In her new book How Art Works: A Psychological Exploration (Oxford University Press, 2018), Boston College Professor of Psychology Ellen Winner takes on a number of questions about the arts, such as “What makes something art?” and ‘Why do we seek out and even cherish sorrow and fear from art when we go out of our way to avoid these very emotions in real life?” Also, ‘How do we decide what is good art? Do aesthetic judgments have any objective truth value?” In a piece for the New Yorker, Yale psychologist Paul Bloom calls Winner’s new book “exhilarating” because she draws on research in psychology, including studies from her own lab, to provide some answers to these questions. Winner directs the Arts and Mind Lab, which focuses on cognition in the arts in typical and gifted children as well as adults. She is the author of more than 100 articles and three other books–Invented Worlds: The Psychology of the Arts, The Point of Words: Children’s Understanding of Metaphor and Irony, and Gifted Children: Myths and Realities.
How Art Works
David Hopkins
Boston College Associate Professor of Political Science David Hopkins and co-author Matt Grossmann have been honored with the Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award from the American Political Science Association for Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats. The award recognizes a book published in the last two years that made an outstanding contribution to research and scholarship on political organizations and parties. Hopkins’ newest book is Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2017), which examines the partisan divide in American politics. Hopkins places the current partisan and electoral era in historical context, explains how the increased salience of social issues since the 1980s has redefined the parties’ geographic bases of support, and reveals the critical role that American political institutions play in intermediating between the behavior of citizens and the outcome of public policy-making. The widening geographic gap in voters’ partisan preferences, as magnified further by winner-take-all electoral rules, has rendered most of the nation safe territory for either Democratic or Republican candidates in both presidential and congressional elections – with significant consequences for party competition, candidate strategy, and the operation of government.
Posted in Awards/Honors, Boston College Authors
Tagged Political Science department, politics
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New from Suzanne Matson
In her new novel, Ultraviolet (Catapult, 2018), BC Professor of English Suzanne Matson tells the story of three generations of women, shining a light on the complexities of marriage, motherhood, aging, and the end of life. Spanning 80 years and two countries, Ultraviolet reveals the drama that is within every existence and the strengths and fragilities of people’s relationships with others. Matson will read from Ultraviolet at a Dean’s Colloquium on Sept. 13 at 4:30 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Matson is a poet and author of the novels The Hunger Moon, A Trick of Nature, and The Tree-Sitter. Read a piece drawn and adapted from Ultraviolet in the most recent issue of Boston College Magazine. | More from BC News.
Ireland’s Global Revolution?
To what extent should the Irish revolution of 1919-23 be understood as part of a global—as well as national—story? Fearghal McGarry, a professor at Queen’s University Belfast, will give a talk on Sept. 12 that examines how the Easter Rising has come to be remembered in more pluralistic terms during the “Decade of Centenaries” and explores the implications of this commemorative shift in terms of understanding Ireland’s post-war experiences. An expert in 20th century Irish history, McGarry is the author of the books, The Rising: Ireland: Easter 1916; The Abbey Rebels of 1916, and Eoin O’Duffy: A Self-Made Hero, as well as many book chapters and articles. The lecture, which begins at 4:15 p.m., will held in Devlin Hall, room 101. Sponsor: Center for Irish Programs.
Roycroft founder Elbert Hubbard
Writer and publisher Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) is known for founding Roycroft, a community of artists and craftspeople in East Aurora, New York. He established a press and wrote and produced two magazines, The Philistine and The Fra, as well as a series of biographical pamphlets titled Little Journeys. Hubbard and the Roycrofters are the subject of a book by a BC alumnus as well as an exhibit at BC. Bruce A. White, who earned an M.Ed. and an M.A. from Boston College, has recently published a new and expanded paperback edition of his book Elbert Hubbard’s The Philistine: A Periodical of Protest (1895 – 1915). White’s book offers a unique chronicle of Hubbard and his magazine, which featured work by Stephen Crane and Wizard of Oz illustrator W.W. Denslow. On display at Burns Library through October 1 is the exhibiton “Dreams of Art & Glory: Book Craft by the Roycrofters.” Co-curated by Barbara Adams Hebard and Andrew Isidoro, the exhibit focuses on products of the Roycrofters’ bookbinding and printing shops, and features holdings from the BC Libraries that highlight Roycrofter artisan designs, including the Little Journeys series, beautifully printed and hand decorated text blocks, and books in stunning modelled leather bindings. More from the Burns Library blog.
