Students representing 25 Boston-area colleges and universities will read from their own poetry at the annual Greater Boston Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Festival at BC on Apr. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Yawkey Center’s Murray Function Room. Senior Kwesi Aaron, a major in English and political science, was selected as BC’s representative poet and will present “North of the City,” which he wrote as a response—“a defense of city life”—to John Updike’s “Coming Into New York.” “For me, poetry is the most raw way of distilling emotion into words. When I write poems, words usually come to me in a flurry. I enjoy the process of tidying up those subconscious thoughts enough so that they may mean something to someone else as well,” said Aaron. The festival is sponsored by Poetry Days and Boston College Magazine. More from BC News
Greater Boston Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Festival
Mayor’s memoir
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. Pothole Confidential: My Life as Mayor of Minneapolis (University of Minnesota Press, 2016) takes readers into the highs and lows and the daily drama of a Ryback’s life, which has been inextricably linked with Minneapolis for 50 years. A former journalist, Rybak offers a candid account of the challenges and crises confronting the city, including the collapse of the I-35W bridge, the rise of youth violence, and the fight over a ban on gay marriage. More from Minnesota Public Radio
Citizen poets of Boston
This month marks the launch of The Citizen Poets of Boston: A Collection of Forgotten Poems, 1789–1820 (University Press of New England), an anthology of poetry created during the country’s post-revolution days. The poetry—the work of a generation of virtually forgotten poets who created an intimate and interactive literary culture in Boston–was recovered through the efforts of Boston College students working on a research project led by Professor of English Paul Lewis. A book launch and panel discussion will be held April 14 from 4 to 6 p.m. in O’Neill Library’s Reading Room. According to alumnus Harrison Kent, this project “gave us the opportunity to rediscover pieces of literature that practically no one had seen for hundreds of years, which is obviously an amazing project for an undergraduate student. It was as much an archaeological dig as it was a study in literature, which is what made discovering these lost treasures so fun and exciting. It’s a truly singular piece of academia, and I’m very glad that we get to share our favorite findings with the rest of Boston—and the world.” Read more in BC News.
Posted in Boston College Authors, Students
Tagged American Studies program, English Department, poetry
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The War on Poverty
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 Dept. book event
English Department faculty members Suzanne Berne and Christopher Boucher will read from their new novels on Apr. 12 at 5 p.m. in Stokes Hall, RoomS195. Boucher’s latest novel, Golden Delicious (Melville House, 2016), is a modern, inventive story about the trials of a family from Appleseed, Massachusetts. According to Booklist, “Boucher’s second novel solidifies him as a master of evoking compassion through absurd, shape- shifting landscapes … As wacky as it is recognizable, [his] capricious world filled with delightful wordplay is strikingly vivid, funny, and moving.” Boucher’s first novel was How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive. Berne, who was awarded the Orange Prize for her first novel, A Crime in the Neighborhood, satires middle-class America in her latest novel, The Dogs of Littlefield [Read more in the 2/2/16 BC Bookmarks post.] Sponsor: English Department.
Reframing educational research
Decolonizing Educational Research (Routledge) by Lynch School of Education Associate Professor Leigh Patel examines the ways through which coloniality manifests in contexts of knowledge and meaning making, specifically within educational research and formal schooling. Purposefully situated beyond popular deconstructionist theory and anthropocentric perspectives, Patel’s book investigates the longstanding traditions of oppression, racism, and white supremacy that are systemically reseated and reinforced by learning and social interaction. Through her explorations into the unfixed and often interrupted narratives of culture, history, place and identity, a bold and hopeful vision emerges of how research in secondary and higher education institutions might break free of colonial genealogies and their widespread complicities. Patel also is the author of Youth Held at the Border: Immigration, Education, and the Politics of Inclusion.
Rankings gone global
Based on a unified case methodology of 11 key countries and academic institutions, The Global Academic Rankings Game (Routledge, 2016) provides expert analysis on how academic rankings are becoming increasingly visible and influential on the international stage. The volume is co-edited by Lynch School of Education Research Professor Philip Altbach, founding director of the Center for International Higher Education, CIHE Associate Director Laura Rumbley and Maria Yudkevich. Each chapter provides an overview of government and national policies as well as an in-depth examination of the impact that rankings have played on policy, practice, and academic life in Australia, Chile, China, Germany, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Poet Afaa Michael Weaver
Award-winning poet Afaa Michael Weaver will give a talk on Apr. 6 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. He has published more than 10 poetry collections, including City of Eternal Spring, winner of 2015 Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and The Government of Nature, winner of the 2014 Kingsley Tufts Award. A former factory worker and son of a sharecropper, Weaver covers a broad range of topics in his poetry, including family dynamics, childhood trauma, American history and culture, and Chinese and Asian culture and philosophies. Weaver has also earned a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, Fulbright Award and multiple Pushcart prizes. He is the Alumnae Professor of English at Simmons College. Sponsors: Lowell Humanities Series and Poetry Days. Read more about Weaver and his role in the upcoming Greater Boston Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Festival in Boston College News.
Dorothy Day
During his visit to the US last fall, Pope Francis cited activist Dorothy Day as an inspirational American for her social activism and her passion for justice. Alumnus Tom McDonough has written a new book about Day, focusing on her first job in journalism. An Eye for Others, Dorothy Day, Journalist 1916-1917 (Clemency Press, 2016) includes the 36 articles written by Day for The New York Call, her workplace during the time leading up to America’s entry into World War I. The book also includes Day’s later reflections on that time and perspectives from some of her friends. Read an excerpt of McDonough’s book.
Kaveny on religion, language and public life
There are two new books from Darald and Juliet Libby Professor Cathleen Kaveny, who is a faculty member in both the Theology Department and Boston College Law School. In Prophecy Without Contempt (Harvard University Press, 2016), Kaveny looks at the endurance of the jeremiad—a fiery brand of political rhetoric inspired by religious belief, from which it draws both linguistic style and moral substance. To employ prophetic indictment in political speech is to claim to speak from a position of unassailable authority—whether invested by God, reason, or common sense—in order to accuse opponents of violating a fundamental law. At its best, prophetic indictment can unify opposing political groups, according to Kaveny. Martin Luther King, Jr. exemplifies the use of prophetic rhetoric to facilitate reform and reconciliation rather than revenge. At its worst, prophetic indictment divides and punishes.
Kaveny’s other book, A Culture of Engagement: Law, Religion, and Morality (Georgetown University Press, 2016), a collection of her columns for Commonweal magazine, examines the need to recognize the viewpoints of religious tradition and secular, liberal democratic tradition can meet for substantive, critical and collaborative discussions about the issues of the day. “Over the years as I wrote these columns, I focused on topical issues of the day and often they were infused with certain social, political or cultural tensions,” says Kaveny. “I’m interested in how in today’s society you are supposed to engage as a religious person who is an American and who takes seriously the claims on moral positions in a person’s life.” Read more about both books in the Boston College Chronicle.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Boston College Law School, religion, Theology Department
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