Francisco Cantú, an agent for the United States Border Patrol from 2008 to 2012, will discuss his memoir, The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border (Riverhead Books, 2018), on Mar. 27 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. The Line Becomes a River was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award and lauded as a top 10 book of the year by The Washington Post. Listen to an NPR interview with Cantú. Cantú is a former Fulbright fellow and recently earned an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Arizona. His essays and translations appear frequently in Guernica magazine, and his work appeared in The Best American Essays 2016, among other publications. Co-sponsors: Lowell Humanities Series and the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics. Read a Boston Globe Q&A with Cantú published earlier this month.
Dispatches from the border
Conclusion of the Saga of the Redeemed
The fourth and final installment of the Saga of the Redeemed, a fantasy book series created by Boston College alumnus Auston Habershaw, has been published. The Far Far Better Thing (Harper Voyager, 2019) tells the concluding chapter of Tyvian Reldamar’s story. Tyvian feigns death while a war is fought in his name against the warlord Banric Sahand. But circumstances bring Tyvian back into action. The only question is what remains when the smoke clears?
Award for Oliveira
Motherhood across Borders: Immigrants and Their Children in Mexico and New York (NYU Press, 2018) by BC Lynch School Assistant Professor Gabrielle Oliveira has been honored with the inaugural Outstanding Ethnography in Education Book Award from the Ethnography in Education Research Forum. The award recognizes a book-length academic publication that draws on ethnographic inquiry into education. Read more about Oliveira and her book in this BC News story.
In praise of floods
James C. Scott, director of the Agrarian Studies Program at Yale University, will present “In Praise of Floods: The Study of Rivers and Civilization” on Mar. 20 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Scott’s books include Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, and The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, among other titles. A political scientist and anthropologist, Scott studies political economy, comparative agrarian societies, theories of hegemony and resistance, peasant politics, revolution, Southeast Asia, theories of class relations and anarchism. He is the Sterling Professor of Political Science and Professor of Anthropology at Yale, and has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Sponsor: Lowell Humanities Series.
Posted in Guest Authors, Lowell Humanities Series
Tagged agrarian societies, political
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Before and Again
Before and Again (St. Martin’s Press, 2018), the newest novel from best-selling author and Boston College alumna Barbara Delinsky, begins with a horrifying moment. While driving on an unfamiliar road, Mackenzie Cooper misses a stop sign. The resulting car accident kills her five-year-old daughter, and in the aftermath Mackenzie also loses her marriage, family, friends, and—thanks to intense media coverage—her privacy. According to the publisher: “Before and Again is a story of the relationships we find ourselves in—mothers and daughters, spouses and siblings, true companions and fair-weather friends—and what kind of sacrifices we are or aren’t willing to make to sustain them through good times and bad.” Publishers Weekly calls Before and Again “deeply moving” and “a rewarding, emotionally intense novel.” Delinsky writes character-driven novels about marriage, parenthood, siblings, and friendship. She has had 22 books on the New York Times best sellers list, and her novels have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
“Make the Most of Your 20s”
Society’s “30 is the new 20” mantra is a disservice to the country’s 50 million twentysomethings, according to clinical psychologist Meg Jay, author of the best-selling book The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter–And How to Make the Most of Them Now. Drawing on more than 10 years of work with hundreds of twentysomething clients and students, Jay contends that a young person’s 20s is the most transformative period of their adult lives and should not be trivialized as a benign decade of delayed adolescence. Jay will present “How to Make the Most of Your 20s,” on Mar. 14 in McGuinn Auditorium at 6 p.m. The event is presented by Capstone, Cornerstone, the Carroll School of Management Dean’s Office, and CSOM’s Fulton Leadership Society. Watch her TED talk, “Why 30 is not the new 20,” which has more than 10 million views.
Religion in the White House
Kenneth L. Woodward, who was the religion editor at Newsweek magazine for nearly 40 years, will present the 2nd Annual Wolfe Lecture on Religion and American Politics on Mar. 14 in Gasson Hall, room 305, beginning at 6 p.m. In his talk, titled “Religion in the White House,” Woodward will discuss how most of the assumptions about the relationships between religion and politics are wrong. He will argue that no connection can be found between any American president’s religious faith, or lack of it, and his foreign or domestic policy. Then he will examine the so-called “religious vote,” particularly the Evangelical vote in the 2016 election. Woodward is the author of four books, including Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Ascent of Trump. RSVP: Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life.
“Ideas from the Catholic Press”
Crux editor John L. Allen Jr., a journalist highly regarded for his coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church, and Matt Malone, S.J., president and editor in chief of America Media, will be the panelists for “Revitalizing Our Church: Ideas from the Catholic Press” a Church in the 21st Century Center event being held on March 12 at 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 110. The panelists will consider the question of how can the Church be a more effective institution and restore its credibility among the faithful? Jack Dunn, associate vice president for University Communications, will serve as moderator. RSVP requested. More from BC News.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged Catholic Church, Church in the 21st Century Center, journalism, media
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Understanding Gaudete et Exsultate
In his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis calls on Christians to fully embrace their baptismal call to live the Gospel. Franciscan friar and author Daniel P. Horan, a Boston College alumnus, has written a book to guide readers through Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation. Reading, Praying, Living Pope Francis’s Rejoice and Be Glad (Liturgical Press, 2019) offers helpful commentary, additional context, and expert insight. The publisher calls Fr. Horan’s book “the most extensive and helpful commentary on Gaudete et Exsultate available anywhere.” Fr. Horan teaches at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and is the author of several books, including God is Not Fair and Other Reasons for Gratitude and The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton: A New Look at the Spiritual Influence of His Life, Thought, and Writing.
Going haywire
Jerry Haywire is a new book by Boston College alumnus Ryan Morgan (writing under the pen name Forrester C. Fox). Jerry Haywire tells the story of sports agent Maddox Malone whose greed and fast-paced career eventually catch up with him. Faced with problems at work and at home, Maddox begins to question all of his assumptions. Jerry Haywire is Morgan’s first novel.
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