Four girls, all named Taylor
Taylor is terrified to start middle school. She wishes she could fade into the background, unnoticed. But on the first day of school, she finds herself in the spotlight when it’s revealed that her homeroom class has four girls all named Taylor. So goes the start of Boston College alumna Jen Calonita’s newest book for middle grade readers, The Taylors (Scholastic, 2025). The four Taylors, all Taylor Swift fans, become friends until a surprise betrayal threatens to change everything. Calonita is the bestselling author of more than 40 books for teen and young adults.
Shakespeare and Catholic education
Exploring Catholic Faith in Shakespearean Drama: Towards a Philosophy of Education (Routledge, 2025) is a new volume that investigates the connection between William Shakespeare and Catholic education, arguing that Shakespeare’s plays explore Catholic understandings of human life in ways that remain relevant for Catholic educational institutions today. One of the co-authors of Exploring Catholic Faith in Shakespearean Drama is Luke Taylor, S.J., a Jesuit scholastic and student in the Clough School of Theology and Ministry. Taylor, who holds a doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard University, and co-authors David Torevell and Brandon Schneeberger demonstrate Shakespeare’s wide-ranging engagement with early modern Catholic belief and practice. At the same time, they argue that Shakespeare’s treatment of Catholic faith, through imaginative literature rather than magisterial discourse, and dramatically rather than didactically, provides a pedagogical model for contemporary teachers. Taylor talked about the book on AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast.
Carbon dioxide
Drawing on groundbreaking research, award-winning science journalist Peter Brannen offers a deep understanding of the critical role carbon dioxide plays on Earth in his new book, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World (Ecco/Harper Collins, 2025). As Brannen explains, carbon dioxide isn’t merely the by-product of burning fossil fuels—it is also fundamental to how the planet works, calling CO2 the most important substance on Earth. In The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything, Brannen shows how carbon dioxide has been responsible for the planet’s many deaths and rebirths, for shaping the evolution of life, and for the development of modern human society. He argues that it’s only by reckoning with this planetary-scale history that we can understand the stakes of the current moment on Earth—and how dangerous mankind’s experiment with the climate really is. Brannen earned a bachelor’s degree from BC in 2006 and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, Aeon, The Boston Globe, Slate and The Guardian among other publications. He is also the author of The Ends of the World.
Eco-Consciousness in the Lives of Enslaved Black Women
Prize-winning historian Tiya Miles will present “Eco-Consciousness in the Lives of Enslaved Black Women” at Boston College on October 8 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. Miles is the author of eight books, including the highly acclaimed All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, a bestseller that won 11 historical and literary prizes, including the Cundill History Prize, the Frederick Douglass Prize, and a National Book Award. Her latest book is the biography Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People. Her work primarily explores the intersections of African American, Native American, and women’s histories in the context of place. She has published essays and reviews in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and other publications. A MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Award recipient, Miles is the Michael Garvey Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University. Her lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities and cosponsored by the History Department, American Studies, African and African Diaspora Studies, Women’s Studies, Environmental Studies, the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and the Forum for Racial Justice in America. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Poetry prizes for Alvarez
Amy M. Alvarez, an associate professor of the practice at Messina College, was named the winner of the inaugural CARICON Prize for Poetry by the CARICON Foundation for her collection of poems, Makeshift Altar (The University Press of Kentucky, 2024). The CARICON Prize honors literary outstanding literary works by Caribbean authors across the Caribbean and the diaspora. The judging panel characterized Makeshift Altar as “stunning” and “a fearless meditation on belonging and becoming.” Alvarez is also the recipient of a 2025 American Book Award for Makeshift Altar. Alvarez teaches writing and literature courses at Messina College. Read more from BC News.
Teacher power
Boston College graduate Tanji Reed Marshall is a nationally recognized and sought-after expert on educational equity and educational leadership. Her book Understanding Your Instructional Power: (ASCD, 2023), helps teacher candidates reflect on how everyday decisions around curriculum, language, time, and space can either affirm student identity or unintentionally limit it. Drawing from her own experience as a classroom teacher and coach, Reed Marshall offers support and encouragement to K–12 teachers seeking to use their power in productive ways so that all students can bring their full selves to class and receive the education they deserve. Reed Marshall is the CEO and Principal Consultant of Liaison Educational Partners. She has more than two decades of experience in advancing practice on behalf of students of color, those experiencing economic uncertainty, and those perpetually left on the margins of the education system. She partners with states, school districts, schools, and education organizations to solve complex issues related to educational equity and improve educational leadership. Reed Marshall earned a bachelor’s degree from BC in 1986. She also holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech.
‘Woody’s Words’
The life of Woodrow “Woody” Wilson Rawls, the author of the classic children’s book Where the Red Fern Grows, is the subject of a new nonfiction picture book written by Boston College graduate Lisa Rogers. Woody’s Words (Calkins Creek, 2025) pays homage to the persistence and creativity Rawls demonstrated in chasing his dreams. According to the book, after Rawls read The Call of the Wild, he was determined to become a teller of tales. He went on to write several novels and publish two books for children. Woody’s Words is illustrated by Susan Reagan. An award-winning author, Rogers has written other biographies for young readers, including Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage and
‘A Ghost in the Throat’
Poet and essayist Doireann Ní Ghríofa will talk about her prose debut, A Ghost in the Throat, at Boston College on September 24 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100. A Ghost in the Throat is a genre-defying work that melds the epic lament by 18th-century Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill with the author’s own meditations on motherhood and life. A Ghost in the Throat was an An Post Irish Book Awards Nonfiction Book of the Year, a Guardian Best Book of 2020, a winner of the James Tait Black Biography Prize, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2021, an NPR Best Book of 2021, and a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, among other honors. Her lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and cosponsored by Boston College Irish Studies. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Plato and ecological guardianship
Award-winning educator Melissa Lane will present “Plato’s Republic on Motivating Ecological Guardianship” at Boston College on September 18 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall 110. Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University, where she is also Associated Faculty in Classics and in Philosophy. Her most recent book, Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, was awarded the 2024 Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize. She also is the author of Eco-Republic: What the Ancients Can Teach Us about Ethics, Virtue, and Sustainable Living, among other titles. This Lowell Humanities Series Lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Posted in Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged ecology, environment, philosophy, politics
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