In Curriculum by Design: Innovation and the Liberal Arts Core (Fordham University Press, 2023), authors from Boston College describe how the University’s journey to a new Core Curriculum—aided by consultation with a firm specializing in design thinking—energized faculty, administrators, and students to view liberal arts education as an ongoing process of innovation. The book was edited by Carroll School of Management Powers Family Dean Andrew Boynton, Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley, and Rattigan Professor of English Mary Crane, director of BC’s Institute for the Liberal Arts, all of whom contributed to the volume. Many at BC who have been teaching the new courses in the revitalized curriculum wrote essays for Curriculum by Design. They are: Allison Adair, Lynne Anderson, Robert Bartlett, William Bole, Toby Bottorf, John Butler, Daniel Callahan, Hanne Eisenfeld, Thomas Epstein, Brian Gareau, Tara Gareau, Elizabeth Graver, Stacy Grooters, Régine Michelle Jean-Charles, Gregory Kalscheur, S.J., Elizabeth Kowaleski-Wallace, Prasannan Parthasarathi, Brian Robinette, Juliet Schor, Sylvia Sellers-García, Elizabeth H. Shlala, Min Hyoung Song, Jenna Tonn, Holly VandeWall and Dunwei Wang. The essays offer practical advice on the initial challenges of interdisciplinary and team teaching, problem- or project-based learning, intentional reflection, and other innovative structures and methods of teaching enacted for the first time. Read more on BC News.
Curriculum by Design
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Political Rhetoric
Political Rhetoric in Theory and Practice (Cambridge University Press, 2023), edited by Boston College Behrakis Professor in Hellenic Political Studies Robert Bartlett and Associate Professor of Political Science Nasser Behnegar, is an introduction to the art of rhetoric (persuasive speaking). A collection of primary sources, it combines classic statements of the theory of political rhetoric (Aristotle, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Cicero) with an array of political speeches, from Socrates to Martin Luther King Jr., Pericles to Richard Nixon, Sojourner Truth to Phyllis Schlafly. These speeches exemplify not only the three principal kinds of rhetoric–judicial, deliberative, and epideictic–but also the principal rhetorical proofs. From the publisher: “At a time when the practice of democracy and democratic deliberation are much in question, this book seeks to encourage the serious study of rhetoric by making available important examples of it, in both its noblest and its most scurrilous forms.”
New poetry from Pluto
How Many Miles to Babylon? (Lily Poetry Review, 2023) is a new poetry collection from Anne Elezabeth Pluto, a faculty member in the Woods College of Advancing Studies. Pluto ponders sorrow, grief, and endurance in what is described as “an ambitious collection that navigates the political and the personal with equal aplomb—past and present wars in her ancestral homeland, homages to her literary idols, memories of friends and teachers from childhood, and most poignantly, elegies for the speaker’s beloved partner.” Pluto’s other publications include Lubbock Electric, Benign Protection, and The Deepest Part of Dark.
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Tagged grief, poems, poetry, Woods College of Advancing Studies
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Graduate’s debut short story collection
Pushcart Prize-nominated writer Sofia T. Romero, a Boston College graduate, has published We Have Always Been Who We Are (Blackstone Publishing, 2023), her highly anticipated debut collection of speculative fiction with a distinctly Latina perspective. The interrelated short stories evoke the haunting beauty of New England beaches and resonate with a bittersweet loneliness, blurring the lines between life and death, reality and fantasy. At turns humorous, sorrowful, and whimsical, Romero’s collection conveys the follies of youth, the regrets of life, and a sense of loss. Romero’s writing has appeared in several publications, including Necessary Fiction, Blue Mountain Review, Rigorous, and Waterwheel Review. She graduated from Boston College with a master’s degree in English.
