Boston College Chronicle

The Boston College

Chronicle Published by the Boston College Office of News & Public Affairs january 15, 2015 VOL. 22 no. 9

Rappaport Ctr. Moving to BC Law This Spring

INSIDE •Advancing Research and Scholarship, page 2

•Filtered water fixtures installed in residence halls, page 2 •STM online course proves highly popular, page 2 •Forum on “Race in the USA” Jan. 21, page 3 •BC physicists take cues from nature for technology advances, page 3 •School of Social Work holds diversity/alumni event, page 3 •Connell School and VA Boston join forces, page 4 •BCEEAN, Career Community connect alumni and students, page 5

•Robsham Theater spring schedule, page 6 •Welcome Additions: new faculty members, page 7 •Broido an APS Fellow; Lynch School faculty Hargreaves and Cochran-Smith gain recognition, page 7 •Lowell Humanities Series resumes this month, page 8 •Photos: Baccalaureate Mass, page 8

By Jack Dunn Director of News & Public Affairs

St. Mary’s Hall reopened this month after a two-year renovation project.

(Photos by Caitlin Cunningham)

In a New Light

One of BC’s oldest buildings is back, and with a difference that’s noticeable to the naked eye

By Sean Smith Chronicle Editor

Take a tour through the newly renovated St. Mary’s Hall, and one word comes up repeatedly in conversations about the changes to the 88-year-old building, the second oldest on the Boston College campus.

Brighter.

A combination of structural improvements and restorative projects over the past two years has made a noticeable difference to the interior hallways and common areas in St. Mary’s, which often seemed dim and dark even on the sunniest days.

The principal residence for Boston College’s Jesuit community, St. Mary’s now has an

Moving-in day for the Communication Department, now in St. Mary’s South Wing.

additional function as the new location for the Woods College of Advancing Studies as well as the Communication and Computer Science departments. All are housed in the building’s new South Wing, which has a separate entrance and offers no public access to the Jesuits’ residential quarters.

The building officially reopened this month, although St. Mary’s Chapel hosted its first Mass on Dec. 8, and Jesuits began moving back in that same week.

Woods College, Communication and Computer Science administrators, faculty and staff followed suit last week. During this period, both new and longtime St. Mary’s tenants took stock of the refurbished structure and saw a lot to like.

“A building is a building, but when occupied it becomes something special,” said Jesuit Community Rector Robert Keane, SJ. “Having St. Mary’s open again makes a strong statement to our mission as Jesuits of being a presence at BC.” “It looked old, and felt old,” said Michael Ford, SJ, assistant rector and administrator, who came to BC in 2002. “Now, St. Mary’s seems refreshed, renewed.”

“For me, the greatest joy about the reopening of St. Mary’s is that we may exercise once again our Continued on page 4

QUOTE:

The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy will move to Boston College Law School as a result of a $7.53 million gift from the Phyllis & Jerome Lyle Rappaport Foundation. The gift, the largest in the 85-year history of BC Law, will fund the Rappaport Center and the Jerome Lyle Rappaport Visiting Professorship in Law and Public Policy at BC Law. The acclaimed public policy law center, which began its work in 2000, provides educational programs, career mentoring and financial support to law students interested in government and public policy. The center focuses on public policy issues affecting Greater Boston and Massachusetts, and will house the popular Rappaport Fellows Program in Law and Public Policy

– which provides 12 paid summer internships to talented law students from seven Greater Boston law schools interested in public service – and the Rappaport Distinguished Public Policy Series at BC Law, which will conduct scholarly research and host lectures, debates and roundtable discussions on public policy issues with the region’s leading policy makers and thought leaders.

The center will work in close collaboration with the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at Harvard University.

The Rappaport Center will be led

by BC Law Professor R. Michael Cassidy, who will hire an executive director to oversee its day-to-day operations.

An advisory board, which is currently chaired by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, will help guide its work.

Cassidy, who has held positions in public service ranging from chief Continued on page 4

Jerry and Phyllis Rappaport (center), whose foundation will fund the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College Law School, with BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau (left) and BC Law Professor R. Michael Cassidy, who will lead the center. (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Economics Again Tops the List of Most Popular Majors

By Sean Smith Chronicle Editor

The word “economics” traces its origins to the ancient Greek word for “household management,” but in the 19th century took on the dubious sobriquet “the dismal science,” courtesy of historian Thomas Carlyle. Yet the outlook for economics is far from dismal at Boston College, where it continues to be the most popular

undergraduate major.

According to the Office of Student Services, this past fall 1,086 undergraduates were enrolled as economics majors (the figure represents students in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Carroll School of Management), marking its third consecutive year at the top. The number – the largest ever for a major in University history – is more than double that of the Continued on page 6

“There is tremendous value in creating an environment that brings together students and alumni to have conversations about a specific career path, the power of the liberal arts and the role that community and serendipity play in one’s career.”

–Associate Vice President for Student Affairs of Career Services Joseph Du Pont, page 5

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A ROUND WATER ALL AROUND Students living on Upper and Newton campuses and College Road returned from semester break to find a new addition to their residence halls: fixtures that provide filtered water for refillable water bottles.

