Historian Ada Ferrer will speak on her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Cuba: An American History, at Boston College on March 13 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. Spanning more than 500 years, Ferrer’s book chronicles Cuban history and its complex ties to the United States. She explores the sometimes surprising, often troubled intimacy between the two countries, documenting not only the influence of the U.S. on Cuba but also the many ways the island has been a recurring presence in U.S. affairs. Ferrer is also the author of Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation, and Revolution, 1868–1898, which won the Berkshire Book Prize for the best first book by a woman in any field of history, and Freedom’s Mirror: Cuba and Haiti in the Age of Revolution, which won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale University as well as multiple prizes from the American Historical Association. Ferrer is the Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. Ferrer’s talk is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and is co-sponsored by the History Department, Romance Languages and Literatures Department, the Heinz Bluhm Memorial Lecture Series, and the McMullen Museum of Art. Advance registration is requested here for this free lecture.
Understanding Cuba
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged Cuba, history, Pulitzer Prize winner, U.S. history
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Keeping it “real”
BC Associate Professor of Communication Michael Serazio’s new book, The Authenticity Industries: Keeping It ‘Real’ in Media, Culture, and Politics (Standford University Press, 2023), examines the ways in which presentations of “authenticity” have been used by celebrities, politicians, and marketers who recognize the concept’s power to connect with consumers at a time when people are searching for something that feels genuine and true. But, ironically, authenticity’s not actually real: it’s as fabricated as it is ubiquitous. Drawing upon dozens of interviews with campaign consultants, advertising executives, tech company leadership, and entertainment industry gatekeepers, Serazio examines the practices that make people, products, and platforms seem “authentic” in today’s media, culture, and politics. Serazio is also the author of The Power of Sports: Media and Spectacle in American Culture and Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Guerrilla Marketing. Serazio talked about his book and Americans’ craving for authenticity in this interview with Boston College Magazine.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged Communication Department, culture, media, politics
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Michael Tubbs
When Michael Tubbs was elected mayor of Stockton (CA) in 2016 he became that city’s first Black mayor and the youngest mayor of any major city in U.S. history. He was 26 years old. Tubbs will present the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics’ Chambers Lecture on February 29 at 6 p.m. in Gasson 100. Tubbs is the author of The Deeper The Roots: A Memoir of Hope and Home (Flatiron Books, 2021), which chronicles his journey from poverty to visionary leader. As mayor from 2017-2021, Tubbs established an intervention program to reduce gun violence and created a scholarship and mentorship program for the city’s students. He currently serves as California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Special Advisor for Economic Mobility. An advocate for addressing issues related to poverty, Tubbs is the founder and chair of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income. He also is the founder of EPIC (End Poverty in California). He is the recipient of a New Frontier Award Winner from the JFK Library, and a Civic Leadership Award from The King Center.
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Journalism and the migration crisis
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matthieu Aikins will join Boston College Professor of English Min Hyoung Song on February 27 for a discussion on the experiences of refugees trying to cross heavily fortified borders, the wars in the Middle East, and the dangers of being a journalist covering such stories. The conversation will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. Aikins has reported from Afghanistan and the Middle East since 2008. He received the 2022 Pulitzer for international reporting as part of a New York Times team that investigated civilian casualties from U.S. airstrikes. In his book The Naked Don’t Fear the Water, Aikins chronicles a dangerous journey on the smuggler’s road to Europe, accompanying his friend, an Afghan refugee. The book has been translated into nine languages. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, and the anthology The Best American Magazine Writing. Song teaches in the Asian American Studies Program at BC and is the author of three books, including The Children of 1965: On Writing, and Not Writing, as an Asian American. Sponsor: BC’s Asian American Studies.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged Asian American Studies, journalism, migration, Pulitzer Prize winner
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Listening to Latin America
Writer and radio producer Daniel Alarcón will present “Stories Everywhere: Listening to Latin America” at Boston College on February 28 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall 100. Alarcón’s powerful narrative storytelling—in English and Spanish, fiction and nonfiction, print and audio—chronicles individual lives and underreported topics against the backdrop of broader geopolitical and historical forces in the United States and Central and South America. He is co-founder, host, and executive producer of “Radio Ambulante,” an award-winning Spanish-language podcast distributed by NPR. He is a contributing writer at The New Yorker. He is the author of the novels At Night We Walk in Circles and Lost City Radio and the short story collections War by Candlelight and The King is Always Above the People, which was long-listed for the National Book Award. An associate professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism, Alarcón was named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow. This free BC Humanities Series lecture is supported by an Institute for the Liberal Arts Major Grant. RSVP here to reserve seating.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad
Human rights activist Nadia Murad, a co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, will be the featured speaker at the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics’ Clough Colloquium on February 22 in the Heights Room of Corcoran Commons. Her memoir, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State, is a harrowing account of a 2014 ISIS attack on her village in Iraq. Her mother and six brothers were killed and she was kidnapped and taken into sexual slavery—one of thousands of Yazidi women and girls taken prisoner by the Islamic State. Since escaping captivity, Murad has become a leading advocate for ending sexual violence as a weapon of war. She became the first United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for the Dignity of Survivors of Human Trafficking. She is the founder and president of Nadia’s Initiative, a non-profit dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating for survivors of sexual violence. Her BC talk will begin at 4 p.m. Doors open at 3:30.
