The Humanistic tradition of education
Georgetown University Professor of Theology John W. O’Malley, S.J. will present “The Humanistic Tradition of Education: What’s the Point?” on Mar. 18 at 4:30 p.m in the Murray Room of Yawkey Center. Drawing on the origins and ethos out of which the Jesuit commitment to education grew, Fr. O’Malley will describe the fundamental options that orient Jesuit education and that animate a flexible and adaptable approach to education in the circumstances of the contemporary university. The event is being held as part of the Arts & Sciences Dean’s Colloquium. Fr. O’Malley is the author of many books, including The First Jesuits, Four Cultures of the West, What Happened at Vatican II, Trent: What Happened at the Council, and A History of the Popes, among others.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged A&S Dean's Colloquium, education, Jesuit, Jesuit author
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Prisoners’ votes and judges’ powers
Boston College’s Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy will present “Prisoners’ Votes and Judges’ Powers: Foreign Parables and Home Truths” with John Finnis on Mar. 13 in Fulton Hall, room 511 at 5:30 p.m. Finnis is a professor of law at both Oxford University and the University of Notre Dame. His work centers on legal scholarship and the philosophy of law, and he teaches courses on jurisprudence, political theory, and constitutional law. He is the author of Natural Law and Natural Rights, Fundamentals of Ethics, Aquinas: Moral, Political and Legal Theory and The Collected Essays of John Finnis.
Tracy Kidder, new date
*This event was originally scheduled for Feb. 5, but had to be postponed due to weather. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder will present “Another Set of Eyes” at Boston College on Mar. 12 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Kidder is the author of House, Among Schoolchildren, Old Friends, Home Town, My Detachment, Strength in What Remains, Mountains Beyond Mountains and The Soul of a New Machine, which won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. His newest book, Good Prose, is about creating good nonfiction as well as the 40-year association between Kidder and editor Richard Todd, who co-authors Good Prose. It is an inspiring book about writing and the record of a warm and productive literary friendship. It is a succinct, authoritative, and entertaining arbiter of standards in contemporary writing, offering guidance for the professional writer and the beginner alike. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series |Video of Kidder and Dr. Paul Farmer, the subject of Mountains Beyond Mountains, at Boston College in 2004.
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged nonfiction, Pulitzer Prize winner
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Lenten exercises
In his timely new book, The Ignatian Workout for Lent (Loyola Press), Boston College alumnus Tim Muldoon offers 40 brief exercises—organized according to the four weeks of prayer from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius—that can be used by readers to transform their Lenten experience. Each exercise includes a short Scripture reading, meditation, prayer suggestion and opportunity for action. The website IgnatianSpirituality.com is hosting an online Lenten retreat with weekly audio reflections by Muldoon, accompanied by suggestions for prayer and action. Muldoon, who teaches at BC and works in the University’s Division of Mission and Ministry, is also the author of The Ignatian Workout, Longing to Love and co-author (with Sue Muldoon) of Six Sacred Rules for Families: A Spirituality for the Home.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Catholic, Ignatian, Lent, Mission and Ministry
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Kaveny on Daniel Callahan
In a book review of bioethicist Daniel Callahan’s memoir and collection of essays, Libby Professor Cathleen Kaveny of BC’s Theology Department and Law School writes “For a model of how to argue rigorously, perceptively and non-defensively about difficult issues of broad import, Catholic moralists would do well to turn to the work of Daniel Callahan.” Read the review in America magazine.
Posted in Boston College Book Reviewer
Tagged bioethics, Boston College Law School, Theology Dept.
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Book award for Hargreaves
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) has announced that they will honor Lynch School of Education Thomas More Brennan Professor Andy Hargreaves and co-author Michael Fullan with its 2014 Outstanding Book Award for their book Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School. The award recognizes exemplary books that make a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educator preparation or of teaching and learning with implications for educator preparation. Professional Capital draws on examples from the United States and other countries to offer a vision of a stronger teaching profession, rejecting the current U.S. trend to focus on narrowly defined learning outcomes. The AACTE Committee on Research and Dissemination, which reviewed nominations for the award, praised the book for its conceptual richness and its elegant writing. Read more.
Posted in Awards/Honors, Boston College Authors
Tagged Lynch School of Education, schools, teaching
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Life with a genetic disorder
A thought-provoking collection of 16 essays—edited by Boston College Associate Professor of English Amy Boesky—offers first-hand, powerful accounts of life with genetic disorders. In The Story Within: Personal Essays on Genetics and Identity (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), contributors shed light on complex decision-making and explore how genetic information shapes the way we see ourselves and the world. The writers reflect a range of responses but share the desire to challenge a restricted sense of “health,” or whose life has value, and hope to expand conversations. They or their family members are affected by such diseases as Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s, cancer, genetic deafness or blindness, schizophrenia, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, fragile X, or Fanconi anemia. Their moving essays underscore that genetic health is complicated, dynamic and deeply personal. Boesky, author of What We Have, is one of the contributing authors, as is BC Associate Dean of Arts & Sciences Clare Dunsford, author of Spelling Love with an X: A Mother, A Son, and the Gene that Binds Them. The Story Within is called “a compelling collection” by the Library Journal, which goes on to say: “These pieces can comfort those in similar situations; inform friends, relatives, and caregivers; enlighten health providers; and help us all better understand how others experience the world in which we live.” Video interview from BC Libraries.
The Shadow of War
The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy will present “The Shadow of War” with Mark Mazzetti, a national security correspondent for The New York Times, on Feb. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in Stokes Hall, Room 195S. Mazzetti is the author The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth. In 2009, he shared a Pulitzer Prize for reporting on the intensifying violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan and Washington’s response, and he has won numerous other major journalism awards, including the George Polk Award (with colleague Dexter Filkins) and the Livingston Award, for breaking the story of the CIA’s destruction of interrogation videotapes. Mazzetti has also written for the Los Angeles Times, U.S. News & World Report, and The Economist. His book will be available for purchase at the event.
Digital Dubliners
Joseph Nugent of BC’s English Department will talk about his digital humanities project, Digital Dubliners, at an A&S Dean’s Colloquium on Feb. 24 starting at 4:30 p.m. in the O’Neill Library Reading Room. Designed and created by students in Nugent’s literature seminar, Digital Dubliners is fully annotated and glossed, with critical essays, filmed interviews with eminent Joyceans, archived images, contemporary recordings, and interactive maps. It will be available in the spring through iTunes U.
Posted in Boston College Authors, Students
Tagged English Department, Ireland, James Joyce, joycean
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