It’s all part of Boston College’s conservation efforts, according to Sustainability Program Director Robert Pion, who says the project is intended to reinforce the University’s various “green” initiatives. “Reducing the use of plastic bottles, and encouraging people to switch to refillable water bottles, is a significant component in the University’s sustainability campaign.”

The 80 fixtures were installed in residence hall common bathrooms during the break, a project managed by Plumbing Foreman Ken Howland and performed by Metro West Mechanical. Facilities Services Associate Vice President Martin Dugal and Facilities Management Vice President Daniel Bourque were instrumental in supporting the implementation of this measure, in response to students’ requests through the Residence Hall Association, Eco Reps and Eco Pledge for more water bottle filling stations on campus.

Water bottle filling units can also be found in campus dining halls, Gasson Hall, the Flynn Recreation Complex and O’Neill Library, among other locations.

Pion noted that Facilities Management plans to include a water bottle-filling fixture when replacing campus water fountains.

For more on sustainability and conservation at BC, see www.bc.edu/sustainability.

–Office of News & Public Affairs

THE POPULAR VIEW The School of Theology and Ministry online course “The Birth of Jesus” passed a major milestone as 2015 began. According to STM statistics, the course has now been viewed more than 100,000 times – 104,000 as of Jan. 7, about a month past the eighth anniversary of its launching; from 2013-14 alone, more than 32,000 viewers logged in to watch.

“The Birth of Jesus” is a selfpaced tutorial written and narrated by Philip A. Cunningham, former executive director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College, and is a collaborative project of CJL and Church in the 21st Century Online, a program of STM. It explores how the Catholic tradition and recent biblical scholarship understand the origins of the Gospels and their proper inter-

pretation, and features commentaries on the infancy narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

Visitors from the US, Philippines, Australia, Canada and UK accounted for 89 percent of those viewing “The Birth of Jesus.”

Figures for other mini-courses during the past year showed that there were 5,743 viewings for the Spanish language version of “The Death of Jesus” (“Le Muerte de Jesus”) compared to 2,891 for the English version. “Touchstones of Preaching,” which drew 1,462 viewings, had the highest percentage of returning visitors: 34.

The STM/C21 Online minicourses are offered free of charge.

For more information, see http:// www.bc.edu/schools/stm/c21online/resources/mini-courses.html.

–Office of News & Public Affairs

Director of NEWS & Public Affairs Jack Dunn Deputy Director of NEWS & Public AFFAIRS Patricia Delaney Editor Sean Smith

Contributing Staff Melissa Beecher Ed Hayward Sean Hennessey Rosanne Pellegrini Kathleen Sullivan Michael Maloney Photographers Gary Gilbert Lee Pellegrini

C AMPUS A DAY TO CELEBRATE RESEARCH

Graduate student Kelly Bennion discusses her project with Assoc. Prof. of the Practice Robert Wolff (Biology) , director of BC’s pre-med program, at last month’s Advancing Research and Scholarship event. (Photos by Lee Pellegrini)

Boston College held its first Advancing Research and Scholarship event, “Global Public Health: Policy, Disparity, Disease,” on Dec. 11 in the Murray Function Room of the Yawkey Center, an opportunity to showcase campus research initiatives as well as broader trends in policy, wellness and health care and threats posed by diseases around the world.

The event, which included a keynote speech by Mount Sinai School of Medicine Professor Philip J. Landrigan, MD, ’63, featured panel discussions with BC faculty members and the presentation of awards for student research by undergraduate and graduate students. Forty-nine students were asked to submit an abstract for their research, and a committee of BC faculty members chose 26 to present posters for the Advancing Research and Scholarship event. A group of six judges scored the posters and convened to determine the undergraduate and graduate winners.

The winners were senior Chantal Barksdale for “Stimulating the Resolution of Tumor Debris to Control Medulloblastoma” and graduate student Mehmet Cansoy for “Maternal Mortality, Democratization, Women’s Status and Ethnic Fractionalization: A Cross-National Study.”

“I think this event exceeded the expectations we had for it,” said Vice Provost for Research and Academic Planning Thomas

The Boston College

Chronicle www.bc.edu/chronicle chronicle@bc.edu

Chiles, the DeLuca Professor in Biology. “We hoped it would raise awareness of the research and scholarship at BC among faculty and students. But we also

high quality, and made a great impression – particularly on Philip Landrigan.

“So with this initial success in hand, we’re already starting

Keynote speaker Philip J. Landrigan, MD, ’63 listens to graduate student Mehmet Cansoy present his research, chosen by judges as one of the event’s two outstanding projects.

want to spread the awareness to the wider University community, and we were able to do that, too: Some trustees were there, and they expressed great admiration for the work being done here.

“The speakers also were of

to think about next year. In the meantime, we hope to see collaborations and discussions inspired by this event, bringing together faculty and students and starting dialogues across campus.”

