On September 18 at 4:30 p.m., documentary filmmaker Hilary Dully will speak about Máire Comerford (1893-1982) who was actively engaged in the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Civil War. Dully will trace Comerford’s footsteps from gentile beginnings in rural Ireland to Republican icon—a journey of extraordinary commitment to a national ideal, explored and reimagined through her unique archive, recently acquired by Boston College’s Burns Library, with particular emphasis on Comerford’s letters. Dully is the editor of On Dangerous Ground- A Memoir of the Irish Revolution (Lilliput Press), written by Comerford and published 40 years after her death. On Dangerous Ground has been described as “a classic in the very hour of its launch” by History Ireland magazine and as “a moving and vivid memoir” by Books Ireland. Dully’s talk, taking place at Burns Library, is sponsored by Burns Library in collaboration with the BC Irish Studies program.
Learning about Máire Comerford
Colorful journey
The newly released Max’s Life in Blue is the debut children’s book by Boston College alumna Caysie Carter Harvey. Illustrated by Valerie Imparato, Max’s Life in Blue is a captivating tale of a young boy living in a world painted entirely in blue. The story explores the concept of colors and the strength of family bonds. Despite living in a world that’s entirely blue, Max learns that it’s okay to be different. Max’s Life in Blue offers valuable lessons on diversity, love, and self-acceptance. Harvey graduated from BC in 2010 and earned a M.Ed. the following year. A university administrator residing in New England, Harvey is passionate about literacy development. She calls Max’s Life in Blue “a testament to her dedication to fostering a love for reading in the next generation.”
Computer scientist, author Fei-Fei Li
Renowned computer scientist Fei-Fei Li, whose groundbreaking work on human-centered artificial intelligence has made her a leading voice in the conversation about technology’s role in society, will be the featured speaker at First Year Academic Convocation tonight. Li, who served as a vice president at Google and chief scientist at Google Cloud, will offer both professional and personal insights on the opportunities and challenges of AI—the subject of her 2023 book The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI—to the BC Class of 2028. Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and co-director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. A native of Beijing who immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was 16, Li is known as the creator of ImageNet, a key catalyst of modern artificial intelligence. She has described The Worlds I See as “half memoir, half science.” Read more from BC News.
Amy Stanley: Stranger in the Shogun’s City
Amy Stanley, the Wayne V. Jones II Research Professor in History at Northwestern University, will discuss her award-winning book Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World at Boston College on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall 100. A social historian of early modern and modern Japan, Stanley has special interests in global history, women’s and gender history, and narrative. Stranger in the Shogun’s City explores the life of an unconventional woman during the first half of the 19th century in Edo—the city that would become Tokyo—and offers a portrait of a city on the brink of a momentous encounter with the West. It won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award in Biography and PEN/America Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award in Biography and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Stanley is also the author of Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan, as well as articles in the American Historical Review, The Journal of Japanese Studies, and The Journal of Asian Studies. The lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and is co-sponsored by the History Department and the Asian Studies program. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Sand dunes and salty air
Secret, Hidden, and Forgotten Cape Cod (Omni Publishing, 2024) is a new book that unveils the lesser-known treasures of the iconic peninsula, from secluded shores and enchanting trails to secret places to watch the sun rise and set. The authors are 1961 Boston College graduate Henry M. Quinlan and his granddaughter, Emily Murphy. Another book, So, You Think You Know Cape Cod? was the first collaboration from Quinlan and Murphy. Quinlan was in the publishing business for more than 40 years and published biographies on Boston Celtics great K.C. Jones, NASA astronaut Wally Schirra, and Babe Ruth’s daughter, Dorothy, among others. Quinlan was asked by President George H.W. Bush to organize the publishing of the children’s book Make Way for Ducklings in Russia in 1991 and the erection of the Make Way for Ducklings statues in Moscow. Now retired, Quinlan helps seniors write their memoirs. Read more about the storied life of Quinlan in BC News.
Lessing’s literary and polemical strategies
Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy Hannes Kerber is a co-editor of new collection of essays (in German) titled Praktiken der Provokation. Lessings Schreib- und Streitstrategien (Practices of Provocation: Lessing’s Literary and Polemical Strategies). This volume brings together contributions from a 2022 Wolfenbüttel conference that was devoted to the writing and debate strategies of the German philosopher and Enlightenment figure Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. The essays are by a new generation of Lessing researchers who analyze relevant texts and constellations in order to trace Lessing’s practices of provocation. Kerber also contributed to the volume.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Germany, political philosophy, Political Science department
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Pickwick Club
On the night of July 4, 1925, the Pickwick Club, a five-story speakeasy in Boston, collapsed, killing 44 people and seriously injuring dozens more. In his book, Deathtrap: Boston’s Pickwick Club Disaster, 1961 Boston College graduate John Keefe, a retired engineer, details what is known about the deadliest building collapse in Boston history and the investigation that followed. Though criminals charges were brought against several individuals, no one was found guilty of any wrongdoing. Keefe’s father was in the Pickwick Club that night but left before the building collapse. His name appeared in Boston newspapers’ initial lists of the missing and feared dead. Kirkus Reviews calls Keefe’s book “A thoughtful exploration of a deadly event that reveals broader social issues of the era.”
Asian American is Not A Color
Educator and race scholar OiYan Poon’s new book Asian American Is Not a Color: Conversations on Race, Affirmative Action, and Family (Beacon Press, 2024) is inspired by her daughter’s questions about race and racism. Poon conducted interviews with Asian Americans throughout the U.S. who have been actively engaged in policy debates over race-conscious admissions and looks at how the debate over affirmative action reveals the divergent ways Asian Americans conceive of their identity. Poon combines extensive research with personal narratives from both herself and others across the Asian American community to respond to the question: “What does it mean to be Asian American?” A 1998 Boston College graduate, Poon cites an influential class taught by BC Professor Emeritus Ramsay Liem in her book. Poon is co-director of the College Admissions Futures Co-Laborative and a senior research fellow for education equity at the NAACP LDF Thurgood Marshall Institute. Her work has appeared widely in media outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the New Yorker. She was born and raised in Massachusetts to immigrants from Hong Kong.
A culture of readiness
Strategic Corporate Crisis Management: Building an Unconquerable Organization (Routledge, 2022) challenges the notion that corporate crisis teams can be expected to swoop in and “save the day.” The book’s author, Brendan Monahan, says the role of the crisis team should be to advance a culture of readiness across an organization, and to foster leadership and crisis competency where it’s needed, when it’s needed. A 2000 Boston College graduate, Monahan is a security intelligence and crisis professional with 20 years of experience leading organizations through crisis and incident response. In his book, he presents an alternative to traditional models of centralized crisis management, making the case for decentralizing crisis response and building resilience where it matters most. He also provides an accessible, pragmatic approach for doing so.
Touched by This Place
In his new book, Touched By This Place (Orbis Books, 2024), Benjamín Valentín encourages readers to recognize how place—the geographical place in which we live and move and have our being—affects and molds human thought, experience, memory, identity, and activity. In Touched By This Place, Valentín focuses mostly on the subject of recognizing the epistemic significiance or the epistemic contributions of place. Valentin adds his own personal story of place: New York City’s East Harlem, where he grew up and lived for 27 years. He hopes his book encourages interest in scholars to further explore the potential contributions of place-based studies within theology. A cross-disciplinary scholar, Valentín is a professor of theology and Latinx studies at Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry.
BC Bookmarks 