Posted in Alumni Authors, BC Libraries, Exhibitions
Tagged arts and crafts, biography
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John Kerry memoir
John Kerry tells the story of his life—from son of a diplomat to decorated Vietnam veteran, five-term United States senator, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, and Secretary of State—in his new memoir, Every Day Is Extra (Simon & Schuster, 2018). Kerry is a 1976 graduate of Boston College Law and was awarded an honorary doctorate from BC in 2014. His public service career has spanned 50 years and as Secretary of State he traveled to more than 90 countries. In his autobiography, Kerry shares stories about colleagues Ted Kennedy and John McCain, as well as President Obama and other major figures, and provides forceful testimony for the importance of diplomacy and American leadership to address the increasingly complex challenges of a more globalized world. The publisher calls Every Day is Extra “candid…passionate, insightful, sometimes funny, [and] always moving.” Boston Globe review | NPR review | Book tour information
Posted in Alumni Authors
Tagged Boston College Law School, government, memoir, politics
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Designing Your Life
Author Dave Evans will deliver the keynote address at First Year Academic Convocation on September 6 at 7 p.m. in Conte Forum. Evans is the co-author of Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life (Knopf, 2016)—the Class of 2022’s common read distributed to incoming first-year students at orientation. Co-written with Bill Burnett, Designing Your Life is based on the authors’ popular Stanford University undergraduate course on navigating moral, ethical, and foundational choices in careers and lives. Through anecdotes, psychology, and thought experiments, the book helps students conscientiously and rigorously answer “Big Questions” such as “How do I find a job that I like or maybe even love?” “How do I balance my career with my family?” And “How can I make a difference in the world?” Read more. | Designing Your Life official website
Jack Ryan
Boston College “alumnus” Jack Ryan, a character created by the late best-selling author Tom Clancy, returns to the screen as the title hero of the new Amazon Prime series “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.” Ryan, a CIA analyst, is played by Newton, Mass. native John Krasinski, perhaps best known for his role as Jim Halpert in “The Office.” Jack Ryan appeared in many of Clancy’s books, including The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears, among others. Clancy is believed to have based the Jack Ryan character on a high school friend who attended BC and became a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot in Vietnam. The first season of the series is available beginning August 31. More from BC News
A poet’s story
Lynne Spigelmire Viti, a Boston College graduate, reflects on her family history in her newly published poetry collection titled The Glamorganshire Bible (Finishing Line Press, 2018). Viti is also the author of Baltimore Girls, a poetry collection published last year, and a microchapbook, Punting, from Origami Poems Project. A Baltimore native, Viti is a faculty emerita lecturer in the Writing Program at Wellesley College, where she taught writing-intensive courses in bioethics, legal studies, literature, media studies, and journalism. She earned both a PhD in English and a law degree from Boston College. Her poetry, nonfiction, and fiction has appeared in more than 100 online and print journals and anthologies, including The Wire: Urban Decay and American Television, The Baltimore Sun, Gargoyle, Constellations, Amuse-Bouche, The Paterson Review, The Little Patuxent Review, Drunk Monkeys, Cultured Vultures, Incandescent Mind, and Right Hand Pointing. She won honorable mentions in the 2017 WOMR/Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, the 2015 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest, and the 2015 Glimmer Train Short Fiction Contest. Read an interview with Viti in WickedLocal Westwood.
Encyclopedia of Buddhist Art
The first comprehensive reference collection of Buddhist art—an invaluable resource for students and scholars alike—is now housed at BC’s Bapst Library. The 22-volume English language Encyclopedia of Buddhist Art was donated earlier this year to the Boston College Libraries by the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple in Cambridge. The featured works of art come from more than 30 countries. “These beautifully designed volumes cover such subjects as architecture, caves and rock carving, sculpture, painting, decorative art, calligraphy, and more, and include more than ten thousand color illustrations,” said Nina Bogdanovsky, senior research librarian/bibliographer at O’Neill Library. More from BC News.
BC Bookmarks 