–Office of News & Public Affairs

CHOICE WORDS Offering expertise to the media on major events and trends has become a significant role for academics like Jonathan Laurence of Political Science (shown with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in photo), one of several Boston College faculty members interviewed by news organizations in the wake of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. Read the story in online Chronicle at http://bit.ly/1B17CXe.

The Boston College Chronicle (USPS 009491), the internal newspaper for faculty and staff, is published biweekly from September to May by Boston College, with editorial offices at the Office of News & Public Affairs, 14 Mayflower Road, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 (617)552-3350. Distributed free to faculty and staff offices and other locations on campus.

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By Ed Hayward Staff Writer

The next generation of lightmanipulating networks may take their lead from designs inspired by spiders and leaves, according to a report from two Boston College physicists and colleagues from South China Normal University.

Structures as commonplace as spider webs and leaf venation show they can lead to near optimal performance when copied to create flexible and durable networks for use in optoelectronic applications such as photovoltaic devices and display screens, the researchers reported in a recent edition of the journal Nature Communications.

“Our idea is quite simple and far-reaching,” said Research Associate Professor of Physics Andrzej Herczynski. “It starts with the premise that natural forms offer ready-made solutions for efficient designs, tested over millions of years through natural selection.”

A network design inspired by the vein-laced structure of a leaf served as an effective electrode for solar cells, light sources and transparent heaters, among other applications, the team reported.

“This natural structure has been optimized through the evolutionary process for efficient nutrient delivery with maximal strength and light harvesting,” said Professor of Physics Krzysztof Kempa. “In our application, these properties translate into highly efficient current transport, desirable mechanical properties, and minimal light shading.”

A second network, drawing on the same designs that make spi-

Lee Pellegrini

Nature Provides Blueprint for Physicists

(L-R) Jesuit Institute Director James Keenan, SJ, Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau and Assoc. Prof. Nancy Pineda-Madrid (STM) will be among the panelists at the Jan. 21 discussion “Race in the USA.”

BC Forum Will Examine Issues of Race in America

Physics faculty members Andrzej Herczynski, left, and Krzysztof Kempa believe that natural forms “offer readymade solutions for efficient designs, tested over millions of years through natural selection,” according to Herczynski. der webs effective traps for insects and bugs, serves as an efficient way to draw light through an optoelectronic device. The network could find potential application in next-generation touch screens and display panels because of its extreme flexibility, significant mechanical strength, “stealth” transparency and high degree of uniformity, the researchers said.

One of the primary advantages of these two proposed methods is the low cost and simplicity of the manufacturing process.

The researchers said they were surprised by the superior performance of the networks in experimental scenarios. Both delivered a four-fold increase in electro-optical properties, or the benchmark figure of merit. Furthermore, the spider web design network can be stretched by up to 25 percent without any loss of performance and sees only a minimal decline when stretched up to 100 percent of its original size, the team reported.

“No other electrode network

can be stretched more than 10 percent,” said Kempa.

Other members of the research team included University of Houston Professor Zhifeng Ren – a former BC faculty member – and South China Normal University Professor Jinwei Gao and his lab.

The researchers say the specific network patterns they have proposed could improve the efficiency of solar cells and the performance of a new generation of flexible, durable touch screens and displays.

“Increasing efficiency of solar cells, in particular, is a critical component in the quest for renewable energy sources, a major sustainability and ecological challenge,” said Herczynski. “Flexible monitors and displays will likely become increasingly important for such possible uses as wearable screens and elastic smart phones.”

Contact Ed Hayward at ed.hayward@bc.edu

The Boston College community is invited to a panel discussion on racial issues in America this Wednesday, Jan. 21, featuring five faculty members.

“Race in the USA: Expectations, Concerns and Hopes in 2015,” sponsored by the Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculties and the Jesuit Institute, will take place from 4:30-6 p.m. in Fulton 511.

Jesuit Institute Director James Keenan, SJ, will moderate the panel, which will include Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau; Associate Professor of History Martin Summers, director of the African and African Diaspora Studies Program; Professor of English Min Song, director of the Asian American Studies Program; School of Theology and Ministry Associate Professor Nancy Pineda-Madrid, who is vice president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States; and Assistant Professor of Sociology Gustavo Morello, SJ, organizer of a study on religious life in Latin America.

Provost David Quigley said the discussion comes at an appropriate time – not only in light of recent controversies concerning race in America but also because it takes place in the month celebrating the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. He added that the

event is one of several concerning race-related matters being planned

by BC academic departments and programs for this semester.

“I’m pleased that this initial forum will launch a series of conversations on campus this semester about race and justice in the contemporary United States.”

Added Fr. Keenan, “By the end of last semester, it became clear that the issue of race in America needed to be engaged more proactively than it has been. After speaking with Dr. Quigley, we decided to host a panel of BC faculty whose insights and professional experiences would provide a prompt for other faculty to engage further the question of race in the USA. “We think, therefore, that this event will serve as foundational for other panels, seminars, classes, lectures, and discourses that could further BC’s engagement with this urgent topic.”

Quigley also noted that the University’s Unity Breakfast, an annual tribute to King at which Rougeau will be speaking this year, will be held the morning after the “Race in the USA” event [e-mail sharyl.thompson@bc.edu for Unity Breakfast information and reservations].

