Violence, Politics and Catholicism in Ireland (Four Courts Press, 2016) is a collection of essays that looks at the interrelated themes of Catholicism, violence and politics in the Irish context in the 19th and 20th centuries. Authored by Director of Irish Programs Oliver P. Rafferty, SJ, a professor of modern Irish and ecclesiastical history, the volume covers topics such as religious perceptions of the Famine, Cardinal Cullen’s role in shaping the ethos of Irish Catholicism and the role of memory—including religious memory—in Irish violence. Fr. Rafferty also turns his attention to the largely unsuccessful efforts expended by institutional Catholicism in trying to curb the violent propensities of the Fenians in the 19th century and the IRA in the 20th. Ironically, he contends, Catholicism had greater achievements to boast of in its influence in the British Empire as a whole than over its wayward flock in Ireland. Fr. Rafferty’s previous books include The Catholic Church and the Protestant State: Nineteenth-century Irish realities and George Tyrrell and Catholic Modernism.
In his new book, 
Johns Hopkins University Press has released the fourth edition of American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century: Social, Political, and Economic Challenges, co-edited by Research Professor and Center for International Higher Education Founding Director Philip G. Altbach, Michael N. Bastedo and Patricia J. Gumport. The volume address major changes in higher education, including the rise of organized social movements, the problem of income inequality and stratification, and the growth of for-profit and distance education. Three new chapters cover information technology, community colleges and teaching and learning. Placing higher education within its social and political contexts, the contributors discuss finance, federal and state governance, faculty, students, curriculum and academic leadership. Altbach’s chapters are “Harsh Realities: The Professoriate in the Twenty-First Century” and “Patterns of Higher Education Development.” This volume follows the publication last year of two books co-edited by Altbach and CIHE Associate Director Laura Rumbley: Academic Inbreeding and Mobility in Higher Education: Global Perspectives and Young Faculty in the Twenty-First Century: International Perspectives.
Offering a range of perspectives on internationalization in higher education from a globally dispersed group of authors, 
Alumnus Bill Plunkert, a former CIA agent featured in the book 
Students representing 25 Boston-area colleges and universities will read from their own poetry at the annual 
Alumnus R.T. Rybak, who served three terms as mayor of Minneapolis, has published a memoir about his life and time as mayor of his hometown. 
This month marks the launch of 
Christopher Jencks, the Macolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, will give a talk titled “The War on Poverty: Did We Give up Too Soon?” on Apr. 11 at 4:30 p.m. in Fulton Hall, room 230. Jencks is a member of the editorial board of the American Prospect. His recent research deals with changes in family structure over the past generation, the costs and benefits of economic inequality, the extent to which economic advantages are inherited, and the effects of welfare reform. His books include The Academic Revolution (with David Riesman); Inequality: Who Gets Ahead?; The Urban Underclass (with Paul Peterson); Rethinking Social Policy; The Homeless; and The Black White Test Score Gap (with Meredith Phillips). He is a former fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC and former editor of the New Republic. Sponsors: Institute for the Liberal Arts, Political Science Department, School of Social Work, and Sociology Department.
English Department faculty members Suzanne Berne and Christopher Boucher 
BC Bookmarks 