Journalism—The First Draft of History?

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Bookworm

horganJohn Horgan, the Burns Library Visiting Scholar, will give a public lecture Nov. 19 at 4:30 p.m. on “Journalism—The First Draft of History?” Typically treated by historians as a secondary source—and not necessarily a reliable one—journalism is now being studied in its own right as an essential component of social and cultural history in the widest sense. A former writer and editor for the Irish Times, Horgan is the author of a number of acclaimed political biographies, including studies of Mary Robinson, Sean Lemass and Noel Browne. He was elected to the Irish Senate and later to the Dáil and European Parliament. He was a professor of journalism at Dublin City University from 1983 to 2006. The following year he was appointed Ireland’s first Press Ombudsman. He is teaching a course at Boston College on the politics of constitutional change in Ireland from 1922-2013. His lecture will be held in the Thompson Room of the Burns Library. A Q&A with Horgan was recently published in the Boston College Chronicle.

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The Birth of Korean Cool

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Bookworm

korean coolAuthor Euny Hong will speak about her new book, The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture (Picador, 2014), on November 17 at 7:15 p.m. in Stokes S461. A journalist who grew up in Chicago and Seoul, Hong delves into the world of contemporary Korean music, TV dramas, film, and video games.  Through interviews and research she explores the Korean government’s carefully orchestrated plan to become the world’s #1 exporter of popular culture. A book signing will take place after her talk.  New York Times book review | Sponsor: Asian Studies Program

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The Colorization of America

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Bookworm

whowebeJeff Chang, author of the book Who We Be: The Colorization of America (St. Martin’s Press, 2014), will speak at Boston College on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 101. In Who We Be, Chang examines the cultural transformation of the U.S. over the last three decades.  He is also the author of the award-winning book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop. Chang was editor of Total Chaos, an anthology examining the influence of hip-hop culture into other art forms.  He has written for The Nation, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, VIBE, and The L.A. Review of Books. He recently was interviewed by Huffington Post about his new book. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series

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Book on Baden photography

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Bookworm

two bodiesFine Arts Assistant Professor of the Practice Karl Baden has published Work from Two Bodies, a book of photography that reproduces 43 images from two of his projects: Cliché-Verre and Shadow Pictures, 1983-84, and Sex, Death and the History of Photography, 1988-89. Both these series were produced before the age of Photoshop, when Baden’s working methods involved photo-manipulation and montage. Utilizing ‘wet darkroom’ multiple printing techniques and drawing on the negative itself, Cliché-Verre and Shadow Pictures explores photographic space, semiotics and the visual doppelgänger, or double. Sex, Death and the History of Photography references clichés in the history of the medium through conflict and gender-based stereotypes. Work from Two Bodies also includes a wide-ranging interview with Baden, concerning the contextual, technical and psychological aspects of his imagery.

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Economist Julianne Malveaux

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Bookworm

julianneBoston College alumna and Bennett College President Emerita Julianne Malveaux, an economist, columnist, and commentator, will present “Economics and Race: Perspectives on Our Nation’s Future” on Nov. 13 at 3 p.m. in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. Malveaux’s talk will touch upon the social and financial underpinnings shaping America in the 21st century. She is the co-author of Unfinished Business: The 10 Most Important Issues Women Face Today and the author of Surviving and Thriving: 365 Facts in Black Economic History. She has been published in USA Today, Black Issues in Higher Education, Ms. Magazine, Essence, and the Progressive. Her syndicated column appeared for more than a decade in newspapers including the Los Angeles Times, Charlotte Observer, New Orleans Tribune, Detroit Free Press, and San Francisco Examiner. She has appeared as a commentator on CNN, BET, PBS, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC and C-SPAN, among others. Her essays have been collected and published in the books, Wall Street, Main Street and the Side Street: A Mad Economist Takes a Stroll and Sex Lies and Stereotypes: Perspectives of a Mad Economist. Sponsor: Student Affairs Division

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The political life of poetry