–Office of News & Public Affairs

School of Social Work Event Honors Alumni, Explores Diversity The Boston College School of Social Work community gathered last Friday to reflect on the connections between diversity and social work practice, and to honor two alumni whose accomplished careers were rooted in the education and encouragement they received at SSW. The annual Diversity Conference and Alumni Awards Event, held in McGuinn Auditorium, featured a conference, “Race and Justice,” that included a keynote speech

by John H. Jackson, president and CEO of the Schott Foundation for Public Education. Jackson, who served on President Obama’s Education Policy Transition Work Group, has held leadership positions in the National Association for

the Advancement of Colored People and served under President Clinton as a senior policy advisory in the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Following an audience Q&A session, a panel of SSW Associate Professor Paul Kline, Donahue and DiFelice Professor Ruth McRoy and Crime and Justice Institute Vice President and Executive Director Christine Cole discussed issues and points raised by Jackson’s talk.

Earlier, SSW Dean Alberto Godenzi offered a welcome to the event, which he said provided an opportunity for the school to come together “as a community and a family” and “to speak to current events that are dear to our heart and mission.”

Following Godenzi, the school formally presented its Distinguished Alumni Awards to James A. Martin MSW ’70, a professor of social work and social research at Bryn Mawr College with more than 40 years of social work practice, and Colleen Fitzgerald MSW ’11, who since earning her degree has aided humanitarian and social work training initiatives in volatile areas of the Middle East.

Fitzgerald, whose mother Kathleen accepted the award on her behalf, is serving with the International Rescue Committee’s Syrian refugee relief effort in Lebanon, where she is leading a national program to train social services professionals to deal with child abuse, neglect and exploitation.

In a pre-recorded video that was screened in the auditorium, Fitzgerald expressed her appreciation to SSW for enabling her “to meet challenges around me,” and to “seek strengths rather than deficits” in interacting with those in need. She also cited SSW’s global focus as instrumental in pointing her to “my calling.”

Although situations such as those in Syria and Libya – where Fitzgerald also has worked – may seem overwhelming, “we have a duty to address these realities,” she said, “and work for a stronger social work advocacy at the global level.” [Read a 2012 Chronicle interview with Fitzgerald at http://bit.ly/1Dt7Es4] Martin spoke about the importance of relationships that nurture

and sustain one’s personal and professional development, and expressed gratitude to the many people – including those he met at SSW – who had influenced his life. A retired colonel in the US Army, Martin singled out Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and veterans like Robert Dole, Max Cleland and Daniel Inouye who later went into public service, as individuals from whom he had drawn inspiration and direction.

Among the lessons learned from these and other mentors, Martin said, were “not to be timid, because there are important things you can contribute” and to “do the hard thing – recognize and overcome challenges instead of looking the other way.”

–Sean Smith

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Connell School and VA Boston Form Partnership

A partnership between the Connell School of Nursing and the VA Boston Healthcare System has established a new program to enhance the training and professional development of nurse practitioners who work with veterans and their families.

A grant from the Veterans Health Administration has established a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Residency Program; VA Boston Healthcare System-CSON is one of only four partnerships in the country chosen to pilot the new program. The 12-month program will offer training, supervision, education and mentorship that enables board-certified graduates of master of science in psychiatric/mental health nursing programs to become proficient health care providers who can address the mental health needs of veterans.

The other pilot sites are Birmingham VA Medical Center-University of Alabama at Birmingham, Durham VA Medical Center-Duke University and Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center-Medical University of South Carolina.

The residency program is directed by Sherley Belizaire, a nurse practitioner in Mental Health Inpatient Services at VA Boston Healthcare

Rappaport Continued from page 1 of the Criminal Bureau in the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office to membership on the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission, said he was delighted to welcome the Rappaport Center to BC Law and to carry on its mission of public service.

“I am thrilled that the Rappaport Foundation has chosen Boston College to be the home for this center, and delighted to be part of the leadership team going forward,” said Cassidy. “Our former dean, Robert Drinan, SJ, was fond of saying that lawyers are the ‘architects of a just society.’ Nowhere in the legal academy is this mission felt more deeply than at Boston College Law School.

The Rappaport Center will provide us with the resources and the focus to continue shaping tomorrow’s leaders.”

Law School Dean Vincent Rougeau said the Rappaport Center will provide the Law School with the opportunity to promote public policy discussions and public interest law – longstanding components of the BC Law experience.

“There is a critical need for serious discussion and study of law and public policy issues,” said Rougeau. “The center represents an extraordinary opportunity for Boston College and the Rappaport Foundation to work together to elevate our public discourse and to produce thoughtful, ethical, and innovative public servants for the commonwealth and the nation.”

System. As representatives of the educational partner, CSON Clinical Assistant Professor Pamela Terreri and Clinical Instructor Lori Solon meet regularly with Belizaire and VA Boston Healthcare Nursing/Patient Services Associate Director Cecilia (CeCe) McVey ’72 on the creation and implementation of the program.

