19th-century scrapbooks

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Bookworm

scrapperOne hundred and fifty years ago, scrapbooks were a way men and women articulated opinions and compiled data without writing a word. For activists who didn’t own the press, scrapbooks became a way of engaging with media. Author and cultural historian Ellen Gruber Garvey will talk about this era on Oct. 15 at 4:30 p.m. in McGuinn Hall 121. Her talk, “Activists Repurpose Media: 19th Century Scrapbooks,” will explore how the scrapbooks of 19th-century African American and women’s rights activists reveal their personal, passionate, often critical, and always dynamic relationship to media. Garvey is the author of the award-winning book Writing With Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance (Oxford University Press). She teaches in the English Department at New Jersey City University. Sponsor: American Studies Program.

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Muslim women and Islamic law

Posted on October 9, 2015 by Bookworm

islamandwomenNatana J. DeLong-Bas, assistant professor of the practice in the Theology Department and Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, will present “Muslim Women and Islamic Law: Myths and Realities” on Oct. 15 at 5:30 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. She is editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Women and author of Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad. Her presentation will look at the Qur’an, history, and contemporary realities to provide a broader understanding of women’s roles in Islam and under Islamic family law. Registration is requested. Sponsor: School of Theology and Ministry.

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Poet David Ferry

Posted on October 8, 2015 by Bookworm

davidferrybookAward-winning poet David Ferry will give a reading on Oct. 14 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. Among Ferry’s books of poetry are Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations (winner of the National Book Award for Poetry) and  On This Side of the River: Selected Poems and Dwelling Places: Poems and Translations. His translations include The Georgics of Virgil, The Eclogues of Virgil, and The Odes of Horace. He has been honored with a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and a Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress. Sponsors: Poetry Days and Lowell Humanities Series. 

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Modern Macroeconomics

Posted on October 7, 2015 by Bookworm

macroeconomicsAssistant Professor of Economics Sanjay Chugh has published an innovative textbook on the subject of macroeconomics. Modern Macroeconomics (MIT Press, 2015) presents macroeconomics through its microeconomic foundations, adopting the representative agent paradigm. By modeling the representative consumer and the representative firm, students will learn to describe macroeconomic outcomes and consider the effects of macroeconomic policies. The text is unique in its coverage of monopolistic competition, financial markets, and the interaction of fiscal and monetary policy, and is geared toward undergraduates in intermediate to advanced economics as well as graduate students.

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Crime stories

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Bookworm

coasttocoastCrime is everywhere in the new anthology Coast to Coast: Murder from Sea to Shining Sea (Down & Out Books, 2015), co-edited by Boston College alumnus Andrew McAleer and Paul D. Marks. McAleer also has contributed to the volume. A Sherlock Holmes Bowl winner, McAleer is the author of 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists, A Miscellany of Murder, Double Endorsement and Fatal Deeds. He is past president of the Boston Authors Club and teaches in the Woods College of Advancing Studies. Read a 2013 Boston College Chronicle story about McAleer.

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Book award for Sharlene Hesse-Biber

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Bookworm

waiting for cancerBoston College Professor of Sociology  Sharlene Hesse-Biber has been honored by Alpha Sigma Nu, the honor society for Jesuit colleges and universities, with a 2015 Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award for her book, Waiting for Cancer to Come: Women’s Experiences with Genetic Testing and Medical Decision Making for Breast and Ovarian Cancer (University of Michigan Press). Waiting for Cancer to Come tells the stories of women who have tested positive for the BRCA 1/2 gene mutations, which indicate a higher risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. Hesse-Biber highlights the emotional, social, economic and psychological factors at play in women’s decisions about testing and cancer prevention. Read more from BC News

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#WeWereBC

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Bookworm

wewerebcA new exhibition on display this fall in Stokes Hall chronicles the first 100 years of Boston College’s history, a period during which a small, urban, day school for boys developed into a sprawling, suburban university serving a largely residential and coeducational student body. #WeWereBC is curated by the undergraduates in Seth Meehan‘s “Making History Public: Boston College” course. Using archival material from Burns Library, the exhibit highlights some of the key individuals, moments, developments, and conflicts that helped shape Boston College’s first century. This is the fifth Making History Public course, a collaborative project between the Boston College History Department and the Boston College University Libraries. John J. Burns Library blog | Boston College Chronicle

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Writing Out of Place

Posted on September 30, 2015 by Bookworm

'Writing Out of Place' students with Suzanne Matson in Delhi at Qutab Minar. Over the summer, eight undergraduates joined Professor of English Suzanne Matson for “Writing Out of Place,” a three-week creative writing experience at the foothills of the Himalayas. The three-credit course required participants to express their experience of a new location (Mussoorie, India) through narrative non-fiction, poetry and fiction. This year’s travelers found historical, ecological, social, political, religious, spiritual and literary dimensions to fuel their writing through trips to Delhi’s Mughal monuments, Rajaji National Park, ashrams, temples and mosques, and talks by area writers. “Writing this summer helped me to better express and understand the depth, significance, and impact of every word on a greater whole,” said Jared Collier, a junior in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, who found his negotiation of writing and reality intensified by “the ecological, social, political, and cultural uniqueness” that is India. Read more from BC News.

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Our Faith, Our Stories

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Bookworm

c21fallThe fall issue of C21 Resources, produced by the Church in the 21st Century Center, focuses on the continuing power of stories to both nurture and share faith. Philosophy Professor Brian Braman, director of the Perspectives program, is the guest editor of this issue, which features essays and insights from Pope Francis, University President William P. Leahy, SJ, C21 Director Thomas Groome, author Alice McDermott and student Nichole Devaney, among many others.

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Inaugural Adele Dalsimer lecture

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Bookworm

margaretLiterary critic and Boston College alumna Margaret Kelleher, a professor at University College Dublin, will present “Focla Dégheanach (Dying Words): The Execution of Myles Joyce (Galway, 1882) and Its Continuing Legacy” at BC’s inaugural Adele Dalsimer Lecture on Oct. 1 at 6 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. Kelleher has reshaped the field of Irish literary studies over the last two decades with her work on 19th-century literature, women’s writings, and on the historical relationship between English and Irish. Her books include The Feminization of Famine and The Cambridge History of Irish Literature, co-edited with BC Professor Philip O’Leary. She was a contributing editor to Field Day Anthology Volumes 4 and 5, and editor of the special issue on the Irish Literary Revival for Irish University Review. Sponsor: Irish Studies. Advanced registration is requested. More about the lecture’s namesake and the event from the Boston College Chronicle.

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