How children succeed
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged children, education, poverty
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Who made the Dean’s List?
Boston College Vice President Father William B. Neenan, SJ, has released his annual “Dean’s List” of recommended reading. The 2013-14 list has four new titles: Last Friends by Jane Gardam; The End of the Point by Professor of English Elizabeth Graver; The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, and Ron Chernow’s Washington: A Life. Read Fr. Neenan’s thoughts on his new Dean’s List picks in the Boston College Chronicle. The Boston College Libraries maintain a complete list of all the titles that have graced the Dean’s List, which Fr. Neenan has issued every year since 1982. Thank you, Fr. Neenan!
The BC-Tom Clancy connection
The late author Tom Clancy often referenced Boston College in his best-selling military thrillers. His fictional hero Jack Ryan, who debuted in The Hunt for Red October, was a graduate of Boston College. Clancy, himself a product of Jesuit education, was believed to have modeled Jack Ryan after a real-life high school friend who went on to attend Boston College. Read more. Listen to this appreciation of Clancy and his legacy on WBUR. Rest in peace, Tom Clancy. (At left, Tom Clancy signs books at Boston College in 1989.)
A look at working
Work is more than just a 9-to-5 activity. Work is a central aspect of life, providing a source of structure, a means of survival, a connection to others, and optimally a means of self-determination, according to Lynch School of Education Professor David Blustein, who has edited the new Oxford Handbook of the Psychology of Working (Oxford University Press). Bringing together a broad range of scholars and practitioners, Blustein has assembled an expansive examination of the nature of work as well as the people who work and those who want to work. Contributors to the text from Boston College include: Blustein, AJ Franklin, Maureen Kenny, Mary Beth Medvide, and Philip Mirvis. For more, check out this Boston College Chronicle Q&A with Blustein.
Award for Laurence
Congratulations to Boston College Associate Professor of Political Science Jonathan Laurence, whose book The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims: The State’s Role in Minority Integration was honored with the 2013 Hubert Morken Award for the best publication on religion and politics by the American Political Science Association. The Emancipation of Europe’s Muslims traces how governments across Western Europe have responded to the growing presence of Muslim immigrants in their countries over the past 50 years, and sheds light on the geopolitical implications of a religious minority’s transition from outsiders to citizens. Laurence also recently published an article in the Fall issue of Dissent on the relationship of the European Left and Islam.
Posted in Awards/Honors, Boston College Authors
Tagged Europe, Islam, Political Science department
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Books on BC football
Boston College alumnus Reid Oslin, former sports information officer in Athletics, will sign copies of his newly updated edition of Tales from the Boston College Sideline: A Collection of the Greatest Eagle Stories Ever Told as well as his previously published Boston College Football Vault: The History of the Eagles prior to Saturday’s game against Florida State. The event is sponsored by the BC Bookstore. Oslin’s books can be purchased on site at a 20% discount. The book signing is on Sept. 28 from 1 to 3 p.m. outside the Hillside Cafe.
Fleming is MacArthur Fellow
Congratulations to medieval historian Robin Fleming, author of Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400-1070, who has been named a 2013 MacArthur Fellow. Fleming is a professor of history at Boston College and scholar of early medieval Britain. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s MacArthur Fellowships, also known as “Genius Awards,” are presented to talented individuals in a variety of fields who have shown exceptional originality in and dedication to their creative pursuits. More
Posted in Awards/Honors, Boston College Authors
Tagged European history, History Department
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Book Signing: Dracula’s Bloodline
More than 40 years after his pivotal book In Search of Dracula (with Raymond McNally) revealed the historical identity of Dracula, historian Radu Florescu has traced his own family’s ties to the notorious 15th century ruler. Dracula’s Bloodline: A Florescu Family Saga (Hamilton Books) tells the story of the links between the Florescus of Romania and the historical Dracula, also know as Vlad Tepes. Professor Matei Cazacu is co-author of Dracula’s Bloodline. The Boston College Bookstore will host a book signing with Florescu on Sept. 30 from 4 to 6 p.m. Now retired, Florescu was a professor in BC’s History Department for more than 50 years.
Fiction and the biggest question
Author and book critic James Wood will present “Why? Fiction and the Biggest Question” on Sept. 25 in Gasson Hall, room 100 at 7 p.m. Wood is a staff writer and book critic at The New Yorker. His critical essays have been collected in two volumes, The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief and The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is also the author of a novel, The Book Against God, and a study of technique in the novel, How Fiction Works. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
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Shrayer on Vasily Grossman
Soviet writer Vasily Grossman bore witness to the horrors of Russia’s World War II and the Shoah and deserves a place in literary history, according to Boston College Professor of Russian and English Maxim D. Shrayer, who recommends the best books by and about Grossman on FiveBooks.com