Terreri and Solon also serve on the VA’s national task force for the pilot residency program, which holds monthly teleconferences on issues such as program assessment.

“The VA is very innovative in their clinical work, so the residents are being exposed to things that are clinically cutting-edge,” said Solon.

“This program allows the residents to have experience in all facets of psychiatric mental health: outpatient, through the continuity clinic; inpatient, both acute and chronic, and prescribing medications,” she added.

Residency programs for postmaster’s mental health/psychiatric nurse practitioners are a relatively new development. “A residency program helps new graduates feel more gradually taken into the role of nurse practitioners,” explained Terreri.

–Kathleen Sullivan Read more of this story at online Chronicle [www.bc.edu/chronicle] Last summer, the Rappaport Foundation announced its intention to relocate the center from Suffolk University, where many of its programs have existed for the past 15 years, to one of the area law schools from which it has drawn fellows. BC Law School, which has an extensive track record in training public policy leaders locally and nationally, was chosen by the Rappaport Foundation as the school best suited to host the center, which will open this spring.

“While transition can be challenging, the selection of Boston College Law School to host the center has been wonderful,” said center founder Jerome Rappaport. “The move to Boston College gives the center a real opportunity to build on the foundation’s successes, while partnering with one of the nation’s leading schools of law.

We are very excited about this new beginning.”

The Rappaport Fellows Program will provide selected law school students from BC, Boston University, Harvard, Northeastern, Suffolk University, New England School of Law and University of Massachusetts with opportunities to experience the complexities and rewards of public policy work and public service at the highest levels of state and local government. The program includes coveted summer internships, during which students work with top policy makers and are mentored by the center’s staff and civic leaders and respected attorneys in the field.

Read the full story at http://bit.ly/1xw09NH

The lobby for the Woods College of Advancing Studies in St. Mary’s South Wing (Photos by Caitlin Cunningham)

A Shining New St. Mary’s Reopens Continued from page 1 luncheon hospitality for faculty, staff and students,” said Kraft Family Professor of Philosophy James Bernauer, SJ, who is not a St. Mary’s resident but takes his meals in the hall’s dining room.

“Many of us have felt that loss and we return with a renewed appreciation for how distinctive it is to have a welcoming Jesuit community at the center of a university campus.”

On one recent day, Associate Professor of Communication Ann Marie Barry paused in her unpacking to admire her department’s new location. “We’re all excited to be here, not just because of the beauty that surrounds us but because of the heritage of St. Mary’s, one of BC’s original buildings, and all of the memories it holds.”

The two-year renovation included large-scale and complex work on the building’s cast stones – involving the removal of some 18,000 pieces that were replaced by more than 15,000 pieces – a complete repair of the roof, and replacement of 466 windows, according to Associate Vice President for Capital Projects Mary Nardone and Senior Construction Project Manager Thomas Runyon.

Among other changes, the number of Jesuit living quarters was reduced to 30 (with three additional rooms for guests), but each unit now has its own bathroom; the reception area was moved across from the main lobby; all of the building, including St. Mary’s Chapel, is air-conditioned; a chapel for the Jesuit residence was added; the courtyard area in the building’s rear was restored and reconfigured; and a kitchenette was added to a refurbished Jesuit living room/ common area.

The South Wing encompasses 10 offices and one conference room each for Woods College

(located on the ground floor) and the Computer Science Department (second floor); there are 29 offices and two conference rooms for Communication, which occupies the third and fourth floors.

“The overall goal was to maintain the historical character of St. Mary’s while improving its functionality and efficiency, and also give it a more open, inviting look,” said Nardone. “There also was the challenge of integrating space for academic and administrative use – the South Wing – with St. Mary’s residential component.

“Fortunately, everyone associated with the project did a phenomenal job, from the construction to the space management aspects. We’ve heard many compliments.”

For longtime St. Mary’s residents, staff and visitors, the most eye-catching change is the brighter interior – a result of stone recasting, window glass and light

Above: Looking east from the main hallway at the new reception area in St. Mary’s.

Right: Senior Lecturer Rita Rosenthal unpacking in the Communication Department’s new quarters, located in the South Wing.

fixture replacements, wood restoration and other improvements.

Nardone and Runyon cited one reason for the dusky appearance inside St. Mary’s prior to the renovation: decades of tobacco smoke that built up on the surfaces. The general decline in smoking should help in maintaining St. Mary’s recaptured glow, they said.

All of which sat very well with Theology Professor Emeritus Harvey Egan, SJ. While he certainly appreciated the fellowship and amenities he found in St. Mary’s, his first impression upon arriving in 1975 was not particularly favorable. “The walls were painted dark green, and there was a general mustiness to the hall; I had to clean off the TV screen in the lounge once a week because of all the smoke.

“But I love what they’ve done with the place, how they’ve made it lighter and brighter, and really brought out the beauty within.”

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MAKING CONNECTIONS

Network Puts the Focus on Energy and Environmental Interests Now in its fifth year, the Boston College Energy and Environment Alumni Network (BCEEAN) has quickly emerged as one of the largest alumni affinity groups, its growth rooted in the number of BC graduates working in a range of professions tied to the energy and environment sectors.