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Bookworm

boland poetryHow might American poetry potentially give meaning to events, locating them in a larger context and story, shuttling back and forth in time, and including all the riches of its institutional memory? This question is the heart of a Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy event on Nov. 13 featuring award-winning American poet and critic Edward Hirsch (Wild Gratitude, The Night Parade, Earthly Measures, among others); award-winning Irish poet Eavan Boland (23 Poems, Domestic Violence, Against Love Poetry, The Lost Land, An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967–1987, among others); and award-winning American poet Kevin Young (Books of Hours, Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels, Jelly Roll, among others). All three will read from their work and discuss the ways poetry engages with the political. The event will be held at 6 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. A book signing will follow.

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At Home in Exile

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Bookworm

exileThe Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life will sponsor a book panel Nov. 12 to mark the launch of its director’s new book, At Home in Exile: Why Diaspora Is Good for the Jews (Random House, 2014). Written by Boston College Professor of Political Science Alan Wolfe, At Home in Exile makes an impassioned and controversial case for Jews to take pride in their Diasporic tradition. While it is true that Jews have experienced discrimination and destruction in exile, Wolfe argues the Diaspora can be good for the Jews no matter where they live, Israel very much included—as well as for the non-Jews with whom they live, Israel once again included. Wolfe will be joined at the event  by Ben Birnbaum, editor of Boston College Magazine; Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College; and BC History Professor Kevin Kenny who all will review and critique At Home in Exile. The event will take place at the Yawkey Center, Murray Room beginning at 5:30 p.m.  An excerpt of At Home in Exile appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education | New York Times Review

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Poet Peter Fallon

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Bookworm

strongmyloveAward-winning  poet Peter Fallon will read from his latest collection of poems, Strong, My Love, on Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Strong, My Love is a series of prayers for his daughter and son and for their generation. His other works include News of the World: Selected and New Poems and The Company of Horses, among others. He founded The Gallery Press, Ireland’s leading literary publishing company, which has published more than 400 books of poems and plays by Ireland’s finest established and emerging authors. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series

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Symposium in honor of Dinner with Stalin

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Bookworm

dinnerwithstalinA Boston College symposium will mark the translation and publication of the new book Dinner with Stalin and Other Stories, edited and co-translated by Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies Maxim D. Shrayer, and written by his father David Shrayer-Petrov, a celebrated author of contemporary Russian-American fiction.  The event will be held on Nov. 11 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101 and feature selected readings. Dinner with Stalin’s 14 stories feature Soviet Jews, most of them immigrants, grappling with issues of identity, acculturation and assimilation. The symposium, Shrayer says, is “a celebration of the art of literary translation. I was fortunate to work with a remarkable team of translators, among them Margarit Ordykhanyan, Molly Godwin-Jones and Leon Kogan, former Boston College graduate students and graduates of my seminar on literary translation. All of them are gifted translators and great enthusiasts of literary translation, which has the power to bridge countries and identities, and gives hope for the survival of culture against all odds.”  Event sponsors: The Institute for the Liberal Arts, Jewish Studies Program, English Department, and Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures. More from the Boston College Chronicle

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Poetry Days with Laura Kasischke

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Bookworm

laurakBoston College welcomes award-winning poet and novelist Laura Kasischke to campus November 5. She will give a talk at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Kasischke’s books of poetry include Wild Brides; Fire and Flower; Gardening in the Dark; Lilies Without; Space, in Chains (a National Book Critics Circle Award winner), and, most recently, The Infinitesimals.  She has been honored with the Juniper Prize, the Beatrice Hawley Award, the Alice Fay DiCastagnola Award, the Bobst Award for Emerging Writers, and the Rilke Poetry Prize from the University of North Texas. She has also won several Pushcart Prizes, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. She has written nine novels, three of which have been made into movies: Suspicious River, White Bird in a Blizzard and The Life Before Her Eyes. Sponsors: Lowell Humanities Series and Poetry Days. Read more about her campus visit, including an informal colloquium planned with BC students and faculty, in the Boston College Chronicle.

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