Protecting our digital future
The exponential growth in SaaS (software as a service) data poses significant challenges for enterprises worldwide. In a new book, Simon Taylor, a research fellow in the M.S. in Cybersecurity Policy & Governance Program at the Woods College of Advancing Studies, offers an in-depth exploration into these complexities, discussing the vulnerabilities of existing data protection systems as the volume of data in SaaS applications expands. Through real-world illustrations involving renowned entities like the Boston Red Sox, Zebra Technologies, and Bain Capital, provides both illustrative warnings and demonstrative solutions. Taylor is founder and CEO of HYCU, the world’s leading multi-cloud and SaaS backup and recovery software businesses.
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Campus voices against violence
In Voices of Campus Sexual Violence Activists (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023), BC Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Ana M. Martínez-Alemán and co-author Susan B. Marine share the stories and strategies of college student activists fighting to end sexual violence on campuses. In the book, Gen Z students describe how they use collective mobilization and activism through social media, in addition to long-established campus organizing techniques, in their efforts to eradicate sexual violence. This book highlights the experiences of prominent campus activists and their allies and the policy and practice implications of their movements for campus leaders. Martínez-Alemán and Marine conclude with recommendations for institutional decision-making and practices that incorporate the experiences and opinions of student activists. The authors discuss their book on this Student Affairs Now podcast.
Formative Theological Education
A new book from faculty members in the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry offers a guide to the art of theological education from the perspective of formative education sensibilities and commitments. Formative Theological Education (Paulist Press, 2023), co-edited by Professor of the Practice of Theology Colleen Griffith and Associate Professor of Theology and Education Hosffman Ospino, was officially launched at a recent campus celebration that marked the STM’s 15th anniversary. In addition to Griffith and Ospino, the other STM contributors are John Baldovin, S.J.; Andrew Davis; Thomas Groome; Callid Keefe-Perry; Melissa Kelley; Rev. Richard Lennan; and Theresa O’Keefe. Read more about the book from BC News.
Beautiful noise
John Cage was a pioneering, inspiring composer who believed all sound—from the crash of a slamming door to the whir of a blender to the whoosh of the wind—was music. Boston College graduate Lisa Rogers introduces youngsters to Cage in the new picture book, Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage (Schwartz/Random, 2023). Cage was a nonconforming musician who found music was everywhere and stayed true to his artistic vision. The book is illustrated by Il Sung Na. Rogers is a children’s book author and elementary school library teacher whose previous publications include the award-winning 16 Words: William Carlos Williams and “The Red Wheelbarrow” and Hound Won’t Go. She talks about how she came to write Beautiful Noise in this interview.
Disability justice
Persons with disability make up at least 15 percent of the global population, yet disability justice is an underdeveloped area of theological ethics, according to School of Theology and Ministry Professor of Moral Theology Mary Jo Iozzio, author of the new book, Disability Ethics and Preferential Justice: A Catholic Perspective (Georgetown University Press, 2023). Her book is a primer on disability ethics that offers practical strategies based on Catholic social teaching to inspire deliberate action for an increasingly inclusive and participatory Church and society. BC Libraries recently featured a video of Iozzio discussing her book.
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Tagged disability, ethics, School of Theology and Ministry
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Theological Book of the Year
Ligita Ryliškytė, SJE, a visiting assistant professor of systematic theology in the BC Theology Department, was awarded Theological Book of the Year by the European Society for Catholic Theology. She was honored for her book, Why the Cross? Divine Friendship and the Power of Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2023). In Why the Cross?, Sister Ryliškytė addresses what is arguably the most important and profound question in systematic theology: What does it mean for humankind to be saved by the cross? Offering a constructive account of the atonement that avoids pitting God’s saving love against divine justice, she provides a biblically grounded and philosophically disciplined theology of the cross that responds to the exigencies of postmodern secular culture. Her book reveals a Christology of fundamental significance for contemporary systematic theology, as well as for the fields of theological ethics and Christian spirituality. Sister Ryliškytė is a native of Lithuania and a member of an Ignatian community, the Sisters of the Eucharistic Jesus.
Posted in Awards/Honors, Boston College Authors
Tagged systematic theology, Theology Department
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