BCEEAN has grown to a membership of more than 700 alumni and developed initiatives that connect alumni, students, faculty and staff. The network serves as a resource for peer networking, industry trends, career mentoring and alumni engagement on campus, said BCEEAN co-chair Fran Dubrowski NC ’70, an environmental lawyer.

“There was a need for a networking organization for people with interests in energy and the environment,” said Dubrowski. “It was a way to connect alumni to BC because people connect at the level of their passions and their careers reflect those passions.”

In addition, BCEEAN connects alumni with recent graduates and current students, Dubrowski said.

“Our alumni want to help BC students and graduates jump start their careers,” said Dubrowski, who now heads Honoring the Future, a non-profit that uses art to teach environmental awareness. “At the

tive initiatives, championing the creation of the new Environmental Studies major and supporting BC’s energy conservation and sustainability programs.

University Trustee Frank Previte ’65, president and CEO of EBI Consulting, a Massachusetts-based environmental consulting firm, said the University’s academic strengths are aligned with the healthy job market in the energy and environment sector.

“The industry needs smart people and BC has these unique academic strengths in the College of Arts and Sciences, environmental law, environmental management (Clockwise from top left) Among those active and sustainability,” said Previte. in the Boston College Energy and Environ“BCEEAN does a great job coorment Alumni Network are Fran Dubrowski dinating these industry trends and – the BCEEAN co-chair – Assoc. Prof. Noah the opportunities for BC graduates Snyder (Earth and Environmental Sciences) to take their skills into the workand University Trustee Frank Previte. force.”

Provost and Dean of Faculties same time, these young people BCEEAN co-chair Patricia Wilbring so much energy and enthu- liams ’77, a lead attorney with David Quigley said BCEEAN’s siasm that they help to reinvigorate the US Environmental Protection level of involvement is highly valued. those of us who are further along in Agency.

“I appreciate the commitment our careers.”

“I was able to meet with EPA BCEEAN has placed a strong staff and BC alums, people who of BCEEAN’s membership to emphasis on creating partnerships were once in my position, and supporting our students and to with campus offices, such as join- talk about how they came to work strengthening our University’s ening with the Career Center to host at EPA and where they went to gagement with critical issues of the a Green Careers Night and pro- graduate school,” said Gourlay. environment and sustainability,” vide “externships,” or one-day job “It made it real to me that these said Quigley.

Robert Sherwood, the Alumni shadow opportunities. kinds of jobs are very possible at a Sophomore Rebecca Gourlay, time when the job hunting process Relations liaison to the group, said BCEEAN has made its presence an Environmental Studies major, seems pretty daunting.” spent a day during winter break The group has also lent its sup- felt on campus, hosting a two-day in Washington, DC, hosted by port to academic and administra- conference on sustainability, supLee Pellegrini

By Ed Hayward Staff Writer

porting the BC Arts Festival and participating in a Sesquicentennial forum on energy, featuring US Sen. Ed Markey ’68, JD ’72.

“I work with a number of alumni affinity groups and BCEEAN is, without a doubt, one of the most effective,” said Sherwood. “It is helping to provide educational information to alumni and students intended to engage alumni and support our undergraduates with interests in this area.”

The group distributes a newsletter three times a year, hosts a LinkedIn group and a Facebook page.

Dubrowski said environmental stewardship is directly connected to the University’s Jesuit, Catholic mission.

“Energy and the environment permeate everything – the economy, culture, and lifestyle,” said Dubrowski. “It ultimately gets to the heart of so many things happening on campus, particularly at a Jesuit institution where the mission is to be men and women for others.

It is really a good fit with BC’s mission. There is a leadership role there for BC to help chart a path that is sustainable not only for us, but for everyone.”

For more information about BCEEAN, see their Facebook page at facebook.com/bceean, or email them at envrn@bc.edu.

Contact Ed Hayward at ed.hayward@bc.edu

BC Launches a ‘Career Community’ to Link Students, Alumni By the Office of News & Public Affairs

LinkedIn has long been the industry standard for professionals to market themselves online. Now, for the first time, Boston College students can get advice directly from BC alumni on the social media platform.

This month, the Boston College Career Community launched on LinkedIn [on.bc.edu/linkedInBC].

Spearheaded by the BC Career Center and supported by the Office of News & Public Affairs and University Advancement, the exclusive group is a unique networking opportunity for BC students and alumni. With nearly 4,500 members already, the group promises to be a resource to build professional relationships and share helpful advice.

“We know that students want access to alumni and the industryspecific, customized career advice they have to offer,” said Associate Vice President for Student Affairs of Career Services Joseph Du Pont.

“Alumni, in turn, are seeking to give back to the BC community and

engage with students around career issues in very specific ways. There is tremendous value in creating an environment that brings together students and alumni to have conversations about a specific career path, the power of the liberal arts and the role that community and serendipity play in one’s career.

“Moreover, this type of initiative is very much aligned with our Jesuit ideology of creating an environment that fosters community, service to others and meaningful connections between people,” he said.

