Looking at a generation of Asian-American writers
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Asian American writers, English Department, immigration
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The instrinsic value of the arts
Professor of Psychology Ellen Winner has co-authored a new book that looks at the impact of arts education and its connection to fostering skills for innovation. In Art for Art’s Sake? The Impact of Arts Education, Winner and co-authors Thalia R. Goldstein and Stéphan Vincent-Lancrin look at previous studies and research databases and considered art education that encompasses in school art classes as well as art study undertaken outside the classroom. The book was commissioned by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The authors write that the primary justification of arts education is the intrinsic value of the arts, the mastery of craft and technique, and the acquisition of artistic habits of mind, such as close observation, envisioning, exploration, persistence, expression, collaboration, and reflection. Arts education should not be justified in terms of the collateral benefit it may have in other academic subjects.
Summer on the Cape
Novelist Elizabeth Graver, a professor of English at Boston College, will talk about her new book, The End of The Point, at the Falmouth Public Library on June 25 at 7 p.m. The End of the Point is set in a summer community on Buzzards Bay between 1942-1999. Graver knows the Cape well and was among those asked to contribute to this month’s Boston Magazine piece titled “Summer on the Cape.” Not going to be in Falmouth on Tuesday? Follow Graver on Twitter @ElizabethGrave2 or check out ElizabethGraver.com to learn about future book readings.
International teachers in American schools
In her new book, Teachers Without Borders?: The Hidden Consequences of International Teachers in U.S. Schools (Teachers College Press), Boston College alumna Alyssa Hadley Dunn presents a case study of four teachers from India who came to the US to teach in urban schools. Their experiences are brought to life through interviews with their principals, district representatives and union representatives, as well as in-depth classroom observations and student commentary. Dunn’s work raises the question: If international teachers face daily exploitation, a lack of personal and professional support, and a lack of pedagogical and cultural preparation, are they able to give urban students the high-quality multicultural education they need and deserve? Dunn is an assistant professor in the Department of Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology at Georgia State University College of Education.
Posted in Alumni Authors
Tagged education, international, muticultural education, urban schools
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“Blessed are the pure in heart”
Boston College alumna Patricia Sodano Ireland, director of theology programs in the division of Graduate and Professional Studies at Saint Joseph’s College in Maine, is the author of the book, Guardian of a Pure Heart: St. Augustine on the Path to Heaven (Alba House). According to the publisher: This work examines the specific nature of the relationship between the requirement for seeing God (purity of heart) and the ultimate reward (the Beatific Vision), demonstrating that St. Augustine’s understanding of who Christ is for each of us requires a change of heart on our part that is true, habitual, lasting and sanctifying.
The gangs of Guatemala
Associate Professor of History Deborah T. Levenson writes about how war and politics helped shape the gangs of Guatemala in her new book, Adiós Niño: The Gangs of Guatemala City and the Politics of Death. A historical study, Adiós Niño examines transformations in the Guatemalan gangs, called Maras, from their emergence in the 1980s to the early 2000s. According to the publisher: Levenson describes how fragile spaces of friendship and exploration turned into rigid and violent ones in which youth, and especially young men, came to employ death as a natural way of living for the short period that they expected to survive. Part of Guatemala City’s reconfigured social, political, and cultural milieu, with their members often trapped in Guatemala’s growing prison system, the gangs are used to justify remilitarization in Guatemala’s contemporary postwar, post-peace era. Portraying the Maras as microcosms of broader tragedies, and pointing out the difficulties faced by those youth who seek to escape the gangs, Levenson poses important questions about the relationship between trauma, memory, and historical agency.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Guatemala, History Department, Latin America, violence
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Christianity & politics
Associate Professor of Theology Kenneth Himes, OFM is the author of a new book, titled Christianity and the Political Order (Orbis Books). According to the publisher: “[Fr.] Himes examines the relationship between Christianity and politics from the teachings of the Old and New Testaments through the patristic and medieval eras and the age of reform to the age of revolution, and throughout the twentieth century into the third millennium. He takes on questions of the role of the church in politics, responsible voting, concerns of globalization, and issues of human rights and war and peace.” Fr. Himes is the past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America and is an expert in issues related to Catholic social teaching and the relationship between religion and politics.
Homecoming
Alumna Jennifer Close has published a new novel, The Smart One (Knopf Doubleday). It’s the story of Weezy Coffey and what happens when her adult children’s various missteps drive them back to their childhood home. Close recently wrote about the topic of adults moving back home for Huffington Post. Close’s previous novel was the bestseller Girls in White Dresses.
Six millennia of the Phoenicians
A new book translation by Franck Salameh, assistant professor of Near Eastern Studies, Arabic, and Hebrew, has been published by Editions de la Revue Phénicienne, Lebanon’s oldest Francophone press. The book, 6000 Years of Peaceful Contributions to Mankind, is an annotated critical translation of Charles Corm’s 6000 ans de génie pacifique au service de l’Humanité. The text is based on Corm’s conference on the Phoenicians he gave at a 1949 UNESCO general assembly. Salameh, the first Western researcher to be given access to Corm’s Beirut archives and unpublished papers, has supplemented Corm’s text with a foreword, introductory chapter, and historical commentary. One of the book’s chapters references the work of two BC Jesuits, Fr. Doherty and Fr. Ewing, and their BC students, who are credited with being the first to have systematically excavated and studied Ksar Akil, the Paleolithic site north of Beirut. In addition, Salameh has a book on Corm, Intellectual Biography of Charles Corm (Rowman and Littlefield), forthcoming in 2015.
The changing nature of service
Why are some self-service options, such as ATMs, more successful than other options, such as self-service retail checkouts? A new book by Carroll School of Management Associate Professor of Operations Management Joy Field takes a look at how technology and other factors are changing the dynamic between service providers and customers and changing the service process design landscape. Listen to Field discuss Designing Service Processes to Unlock Value with Claire O’Leary of BC Libraries.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged business, Carroll School of Management, customer service
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