Professor of English Elizabeth Graver has written a review of Niall Williams’ novel, This is Happiness, for The New York Times. In his latest work, Williams’ narrator, 78-year-old Noel Crowe, reflects back on the time he spent in his grandparents’ village in County Clare. Graver calls This is Happiness a “big-hearted novel.” Graver, who co-directs the Creative Writing Concentration at BC, is the author of several novels, most recently The End of the Point, which was long-listed for a National Book Award in fiction.
Graver’s NYT Books review
Nancy Paulsen Books
Boston College alumna Nancy Paulsen is president and publisher of her own imprint for young readers at Penguin publishing house, where she has worked for more than two decades. Nancy Paulsen Books publishes 15 books a year and focuses on diverse and distinctive voices and books that offer kids hope. Read more from Boston College Magazine.
Ethics in a world of strangers
A philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist, Kwame Anthony Appiah is a professor of philosophy and law at New York University and has an interest in political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. He will present “Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers” on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. in McGuinn Auditorium. He most recently wrote The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity (Liveright/WW Norton & Company, 2018), an exploration of how the collective identities that shape our polarized world are riddled with contradiction. He also is the author of The Honor Code, Cosmopolitanism, and The Ethics of Identity, among other works. He has taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Harvard, and lectured at other universities in the United States, France, Germany, Ghana, and South Africa. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series. Co-sponsors: The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, Global Citizenships Project, and International Studies Program. Read a Q&A with Appiah in New York Magazine.
Water ethics
Christiana Zenner of Fordham University, whose research is at the nexus of fresh water ethics, ecological theory, earth science, and Catholic social teaching, will give a public lecture on Dec. 4 at 5 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Zenner is the author of Just Water (Orbis Books), which explores the necessity and availability of a supply of fresh water from the perspective of Christian ethics. The title of her lecture is “The Convenience Just Tastes So Good: Profit, Public Health, and Ethics in Our Ongoing Desire for Bottled Waters.” Zenner’s commentary has appeared in the Washington Post and The New Republic and her research has been published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, and Journal of Moral Theology, among other publications. Sponsored by PULSE’s 50th Anniversary with the following co-sponsors: The Office of the Dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, Environmental Studies Program, and Theology Department.
Rejuvenation
Boston College graduate Dr. Robert Willix focuses on seven distinct causes of accelerated aging in his new book, The Rejuvenation Solution : Age in Reverse–7 Proven Medical Breakthroughs That Prevent Disease and Make You Feel Years Younger, and outlines ways readers can combat theses causes of aging through a combination of anti-aging foods, supplements, and exercises. By following his comprehensive plan, he asserts you can fight inflammation, keep cells youthful, and activate the body’s anti-aging hormones. Dr. Willix is CEO of Enlightened Living Medicine and the chief medical officer and director of energy medicine at the Hippocrates Health Institute in Palm Beach, Florida.
New Solutions to the Anxiety Epidemic
Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Emeritus John Dacey, a psychotherapist who has first-person experience with PTSD, has launched a podcast, New Solutions to the Anxiety Epidemic. Through his podcast, he shares his personal experience and professional expertise as a means to help people living with anxiety disorders–something that affects some 40 million people in the U.S. Dacey is the author/co-author of several books, including Your Anxious Child: How Parents and Teachers Can Relieve Anxiety in Children; The Joyful Family: Meaningful Activities and Heartfelt Celebrations for Connecting with the Ones You Love, and Your Child’s Social and Emotional Well-Being: A Complete Guide for Parents and Those Who Help Them.
Rabbi Langer honored
Rabbi Ruth Langer, a professor of Jewish Studies in the Theology Department, recently received the Eternal Light Award from Saint Leo University’s Center for Catholic-Jewish Studies, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to Catholic-Jewish studies. Langer is the associate director of BC’s Center for Christian-Jewish Learning and chair of the Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. She is the author of a number of books, including Jewish Liturgy: A Guide to Research and Cursing the Christians?: A History of the Birkat HaMinim.
Posted in Awards/Honors
Tagged Center for Christian-Jewish Learning, Theology Department
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Political scientist wins book award
Assistant Professor of Political Science Lindsey O’Rourke, whose expertise includes international security, U.S. foreign policy, and military strategy, has won the International Security Studies Section Best Book Award for her book, Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2018). The ISSS is a section of the International Studies Association, an organization of some 7,000 members representing more than 100 countries that is dedicated to the study and teaching of international, transnational, and global affairs. The annual Best Book Award recognizes a book on any aspect of security studies “that excels in originality, significance, and rigor.” More from BC News.
Posted in Awards/Honors, Boston College Authors
Tagged foreign policy, Political Science department
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The twilight of Modernity
Professor of English Emeritus Paul Mariani has spent 50 years writing poetry that celebrates the vibrant sacramentality of life in the twilight of Modernity. His new book, The Mystery of It All: The Vocation of Poetry in the Twilight of Modernity (Paraclete Press, 2019), is a life-spanning collection of his prose explorations of what it means to be a person of wonder and imagination. Mariani is the author of 18 books, including biographies of poets Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Hart Crane, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and William Carlos Williams. His biography of Crane, The Broken Tower, was made into a film directed by and starring James Franco. Earlier this year, Mariani was honored with the Flannery O’Connor Lifetime Achievement Award.
Twice ordained
John R. Willis, S.J., (1917-2001) was a popular professor of history at Boston College who was known for his humility, sense of humor, and eclectic interests, which ranged from opera to movies to motorcycles. He also served as dean of BC’s College of Arts & Sciences and was devoted to prison ministry. Before he entered the Society of Jesus, Fr. Willis had been a Congregationalist minister. A memoir written by Fr. Willis was recently unearthed from a forgotten moving box. Fr. Willis’ friend of 40 years and fellow Jesuit Harvey Egan, S.J., edited and published the memoir under the title Twice Ordained. The volume offers an intimate view of a person dealing with the deaths of his parents and with religious bigotry after he was received into the Roman Catholic Church, as well as his musings on Jesuit academic life, music, and his travels. According to Fr. Egan, Fr. Willis’ book “shows a person unafraid to reveal his intimate longings, loves, joys, friendships, hopes, fears, mistakes, and disappointments.”
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