Students have already taken advantage of the opportunity.

Carroll School of Management junior Raven Rankine asked alumni how best to utilize downtime over winter break to secure a summer internship. Within hours, several alumni answered with thoughtful responses. One alumnus suggested seeking information interviews with alumni in her area and learning software to improve marketability.

Another called for a personal assessment of social media to ensure a professional appearance for potential employers.

One alumni respondent, Jordy

Clements ’06 of Oracle, said he is in a place in his career where he can give guidance, something that he could have benefitted from as a student.

“On a personal level, I enjoy connecting with people, whether through social media, or more directly through something like the recent BC externship day when I hosted a student at my office,” he

said. “If I can help, I try to help.

I got my current job via LinkedIn. More than ever, jobs are being posted in non-traditional forums.

Applying through the ‘front door’ simply isn’t as effective as leveraging your personal network. Why not take advantage of all the resources available?”

Career Center Assistant Director Laura Perrigo, the LinkedIn group moderator, pointed to this interaction as a way for the BC community to establish meaningful connections.

“This post makes it clear how willing BC alumni are to give back

to students and how great of a resource the BC community can be for fellow Eagles. I am excited to see the future conversations,” said Perrigo.

“As students and new professionals are exploring different career paths, we want them to utilize this group to reach out to others with experience in a field of interest, ask questions, and gather information, so that they are making informed decisions and ultimately choose a fulfilling career.”

“BC alumni have a long history of providing support to students exploring majors and career fields. The Boston College Career Community makes it easy to virtually mentor and connect with the next generation of BC alumni,” said Joy Moore ’81, H’10, associate vice president for alumni relations.

News & Public Affairs Social Media Manager Melissa Beecher said the Boston College Career Community represents the first time the University has established an official LinkedIn group open to both students and alumni.

“We have seen the Boston Col-

lege university page [http://on.bc. edu/14BrOkA] grow to more than 100,000 followers in just over a year, so we know that there is tremendous interest in LinkedIn among the BC community,” said Beecher.

“The Career Community aims to fill a void that existed on social media where BC students and alumni could connect and network.”

“Technology and social media, tools like LinkedIn, are having a tremendous impact on how we accomplish our work as career service professionals both here at Boston College and around the country,” said Du Pont. “These tools enable us to expand career services for students beyond the physical space of the career center and involve the entire BC community wherever they are in the world. We can now better broker connections, for example, between an alumnus working at an NGO in Africa and a student interested in that type of work. We are excited to help facilitate those connections.”

Currently, only students and alumni can join the group. Before being approved into the community, students are asked to review the LinkedIn guide: http://www.bc.edu/ offices/careers/jobs/linkedin.html

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Robsham Spring Schedule Kicks Off on Wednesday A new look at the Bard’s work though the eyes of Shakespeare aficionado and Monan Professor in Theatre Arts Tina Packer, and Lee Pellegrini the 17 students in her intensive fall semester Shakespeare acting class, will launch the Robsham Theater Arts Center’s spring production schedule.

“Honor, Shame, and Violence: A Shakespeare Anthology Project,” a compilation of war scenes from some of Shakespeare’s most beloved and lesser-known works, will be staged in Robsham’s Bonn Studio Theater Jan. 21-25.

Scenes from “Coriolanus,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Henry IV Part I,” “Othello” and others will be featured in the Theatre Depart- Monan Professor in Theatre Arts Tina Packer and her students will stage ment/RTAC production directed an anthology of Shakespeare’s work.

by Packer, founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, one of the largest and most critically acclaimed Shakespeare festivals in North America.

The production’s structure, according to organizers, is modeled after Packer’s magnum opus, her five-part performance piece “Women of Will,” which won critical acclaim in its 2013 off-Broadway run.

The play, and a forthcoming book by the same title, is the result of Packer’s lifelong exploration of Shakespeare’s famed yet misunderstood heroines.

Actors in the Robsham performance will “break the fourth wall” – which, in theater, separates the world of the characters from that of the audience – and discuss certain moments, lines, ideas and character choices with the audience, to create a dialogue about the meaning of the words “honor,” “shame” and “violence,” and their relation to the modern world.

The play also features fight choreography by actor Jason Asprey, Packer’s son and a Shakespeare & Company artist, and Doug Seldin; both worked with the BC student actors last fall in stage combat.

Organizers note that the production has mature content, includes graphic violence, and advise viewer discretion.

Running Feb. 19-22 is the Theatre Department workshop production “One Flea Spare,” written by Naomi Wallace and directed by Cara Harrington ’15. Its focus is on a wealthy couple preparing to flee their home in a plague-ravaged area, only to discover two intruders: a mysterious sailor and a young girl. Quarantined together for 28 days, these strangers fear each other more than the plague, and survival takes many forms in this darkly humorous play that deals with the clash of boundaries.

Another Theatre Department workshop production, Geoffrey Nauffts’ “Next Fall,” directed by Sarah Krantz ’15, will be staged March 19-22. The play depicts the ups and downs of a five-year relationship of an unlikely couple – Luke, who believes in God, and Adam, who believes in everything else – and paints a portrait of modern romance, commitment, love and faith.

