Alumna Joan Curley has circumnavigated the globe twice and has lived in the US, Bermuda, Germany and Egypt. Her trips have inspired a series of children’s books, each based on places she has visited. Her newest title is Mary Lou and the Queen Mary 2. A lifelong educator, Curley has served as a teacher, school counselor and principal. Named Woman of the Year by the Business and Professional Women’s Club of Massachusetts, Curley earned a commission from the governor of Guam to become a member of the Ancient Order of the Chamorri (a distinguished award for service to the people of Guam) and Minister of Education recognition for educational service in Bermuda. Read more about Curley.
Taking children around the world
Ellie Lofaro
Alumna Ellie Lofaro, founder of Heart Mind & Soul Ministries, is a nationally noted speaker and teacher. She is the author of several books, including Leap of Faith: Embracing the Life God Promised You; From Battle Scars to Beauty Marks and Slices of Life: Unexpected Blessings from Everyday Life. She also co-authored, with Kathy Troccoli, Spaghetti for the Soul: A Feast of Faith, Hope and Love.
Everyday Renaissances
Revealing a Renaissance beyond Michelangelo and the Medici, Associate Professor of History Sarah Gwyneth Ross recovers the experiences of everyday men and women who were inspired to pursue literature and learning, in her new book Everyday Renaissances: The Quest for Cultural Legitimacy in Venice (Harvard University Press, 2016). Ross draws on a trove of original unpublished sources—wills, diaries, household inventories, account books, and other miscellany—to reconstruct the lives of over 100 artisans, merchants and others on the middle rung of Venetian society who embraced the ennobling virtues of a humanistic education. Ross focuses on three doctors, who, unlike priests or lawyers, had not yet rid themselves of the taint of artisanal labor, and were thus indicative of a middle class that sought to earn the respect of their peers and betters, protect and advance their families and secure honorable remembrance after death.
Lynch School educators
Lynch School of Education professors have recently served as co-editors for two important texts. Ana M. Martínez Alemán is the co-editor of Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education (Johns Hopkins University Press), which argues that critical tools and methods are central to contemporary scholarship and can have practical policy implications when brought to the study of higher education. According to the book’s contributors, critical research design and critical theories help scholars see beyond the normative models and frameworks that have long limited the understanding of students, faculty, institutions, the organization and governance of higher education, and the policies that shape the post-secondary arena. Jacqueline Lerner is a co-editor of Promoting Positive Youth Development: Lessons from the 4-H Study (Springer). Based on findings from the longitudinal 4-H study, this volume discusses how resources, such as strong relationships with parents, peers and the community, can be fostered in young people to contribute to the enhancement of their functioning throughout life.
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Tagged education, higher education, Lynch School of Education, psychology, research
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Empathy Exams
Leslie Jamison will read from her award-winning best-seller The Empathy Exams, a collection of personal essays about the possibilities, texture and limits of compassion, on Mar. 2 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. The Empathy Exams was named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The New York Times and Publishers Weekly. Jamison wrote an essay in The Guardian about responses from readers of The Empathy Exams. She is also the author of the novel, The Gin Closet, and an assistant professor at Columbia University. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series.
Jesus, a rebellious son?
BC’s Corcoran Visiting Chair in Christian-Jewish Relations Adele Reinhartz will present “A Rebellious Son? Jesus and His Mother at the Wedding in Cana (John 2)” onMar. 2 at 5:30 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. In the Gospel of John, Jesus and his mother are at a wedding in Cana. The wine runs out during the celebration. When Jesus’s mother points out the problem to her son, however, he answers in a surprising way: “Woman, what does this have to do with you and me?” This lecture will examine the exchange in the context of Jewish and Greco-Roman norms governing parent-child relationships, and considers its role in the Gospel’s overall presentation of Jesus. Reinhartz is a professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is the author of numerous books, including Befriending the Beloved Disciple: A Jewish Reading of the Gospel of John, Scripture on the Silver Screen, Jesus of Hollywood, Caiaphas the High Priest and Bible and Cinema: An Introduction. Sponsors: School of Theology and Ministry and the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning. Registration.
American identity
Jose Antonio Vargas, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and filmmaker whose work centers on the changing American identity, will speak on March 1 at 6 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Vargas is the founder of Define American, a non-profit media and culture organization that seeks to elevate the conversation around immigration and citizenship in America, and the founder and editor of #EmergingUS, a digital magazine focusing on race, immigration and identity in America that will launch this year. In 2011, he wrote a groundbreaking essay for the New York Times Magazine chronicling his life in America as an undocumented immigrant. A year later, he wrote a follow-up cover story for TIME magazine. He also produced and directed “Documented,” a documentary feature film on his undocumented experience. His writing has been published by the Philadelphia Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker. He was part of the Washington Post reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre. Sponsor: Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics.
Book review: Leaving Russia
In a book review for Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story, Boston Bibliophile calls Professor of Russian, English and Jewish Studies Maxim Shrayer‘s memoir “a searing portrait both of Soviet life as the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse and the very daunting struggles of Jewish refuseniks to carve out a life while they waited to leave.” Read more about Shrayer’s book in this 11/18/13 BC Bookmarks post.
Who are the “nones”?
Roughly one-third of younger adults now say they have no religious affiliation; but who are they and why aren’t they in church? Boston University Professor Nancy T. Ammerman will present “Who are the Nones?” on Feb. 25 at 5:30 p.m. in Simboli Hall, room 100, Brighton Campus. Her presentation will examine the demographic, political and cultural trends that have expanded the ranks of the unaffiliated, and asks what local communities of faith can do in response. Ammerman is the author of Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes: Finding Religion in Everyday Life, Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives, and Pillars of Faith: American Congregations and their Partners, among other works. Sponsor: School of Theology and Ministry. Free event registration
Gasson Prof: “What the Islamic Veil Reveals”
Gasson Professor of Political Science Pierre de Charentenay, S.J., will present “What the Islamic Veil Reveals” on Feb. 25 at noon at the Boisi Center at noon. RSVP required. Fr. de Charentenay, who was born in France, has been a member of the college of writers for the Civiltà Cattolica, the magazine of the Roman Jesuits overseen by Vatican authorities. He is a former president of the Centre Sèvres, the Paris Institute of Higher Education of the Society of Jesus, and was the chief editor of the monthly journal of the Jesuits of France, Études, from 2004 to 2012. He is the author of nine books including Les Philippines, Archipel Asiatique et Catholique, Regagner L’Europe and Les Nouvelles Frontières de Laïcité and over 500 essays featured in French and foreign journals and newspapers. The abstract for his talk is as follows: The veil that Muslim women wear is an instrument of cultural and religious identity and has no extreme connotation within Islam. However, the veil has become a hot-button issue in France, which has suffered from attacks by Muslim extremists. The choice to wear the Islamic veil in France is seen by some as a rejection of French identity. Should the French appropriate and welcome Muslim women who wear the veil? Should the Muslim women reject the veil in order to show their allegiance to France? Can their identity come both from France and Islam? Sponsor: Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life
BC Bookmarks 