Bestselling author and neuroscientist Lisa Genova will present “How Art and Science Collaborate in Illuminating What It Is Like to Live With Alzheimer’s Disease” on November 2 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Genova, who holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University, is the author of the novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, Inside the O’Briens and Every Note Played, and the non-fiction book, . Her extensively researched novels focus on people living with neurological diseases and disorders. Through her fiction, she describes with passion and accuracy the journeys of those affected by brain diseases and conditions, thereby educating, demystifying, destigmatizing, and inspiring. Still Alice, her novel about a woman living with Alzheimer’s, was adapted into a film starring Julianne Moore, who won an Academy Award for her performance. Genova has appeared on Today, CNN, PBS NewsHour, and NPR, among other media outlets. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including The Pell Center Prize for Story in the Public Square, Sargent and Eunice Shriver Profiles in Dignity Award, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Media Award, and Alzheimer’s Association’s Rita Hayworth Award. Her talk is presented by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series and is co-sponsored by the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.
Lisa Genova
Rethinking Catholic theology
Harvey D. Egan, S.J., a professor emeritus in the Boston College Theology Department, has published a new book that provides readers with an intelligent, informed, critical grasp of the central truths of the Catholic/Christian tradition. Rethinking Catholic Theology: From the Mystery of Existence to the New Creation (Paulist Press, 2023) aims to help readers to rethink more deeply these essential truths, and in what specific ways the understanding of the Catholic faith has changed and/or remained the same since Vatican II. Fr. Egan’s research areas include Christian mysticism, Catholic theology, and the works of renowned theologian Karl Rahner, S.J. He is the author of several books, including Karl Rahner: Mystic of Everyday Life; Soundings in the Christian Mystical Tradition; Ignatius Loyola the Mystic; Paul: Christianity’s Premier Apostolic Mystic, and Karl Rahner’s Mystical Theology and Christology, among others. Read more in this Q&A from BC News.
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Tagged Catholicism, Jesuit author, Theology Department
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A Chernobyl guide to the future
Kate Brown, the Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in the History of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present “The Interminable Cycles of Chernobyl’s Catastrophes: War, Accident, and War Again” at Boston College on October 25. Brown is the author of Manual for Survival: A Chernobyl Guide to the Future, which won the Marshall D. Shulman Book Prize and Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in history. Manual for Survival was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for Literary Reportage. Drawing on a decade of archival research and on-the-ground interviews in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, Brown unveils the full breadth of the devastation of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and offers a chilling exposé of the international effort to minimize the health and environmental consequences of nuclear radiation in its wake. Her talk, at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall 100, is presented by the BC Lowell Humanities Series and co-sponsored by the History Department and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.
Linda Villarosa on race, health, and inequality
Journalist and educator Linda Villarosa will present her book, Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation (Doubleday/Penguin Random House, 2022), on October 18 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. An award-winning writer at the New York Times Magazine, Villarosa writes about the intersection of health, medicine, and race. In Under the Skin, Villarosa tells the story of racial health disparities in America, revealing the forces in the U.S. health care system and in American society that cause Black people to “live sicker and die quicker” compared to their white counterparts. Under the Skin was named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Time Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly and NPR, and one of the 10 Best Books of 2022 by the New York Times. It was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize and won the 2023 J. Anthony Lukas Prize for excellence in nonfiction writing from the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and the Lillian Smith Book Award from the University of Georgia. It was nominated for an NAACP Image Award and was a finalist for the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism by the New York Public Library. A graduate of the University of Colorado, Villarosa spent a year at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as a journalism fellow. She also holds a master’s degree in urban journalism/digital storytelling from CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, where she is now a professor and journalist-in-residence. Villarosa’s appearance is co-sponsored by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series and the Lowell Humanities Series.
