Historian Alvin Jackson, who served as the 1996-97 Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College, will present “The Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2017: Bloodshed, Borders and Brexit” on Apr. 10 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Jackson, whose research focuses on modern Irish, Scottish, and British history, is the Richard Lodge Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of several books, including The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007; The Ulster Party, 1884-1911, and Ireland 1798-1998: Politics and War. His talk is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series with the Irish Studies Program and by the Gerson Family Lecture Fund, established by John A. and Jean N. Gerson, P’14.
Bloodshed, borders and Brexit
Chicago’s Cabrini-Green
Ben Austen, the author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing (HarperCollins, 2018), will give a talk at 6 p.m. on April 9 in Gasson Hall, room 301. Austen’s book, the story of Chicago’s public housing development, intertwines personal narratives, city politics, and national history. High-Risers has been compared to other literary non-fiction works such as Evicted, The Warm of Other Suns, Common Ground, and There Are No Children Here. Austen’s writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, GQ, and New York magazine, among other publications. Read an interview with Austen in the Chicago Tribune. Sponsors: The Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, The Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action, and the Institute for the Liberal Arts.
Wolves of Eden
Author Kevin McCarthy, a Boston College alumnus, will read from his latest work, Wolves of Eden (W.W. Norton & Co., 2018), on Apr. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in Higgins Hall, room 310. Wolves of Eden is a historical fiction novel about Irish immigrants serving in the U. S. army in 1866 in the Dakota territory. It was named one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2018. The Irish Times called Wolves of Eden “a compelling tale” and “a brutal, blood-soaked and unsentimental account of the Old West that bears comparison with Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.” McCarthy is also the author of Peeler, which was selected by the Irish Times as one of its Top Ten Thrillers of 2010 and as a Read of the Year by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Irregulars, which was shortlisted for the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the year in 2013. McCarthy’s reading is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Concentration and Irish Studies.
A Prisoner’s Tears
Professor Emeritus of Theology Harvey D. Egan, S.J., has played an instrumental role in the publication of two works by a man who has been incarcerated for more than 40 years. Fr. Egan copyedited and helped to get published two books written by David Ansgar Nyberg. A Puddle of Light: A Prisoner’s Tears (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2018) is described as “reminiscent of the prison literature of Oscar Wilde, Ezra Pound, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others—and with a style often poetic and sometimes humorous.” Nyberg’s other book, Broken: The Myth of Equity in American Jurisprudence (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2019), “demonstrates how the judicial doctrine of the Dred Scott decision is the same judicial philosophy of strict constructionism, the dominant judicial policy of contemporary America.” Fr. Egan has been corresponding with Nyberg for more than a decade. According to Fr. Egan, Nyberg has degrees in law, history, and psychology. He is self-taught in Latin and Greek and is a voracious reader of philosophy, theology, history, and the history of languages. Nyberg’s books are available via MoreBooks.
Exonerated
Anthony Ray Hinton, who was exonerated after spending nearly 30 years on death row, will present “Surviving Criminal Justice in America” on Apr. 3 at 4:00 p.m. in the Murray Function Room at Yawkey Center. Hinton was wrongfully convicted of two 1985 murders in Alabama and sentenced to die. After an extended legal battle, his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court and ultimately the charges against him were dismissed. After his release, he wrote (with Lara Love Hardin) the bestselling book, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (St. Martin’s Press, 2018). The book, chosen as Oprah’s Book Club Summer 2018 Selection, has been called “an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times.” Hinton has become an advocate for reform in America’s criminal justice system and serves as the community educator for Equal Justice Initiative, the nonprofit organization that helped free him. Sponsors: Division of Student Affairs, Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculties, and University Mission and Ministry. A book signing will follow Hinton’s talk. Read an excerpt from Hinton’s book in The Guardian.
The project of adolescence
Ministering to adolescents means helping them to recognize and grow into the multiple relationships in their lives, including their relationship with God. Responding to a lack of scholarly publications on ministry with adolescents within a Catholic framework, School of Theology and Ministry Associate Professor of the Practice of Youth and Young Adult Faith Theresa O’Keefe wrote Navigating toward Adulthood: A Theology of Ministry with Adolescents (Paulist Press, 2018). The book is an important tool for those learning to minister to adolescents and young adults. O’Keefe explores what it takes to move from an instrumental engagement with the world (childhood) to a relational engagement with the world (adulthood) within a framework of developmental psychology and Catholic theology. She talked about her book in this video via BC Libraries.
Posted in Boston College Authors
Tagged adolescents, faith formation, ministry, School of Theology and Ministry
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Covert operations
Though a part of international politics for centuries, covert actions to induce changes to ruling governments — including assassinating a leader, orchestrating a coup d’état, or interfering in an election — are difficult to study due to their secretive nature. Using archival research of declassified U.S. governments documents, BC Assistant Professor of Political Science Lindsey A. O’Rourke has assembled an original dataset of all U.S.-backed regime change operations during the Cold War (1947-89) in her new book, Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2018). She identifies 70 interventions, the majority of which were covert. More than half the time, the covert intervention failed to achieve its goal. O’Rourke uses this data to delve deeper into why states attempt foreign regime change, why they prefer to conduct the interventions covertly, and how successful such missions are in achieving foreign policy goals. The National Interest called O’Rourke’s book “essential reading” and a “well-written, important work that should productively inform foreign-policy debates going forward.”
Race and medicine
In Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine, author Dr. Damon Tweedy explores issues such as bias in medicine, the challenges confronting black doctors, and the disproportionate health burdens faced by black patients. On Mar. 28 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100, Dr. Tweedy will give a talk on the topics raised in his bestselling memoir. Dr. Tweedy is a graduate of Duke University School of Medicine and is an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine and staff physician at the Durham Veteran Affairs Health System. He has published pieces about race and medicine in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Raleigh News & Observer, as well as in various medical journals. Sponsor: Park Street Corporation Speaker Series. Read a Q&A with Dr. Tweedy in U.S. News & World Report.
Posted in Guest Authors, Park Street Corporation Speaker Series
Tagged health care, medicine, memoir, race
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Dispatches from the border
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.
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?
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