story of 16-year-old Brennan Basford who goes back in time to try to alter the life of his late dad and one-time teen idol Ronnie Basford. But, Brennan’s attempts to save his father are inadvertently wreaking havoc with the present day. It’s up to Leah Reinard to stop the boy she loves from ruining both their futures. Chant is also the author of Wishing You Were Here, a finalist in the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Contest for excellence in young adult romance, and the non-fiction work, Grow a Book: Turning Your Story Idea Into a Workable Plot.
Leading online and off
Effective school leaders see today’s myriad digital distractions—email, websites, apps, tweet—as calls to action and learning opportunities, according to Stephen J. Valentine and Reshan Richards, co-authors of Blending Leadership: Six Simple Beliefs for Leading Online and Off (Jossey-Bass, 2016). Drawing on recent research on leadership and learning, the authors’ experiences as educators, and information from education technology experts, this new book explores and unpacks six core beliefs necessary for the blended leader to succeed. Valentine, a BC alumnus, serves as the assistant head, Upper School, and director of academic leadership at Montclair Kimberley Academy in New Jersey. He is a coordinating editor of Klingbrief, a publication of the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University, a frequent contributor to Independent School magazine, and the author of Everything but Teaching.
Book review by Perkins
Professor of Theology Pheme Perkins takes a timely look at The World’s Oldest Church: Bible, Art, and Ritual at Dura-Europos, Syria by Michael Peppard in a review for America magazine. Peppard’s text offers a historical and theological reassessment of art and ritual in the oldest Christian building ever discovered, the house-church at Dura-Europos. Perkins is an author and scholar of the New Testament.
Book II of the Outcasts Series
Boston College alumnus Chuck Abdella has published the second book in his fantasy/adventure series, the Outcasts. The Darkest Forests picks up where the first installment, The Lies of Autumn, left off, following the quest of Marcus, Quintus, Octavia, Gwen, Synthyya, and Alexia to save the fractured world. New friends join the gang of heroes and the past continues to complicate the present. Abdella was interviewed by his hometown paper shortly after the publication of his first book in the Outcasts Series.
Grad student reviews Laurus
Theology Department doctoral student Nathaniel Peters reviews the award-winning book Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin (translation by Lisa C. Hayden) for Commonweal magazine. Laurus, which has won two major Russian book prizes, has been listed in the company of such works as The Name of the Rose, Kristin Lavransdatter, The Diary of a Country Priest and Brideshead Revisited. Read the review.
Essay prize in Latin American thought
The American Philosophical Association has awarded its 2016 Essay Prize in Latin American Thought to BC alumnus Sebastian Purcell for his essay “Neltilitzli and the Good Life: On Aztec Ethics.” Sponsored by the APA Committee on Hispanics, the prize is awarded to the author of the best unpublished, English-language, philosophical essay in Latin American thought. Eligible essays must contain original arguments and broach philosophical topics clearly related to the experiences of Hispanic Americans and Latinos. Purcell will be awarded a monetary prize and his essay will be published in an upcoming issue of the APA Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues in Philosophy. Purcell completed his Ph.D. in philosophy at Boston College in 2011 and is currently an assistant professor of philosophy at SUNY Cortland. His research focuses on the areas of moral, political, and Latin American philosophy; the broad aim is to give an account of the entire ethical domain through a characterization of agents, motives, goods, history, social conditions, and their relations. Purcell also is the co-coordinator of the Latino and Latin American Studies program at SUNY Cortland.
Posted in Alumni Authors, Awards/Honors
Tagged Hispanic, Latino/a, Philosophy Department
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“Citizen Kane” at 75
In America magazine, Fr. Richard A. Blake, S.J., writes about the relevance and timelessness of the film “Citizen Kane,” which had its general release to American audiences 75 years ago. Fr. Blake is a professor of film studies at BC and the author of Afterimage: The Indelible Catholic Imagination in the Works of Six American Filmmakers and Street Smart: The New York of Lumet, Allen, Scorsese and Lee, among other works.
NYT book review by Graver
Author and BC Professor of English Elizabeth Graver reviews the latest novel from award-winning writer Maggie O’Farrell for the New York Times. She writes that O’Farrell’s This Must Be the Place “though not without its fault lines, is marvelous, a contemporary and highly readable experiment whose ambitious structure both enacts and illuminates its central concern: what links and separates our 21st-century selves as we love, betray, blunder and soldier on (and back) through time.” Graver is the author of The End of the Point, The Honey Thief, and Awake, among other works.
Small Wars Journal
Small Wars Journal has published an article by alumnus Craig Noyes titled “Pragmatic Takfiris: Organizational Prioritization Along Islamic State’s Ideological Threshold.” Noyes, who earned a BA in history and an MA in political science, was a research assistant who contributed to The Project on National Movements and Political Violence at Boston College. He focuses his research on sectarianism, civil-military relations, the effectiveness of violence, and Levantine affairs. Noyes currently works in the Office of Student Services.
Posted in Alumni Authors, Boston College Authors
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