An article BC alumnus John Smolens read about World War II prisoner-of-war camps in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula planted the seed for his latest novel, Wolf’s Mouth (Michigan State University Press, 2016) . “Like most Americans, I didn’t have a clue that there were POW camps in the states at all,” he told the Lansing State Journal. Wolf’s Mouth tells the story of Italian officer Captain Francesco Verdi, who is captured in 1944 by Allied forces in North Africa and shipped to a POW camp in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. His life threatened, Verdi escapes from the camp and meets up with an American woman who helps him elude capture. By 1956 they have become Frank and Claire Green, a young married couple building a new life in postwar Detroit. But when he is tracked down, Frank is faced with hard choices as he strives to escape the ghosts of history. Smolens’ other novels include The Anarchist, The Schoolmaster’s Daughter and The Invisible World. He is a retired professor from Northern Michigan University. Read more.
An escape from a POW camp in Michigan
Book review: Prophecy Without Contempt
In a book review for Commonweal magazine, Libby Professor of Law and Theology Cathleen Kaveny’s Prophecy without Contempt: Religious Discourse in the Public Square (Harvard University Press, 2016) is called “important and path-breaking.” The reviewer goes on to write: “The place of religious discourse in the American public square has received much attention for many years, but the role of prophetic indictment has been largely overlooked. Kaveny’s book not only opens a ‘new front’ in these debates, but starts the conversation with a rich analysis of the history and function of prophetic discourse and a carefully developed normative framework to guide its use. The interdisciplinary work that informs Kaveny’s book is especially impressive. As an ethicist and legal academic, Kaveny draws on resources from these disciplines, and she also integrates sophisticated analyses of American history, biblical scholarship, and literary criticism.”
Mergers and Acquisitions
Law School Associate Professor Brian JM Quinn’s latest textbook Mergers and Acquisitions: Law, Theory, and Practice (West Academic Publishing) is poised to change the way that transactional law is taught in U.S. law schools by immersing students in a deal environment. The textbook, co-authored with Claire Hill and Steven Davidoff Solomon, focuses on a number of recent high profile deals to teach students about the basics of mergers and acquisitions, as well as the tools to negotiate and document the best deal for their clients. “The idea behind this book is that law students and young lawyers not only have to know the law of mergers and acquisitions, but that they also have to understand the practice of law and doing the deal,” Quinn told BC Law magazine. “Being an M&A lawyer requires not only a knowledge of the law—the statutes, cases, and regulations—but it also requires that the lawyer understand the document, how it’s negotiated and, ultimately, how it actually gets litigated.” More from BC Law magazine.
Genovese awarded O’Hare Fellowship
Nick Genovese, a member of the Class of 2016, has been awarded a Joseph A. O’Hare, S.J., Postgraduate Writing Fellowship. Presented by America Media, the O’Hare Fellows will spend a year at America’s offices in Manhattan editing and developing editorial content for its multi-media platform ministry, fostering their own journalistic skills and abilities, and engaging with high-profile members of the journalistic and communications community. One of three inaugural O’Hare Fellows, Genovese says he has deep passion for the disciplines of theology and filmmaking. He hopes to bring the Jesuit, Catholic ideals from his BC experience out into the world as a way to pursue God’s greater glory. At America, he plans to use his gifts as an avid storyteller and creator of multi-platform content to help build bridges between the Catholic Church and secular society at large. “At the conclusion of the program, these O’Hare Fellows will be uniquely suited to pursue successful careers in the Catholic media or other forms of professional journalism,” said Matt Malone, S.J., president and editor in chief of America Media. America Media’s announcement of the O’Hare Fellows.
Consumers opting out
Digital and mobile technology has created a brand new world of possibilities for consumers—and a more challenging one for marketers, according to a new book by Carroll School of Management Associate Professor Jerry Smith. In The Opt-Out Effect: Marketing Strategies that Empower Consumers and Win Customer-Driven Brand Loyalty, Smith says businesses are no longer in control of their relationship with consumers and instead are confronting the “opt-out effect” of would-be buyers who are empowered by search knowledge, mobile agility and social media. Two-thirds of customers opt out of email and pop-up ads while a third update their preferences to block such communications. Brand marketers ignore these trends at their own peril, according to Smith. Read more from BC News.
American illustrator
Garth Williams’ illustrations are an essential part of such classic children’s literature as Stuart Little, Charlotte’s Web, The Cricket in Time’s Square, and the Little House books. English Department faculty members Elizabeth K. Wallace and James D. Wallace have captured the life and times of the beloved illustrator in Garth Williams, American Illustrator: A Life (Beaufort Books, 2016) —the first full biography of Williams written with the help and cooperation of his family. According to the authors, the man behind the illustrations had an extraordinary existence including winning sculpture awards at the Royal College of Art in London and living abroad in the United Kingdom, Italy and Mexico. Elizabeth Wallace recently wrote a Boston Globe piece about the cultural imprint left by Williams. | The authors wrote about the book project for BookPage.
Shangri La
Waterscapes: Islamic Architecture and Art from Doris Duke’s Shangri La is a fully illustrated publication by Boston College professors Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair (with Shangri La conservator Kent Severson) that accompanies an exhibition of the same title on display at Rough Point, Duke’s home in Newport, RI. Presented by the Newport Restoration Foundation, the exhibition and publication explore Duke’s love of the water and her love of Islamic art and architecture, which fused together spectacularly at Shangri La, her exotic ocean front estate in Honolulu. Bloom and Blair, experts in Islamic art who jointly hold the Norma Jean Calderwood University Professorship of Islamic and Asian Art at BC, serve as guest curators for the exhibition.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged architecture, Fine Arts Department, Islamic art
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Honor for alumna
Cristina Richie, who earned a master’s degree in 2012 and will graduate this month with a doctorate in theological ethics, has been honored with the 2016 Evangelical Press Association, Higher Goals in Christian Journalism First Place Student Writer of the Year Award for her article “Diet and Cross-Religious Witness,” Africanus Journal 7, no. 1 (2015): 25-33. Richie is slated to take a position as the Arny and Anne Porath Clinical Ethics Fellow at the UCLA Health Ethics Center this summer.
Ethics of Discernment
A new book by Professor of Philosophy Patrick H. Byrne has been called the first detailed exposition of an ethical theory based on eminent 20th century philosopher Bernard Lonergan, S.J.’s method of self-appropriation. In The Ethics of Discernment: Lonergan’s Foundation for Ethics (University of Toronto Press, 2016), Byrne argues that self-appropriation can be used to come to objective judgments of value. According to the publisher, The Ethics of Discernment is an introspective analysis of that process, in which sustained ethical inquiry and attentiveness to feelings as “intentions of value” leads to a rich conception of the good. Byrne is director of BC’s Lonergan Center, which houses a wide-ranging collection of Lonergan’s published and unpublished works, together with monographs, dissertations, and articles about Lonergan, as well as books and periodicals relevant to his scholarship.
Moscow memories
Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Maxim D. Shrayer, who came to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1987, recalls a spring day in Moscow more than 30 years ago, a friendship, and a longing to be somewhere else, in “Memories of Our Lost Soviet Youth,” an essay for Tablet magazine. A bilingual writer and translator, Shrayer is the author of Waiting for America: A Story of Emigration, Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story and Yom Kippur in Amsterdam, among other titles.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Slavic and Eastern Languages Dept, Soviet Union
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BC Bookmarks 