In Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds (University of Massachusetts Press/Bright Leaf, 2019), historian Jared Ross Hardesty tells the story of slavery in New England, focusing on individual stories of enslaved people and bringing their experiences to life. He also explores larger issues such as the importance of slavery to the colonization of the region and to agriculture and industry, New England’s deep connections to Caribbean plantation societies, and the significance of emancipation movements in the era of the American Revolution. Hardesty is a Boston College alumnus who is currently an associate professor of history at Western Washington University. He also is the author of Unfreedom: Slavery and Dependence in Eighteenth-Century Boston.
Slavery in New England
Dean’s Colloquium: Carlo Rotella
The Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Colloquium will feature Professor of English and author Carlo Rotella, who will discuss his new book The World is Always Coming to An End (University of Chicago Press). For his book, Rotella returned to his old neighborhood, Chicago’s South Side, to find that the hollowing out of the middle class has left haves and have-nots separated by an expanding gap that makes it hard for them to recognize each other as neighbors. The Dean’s Colloquium will take place on Sept. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101.
Morgan Jerkins
Morgan Jerkins, who explores black girlhood and womanhood in America in her best-selling essay collection This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America (Harper Perennial 2018), will speak at BC Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in McGuinn Auditorium. Jerkins teaches at Columbia University and her writing has been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and ELLE, among other outlets. Sponsor: Women’s and Gender Studies Program.
Mary Robinson on climate justice
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, will give a talk on the subject of her new book Climate Justice—Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018) on Sept. 11 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall. Climate Justice was written with journalist Caitríona Palmer, a BC alumna. Robinson is adjunct professor of climate justice at Trinity College Dublin and a recipient of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom. She sits on the advisory board of Sustainable Energy For All (SE4All) and serves on the board of the European Climate Foundation. She also is chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela who work together for peace, justice, and human rights. Robinson also is the author of a memoir, Everybody Matters. Robinson’s lecture is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series and co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and Earth and Environmental Sciences Department.
A Russian Immigrant
The lives of immigrants are fueled by a combustible mix of success and alienation. In his new work, A Russian Immigrant: Three Novellas (Cherry Orchard Books, 2019), Boston College Professor Maxim D. Shrayer captures those feelings in the story of Simon Reznikov, a Boston-based immigrant whose Russian, Jewish, and Soviet identities are explored in three interconnected novellas that span time and place. According to the publisher, in Shrayer’s “literary manifesto of Russian Jews in America” there are “vectors of love and desire, nostalgia and amnesia, violence and forgiveness, politics and aesthetics guiding his immigrant characters while also disorienting them in their new American lives.” Read an excerpt from A Russian Immigrant in The Tablet.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged immigration, Jewish, Russia, Slavic and Eastern Languages Dept
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A Flicker of Hope
Boston College alumnus Chuck Abdella concludes his fantasy book series with A Flicker of Hope. In the Outcasts series’ fourth book, the heroes find themselves questioning whether the world is even worth saving and facing doubt about themselves and each other. But, according to the publisher, “the power of friendship endures. For beneath an ocean of darkness, there is always a flicker of hope.” When he is not writing, Abdella is teaching history at St. John’s High School in Shrewsbury, Mass.
The Master Plan
This summer, the Boston College Class of 2023 has been reading The Master Plan: My Journey from Life in Prison to a Life of Purpose (G.P. Putnam’s Sons/Penguin Random House, 2019) by Chris Wilson, with Bret Witter. Wilson grew up in violent circumstances and was sentenced to life in prison for first degree murder. In prison, he got his diploma, earned an associate’s degree, and read hundreds of books. He focused on self-improvement and developed a “master plan” to turn his life around, and if he ever got out of prison, develop a business and help others. Listen to Wilson talk about his book on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” Wilson will speak to the Class of 2023 at First Year Academic Convocation on Sept. 5. Learn more about BC’s tradition of the common read for first-year students and convocation in this video.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged First Year Academic Convocation, prison, redemption, violence
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Searching for home
The thread running through Michael Brendan Dougherty’s book My Father Left Me Ireland: An American Son’s Search for Home (Sentinel/Penguin Random House, 2019) is the author’s spiritual development, which culminates in the discovery of his own vocation as a father. Boston College Philosophy Department faculty member Santiago Ramos, who received his doctorate from BC, reviews Dougherty’s book for Commonweal magazine.
Posted in Boston College Book Reviewer
Tagged Ireland, memoir, Philosophy Department
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Portraits of the American West
Frank Bergon, a novelist, critic, and essayist who grew up on a ranch in California’s San Joaquin Valley, brings his intimate knowledge of the area and writing talents together in his new book, Two-Buck Chuck & The Marlboro Man: The New Old West (University of Nevada Press, 2019). Bergon’s book is a collection of essays about real-life figures from the American West, a diverse area of ethnicities and lives that straddle the Old West and 21st century realities. Their stories are often unheard and their region of the country often misunderstood. Bergon is a Boston College alumnus who has taught at the University of Washington and Vassar College and is a member of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. His other books include Jesse’s Ghost, Shoshone Mike, and Wild Game.
The tale of Arthur the Theologian
Arthur the Theologian and his encounter with Burns Library’s copy of the Douai Bible, the first Modern English bible, gained some modest fame in 2013 thanks to a post in the Burns Library’s blog. Arthur the Theologian returned to the spotlight this summer when artwork from Burns Library Conservator Barbara Adams Hebard was featured in the Annual Print and Paper Exchange exhibit from the New England Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. Hebard’s whimsical collage, titled “A Transformed Arthur the Theologian is greeted by St. Peter at the Gate of Heaven,” brings the tale of Arthur the Theologian to its conclusion.
BC Bookmarks 