Joy Harjo: Indigenous Poetry and Native Literature
Award-winning poet, musician, and performer Joy Harjo will present “Indigenous Poetry and Native Literature” at Boston College on February 21 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Harjo was the first Native American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, a post she held from 2019 to 2022. She is the author of 10 books of poetry, including the acclaimed Weaving Sundown in a Scarlet Light. She is also the author of two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior. She served as executive editor of the anthology When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through — A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry and the editor of Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, the companion to her signature Poet Laureate project. Her many honors include the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Book Critics Circle, the Jackson Prize from Poets & Writers, the Ruth Lilly Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. Harjo’s appearance is presented by the BC Lowell Humanities Series and co-sponsored by the BC Poetry Days Series, American Studies Program, English Department, Creative Writing Discretionary Fund, and the Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America. Reserve free seating here.
Growing God
Emma—the little artist with a big dream first featured in the children’s book Drawing God—is back and looking for God in a whole new way in the book Growing God (Paraclete Press, 2024). Author Karen Kiefer, a Boston College graduate and director of the University’s Church in the 21st Century Center, has collaborated again with illustrator Kathy De Wit on Growing God. From the publisher: When Emma returns home from spending school vacation on Nana’s farm—a place where Nana says she “grows God”—Emma is inspired to try to grow God, too. Readers follow Emma as she cares for God’s creation, and finds out how a seed of opportunity can grow into something amazing. Learn more about the book, the Growing God virtual farm, and Be a Sower campaign by visiting the book’s website.
Novelist Celeste Ng
Bestselling author Celeste Ng will give a talk on February 12 as part of Cornerstone Conversations for first-year students. Her appearance will take place in Gasson Hall 100 and begins at 7 p.m. Ng is the author of Little Fires Everywhere and Our Missing Hearts. Her first novel, Everything I Never Told You, was a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book of 2014, as well as Amazon’s #1 Best Book of the year, and winner of the Massachusetts Book Award and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, among other honors. Translated into more than 30 languages, the book is being adapted for the screen. Everything I Never Told You, which tells the story of the Chinese American Lee family, who live in 1970s small-town Ohio, “is a thoughtfully crafted story about race, class, gender, ethnicity, and education, and the parental and societal expectations that mitigate how we understand ourselves and sometimes fail to understand others,” said Elizabeth “Biz” Bracher, director of the Cornerstone Seminar Programs. She noted that many faculty members teaching the Cornerstone Seminar course The Courage to Know have incorporated the book into their coursework. Ng’s appearance is sponsored by the Cornerstone Seminar Program, English Department, and Asian American Studies Program. Read more on BC News.
Age of Identity
BC Lynch School of Education and Human Development faculty members Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves, internationally recognized experts in the field of education, have collaborated on the new book, The Age of Identity: Who Do Our Kids Think They Are and How Do We Help Them Belong? (Corwin, 2023). Written for educators, families, and school board members, The Age of Identity is a compelling call to action for a proactive approach to building a learning environment that values the diverse identities of all students. The book’s message is that there’s more to all of us than meets the eye, so we need to take the time to pay greater attention to one another. In The Age of Identity, the authors set out 12 guiding principles that leaders can use to help everyone move forward together. Shirley and Hargreaves discussed the book in this Q&A.
BC Bookmarks 