The future of American democracy
In her latest book, author of the popular daily newsletter “Letters from an American,” explains how America, once a beacon of democracy, now teeters on the brink of autocracy—and how it can turn back. Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led the country into authoritarianism—creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Read more in BC News. | Boston Globe Q&A | CBS Mornings | Washington Post book review | WBUR On Point | Boston Globe Books
Poverty, American style
Matthew Desmond, a Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient, will give a talk on his latest bestseller, Poverty, by America (Crown/Penguin Random House, 2023). Desmond draws on history, research, and original reporting to show how affluent Americans knowingly and unknowingly keep poor people poor by exploiting the poor and driving down their wages while forcing them to overpay for housing and access to cash and credit. Desmond builds a startlingly original and ambitious case for ending poverty. He challenges Americans to become poverty abolitionists, engaged in a politics of collective belonging to usher in a new age of shared prosperity and true freedom. Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University whose acclaimed book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City transformed the understanding of inequity and economic exploitation in America. It won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, Carnegie Medal, and PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction. Desmond’s talk will take place on October 11 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. The event is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and co-sponsored by the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, PULSE Program for Service Learning, and Sociology Department.
Ryan Stovall on how to talk to veterans
Former U.S. Army Green Beret Ryan Stovall will read from his first book, Black Snowflakes Smothering A Torch, at an October 4 event sponsored by BC’s Veteran Programs and Services. Stovall’s collection of poetry explores his service and return to civilian life and serves as a primer for facilitating dialogue between those who have experience with war and those who do not. The event will take place in the Heights Room at Corcoran Commons beginning at 5 p.m. Stovall—who was awarded two decorations for valor and two Purple Hearts—will talk about how soldiers, veterans, and those without military experience can better communicate with each other. An audience Q&A will follow. Stovall’s appearance is part of the “BC Battle Buddies” initiative that Assistant Director for Veteran Programs & Services Mike Lorenz said seeks to bridge the “conversation gap” between veterans and non-veterans and create a more military-inclusive environment on campus. According to Lorenz, there are approximately 170 student veterans and more than 80 employees who served in the armed forces at BC.
Social media influencers
Emily Hund, author of the book, The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media (Princeton University Press, 2023), will offer a history of the rise to prominence of social media influencers at a campus talk on October 4. Hund is a research affiliate at the Center on Digital Culture and Society at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. The Influencer Industry tells the story of how early digital creators scrambling for work amid the Great Recession gave rise to the multibillion-dollar influencer industry that has fundamentally reshaped culture, the flow of information, and the way we relate to ourselves and each other. Drawing on in-depth interviews with leading social media influencers, brand executives, marketers, talent managers, trend forecasters, and others, Hund shows how the creating, monetizing, and marketing of social media content has permeated our lives and untangles the unforeseen cultural and economic costs. Hund’s talk will be held in Gasson Hall, room 202, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Mickey Rowe: Fearlessly different
Boston College’s DeVoy Perspectives on Theatre Series will present a conversation with groundbreaking performer Mickey Rowe on October 4 beginning at 7 p.m. The event, free and open to the public, will take place at the Robsham Theater Arts Center. Autistic and legally blind, Rowe has had a prolific and varied career as an actor, director, consultant, and public speaker. He is the author of the book Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor’s Journey to Broadway’s Biggest Stage. Rowe was the first autistic actor to play the lead role in the Tony Award-winning play “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,” which will be staged next month at the Robsham Theater. He also performed the title role in the Tony Award-winning play “Amadeus,” and founded the National Disability Theatre.
Confronting racism in testing and assessment
Systemic Racism and Educational Measurement: Confronting Injustice in Testing, Assessment, and Beyond (Routledge, 2023), a new book written by BC Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Michael Russell, provides a theoretical and historical reckoning with racism and oppression in the research and practice of testing, educational measurement, and assessment. Russell’s book is the first to posit that the theory of the White Racial Frame was, and continues to be, applied to the foundations, process, dissemination, and use of educational measurement, leading to instruments, findings, and decisions that perpetuate the racialized social structure of our nation. Russell is an expert in measurement, evaluation, statistics, and assessment and currently serves on the Technical Advisory Committees for several state assessment and accountability programs. Read more on BC News.
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