NOVEMBER 8, 2018 VOL. 26 NO. 6
PUBLISHED BY THE BOSTON COLLEGE OFFICE OF UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Faculty, Student Interest Buoy Core Renewal
INSIDE 2 International Education Week
The week of Nov. 12-16 will see a host of panel discussions, lectures, and other events on campus on the theme of “Embracing Challenging Conversations.”
5 Historian Wins Award
Assoc. Prof. Cynthia Lynn Lyerly (History) earns honor for co-writing guide on teaching American slavery.
8 Window on the World
Students and faculty have relished the opportunity to hold video discussions with people in countries like Honduras, Afghanistan, and Kenya via the Global Engagement Portal.
Forum Focuses on Catholic Belief During a ‘Time of Turmoil’ Boston College’s Church in the 21st Century Center will host a major event later this month, “Why I Remain a Catholic: Belief in a Time of Turmoil,” a panel discussion that will examine a question voiced by many Catholics in recent months, following a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing decades of clergy sexual abuse, and the resignation of Theodore McCarrick from the College of Cardinals amid sexual abuse and harassment allegations. The event, to be held on Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. in Robsham Theater, will be moderated by R. Nicholas Burns ’78, Hon.’02, a professor of the practice at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a former U.S. Am-
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BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
Boston College’s Core Curriculum Renewal initiative is in its fourth year of offering new Complex Problems (CP) and Enduring Questions (EQ) courses. Many faculty have embraced the opportunity to teach a CP or EQ course and created innovative new courses, say core administrators, who report a heightened student interest in the core that is reflected in impressive numbers Show Time and positive responses. With this transition in progress, MorThe curtain went up last month on the 2018-19 Robsham Theater Arts Center season with rissey College of Arts and Sciences Associa performance of “Invisible.” For more, see www.bc.edu/robsham. photo by lee pellegrini ate Dean for the Core Brian Gareau notes that he and his colleagues are working to ensure that students experience the full benefits of the core. For example, students may take CP or EQ courses in both the fall Two weeks working with and spring semesters and also enroll in the Perspectives class even if they are taking CP North Korean defectors or EQ courses in the same semester. “It is exciting that students are talking opened the eyes of BC about the core with one another alongside other programs such as The Courage students Jieun and Jueun Lee to Know and Freshmen Topic Seminar; they are all interconnected,” says Gareau, BY CHRISTINE BALQUIST an associate professor of sociology and InSTAFF WRITER ternational Studies, who became associate dean for the core this past spring. “StuWhen Carroll School of Management dents often approach me to discuss what sophomore Jieun Lee and her sister, Morthey learned and to tell me how much they rissey College of Arts and Sciences junior enjoyed these courses.” Jueun Lee, volunteered to teach English Boston College began its effort to renew to North Korean defectors in the Lees’ naand reinvigorate the undergraduate Core tive South Korea this past summer, their Jieun Lee ’21 photo by lee pellegrini Curriculum in the fall of 2012 with meetmother made no secret of her fear for the ings among faculty, administrators, staff, family’s safety. students and other stakeholders in the Uni“My mom disagreed with our decision Korean people—which aids in the education versity about the core, which had last been because she was scared that the North Ko- of North Korean refugees. During their two revised in 1991. Among other changes, the reans might be spies and possibly put my weeks of service, the Lee sisters assisted in initiative led to the establishment of a Unifamily’s security in danger,” said Jieun. the creation of an English textbook based on versity Core Renewal Committee (UCRC) On the recommendation of a friend the experiences of the North Korean defec- to provide governance for the core. That who had worked there, the sisters voluntors, taught English lessons, and conducted same year, 2015, saw the start of a pilot teered at an organization in Seoul called one-on-one tutoring sessions for approxiprogram to introduce new interdisciplinary Woorihana—a Korean word meaning “to- mately 30 college students. core courses in two categories: Complex gether as one,” referring to the unity of the Continued on page 5 Continued on page 4
Insight into the ‘Other’ Korea
“Intellectually, we know people from other countries and societies share common ideas, hopes, and dreams, but there is still a tendency to see them as ‘others.’ With the portal, we can explore, and better understand, the connections we have to one another.” –International Studies Program Director Erik Owens, page 8