The Robsham season closes on April 23-26 with another Shakespeare classic, “The Tempest” directed by Theatre Department Assistant Professor of the Practice Patricia Riggin. Believed to have been written in 1610–11, it is thought by many critics to be the last play Shakespeare wrote alone.

Set on a remote island, “The Tempest” chronicles how Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her proper place using illusion and manipulation. He conjures up a storm that lures his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. Prospero’s machinations lead to the revelation of Antonio’s lowly nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso’s son, Ferdinand.

For more information, including details on production teams, cast members and performance schedules, see bc.edu/theatre. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for BC faculty and staff (one ticket per ID), BC students (with valid ID), and seniors; call the box office at ext.2-4002 or go to bc.edu/tickets.

–Office of News & Public Affairs

Economics, Finance, Biology Top Majors Continued from page 1 2004-05 academic year (539), when economics was the seventhmost enrolled major.

The other most popular majors or concentrations at BC are finance (938) – which again represented the highest concentration recorded in the Carroll School – biology (865), communication (791), political science (747), psychology (527), English (515), marketing (388), nursing (382) and applied psychology/human development (367).

“Quantitative skills are more important than ever for understanding the world, which has suddenly become awash in data – it may be the latest buzzword, but ‘Big Data’ is not a fad, it’s a sea change,” says Professor Donald Cox, chairman of the Economics Department, remarking on the field’s popularity.

“Economists have a long tradition in data work, and the marketplace needs more people who can do this work. To be an educated person requires facility with data, because it’s the wellspring of so much knowledge. Basic concepts, like the difference between correlation and causality, are increasingly vital for understanding the environment, health, politics – just about everything.”

The BC students who major in economics, Cox says, “are impossible to typecast – they go in dozens of different and often surprising directions.” But he feels one trend has become apparent: “They are motivated to learn like never before.”

Julia Gorman, a senior economics and political science major from Denver, already knew she wanted to study economics in college because “I had identified my primary interest to be the study of how people act and interact. Economics provides a framework from which to evaluate these actions and interactions, as well as a marketable skill set.”

Her choice of major did not factor in her attending BC, but that decision has been reinforced

by “the quality of professors here,” she says, citing the Public Finance class taught by Professor Richard Tresch as an example.

“Perhaps I enjoyed this class so much because studying government economic policy dovetailed with my interest in po-

litical science,” explains Gorman, who has accepted a job with Charles River Associates and is considering graduate studies in a yet-to-be-determined subject.

“But it was not until this class that I seriously considered what a society’s economic objectives

should be, how to model a society’s welfare, and how to craft policy which maximizes this welfare function.”

Sean Dvorak’s path to economics at BC was less direct.

The Bayport, NY, native had envisioned studying physics and entering the pre-med program, but wasn’t wild about his lab experiences.

Finding unexpected satisfaction with his Principles of Macroeconomics core course, he went on to take the Principles of Microeconomics and Statistics classes, and declared himself an economics and computer science major.

Dvorak says he has had no shortage of learning opportuni-

ties, especially through his relationship with faculty members Peter Ireland, his thesis advisor Christopher Maxwell and Robert Murphy; Dvorak is a member of the BC team ­– for which Murphy is advisor – that took part in the Federal Reserve Challenge, a competition where students from New England area schools debate policy recommendations for monetary policy.

“Economics Department faculty are very helpful in making opportunities outside of class available,” says Dvorak, who after graduation plans to do consulting work for Ernst & Young.

“Moreover, the electives for the major cover a wide array of topics, which allows one to tailor his or her studies to what really interests him or her.”

Adds Clara Dawley, a senior from Portland, Ore.: “My economics classes have taught me

how to think critically, analytically, and outside of the box.”

Whether undergraduates come to BC with an inclination to study economics or develop it after arriving, Cox says his department aims to make the experience distinctive.

“Our department is steeped in the values of liberal arts education, but also has a tradition of ambitious research.

A good researcher has to stay current. Our students will be in the prime of their careers in the year 2040, and to stay ahead of the curve their learning needs to transcend textbooks and go deep into actual research.”

In another milestone, this fall the Mathematics Department saw its number of majors break the 300 mark (305 total) for the

first time. It’s another positive development for the department, which has seen the number of enrollees rise more than 50 percent in the past decade.

McIntyre Professor and Mathematics Chair Solomon Friedberg sees a number of factors that have contributed to the upward trajectory, including a new bachelor of science degree and corresponding courses; new honors courses that are available to advanced entering students, and doctoral-level courses that are open to undergraduates.

“At the summer orientations, I see a lot of students who haven’t decided and want to talk about what the math major entails,” says Associate Professor William

Keane, the department’s assistant chair for undergraduates.

“They’re always receptive to the argument that math improves your analytical faculties, and teaches you to solve problems in unfamiliar situations.

“Many of them hadn’t realized that employers aren’t always looking for some specific body of knowledge, but instead want people who’ve proven that they can think and adapt.”

Contact Sean Smith at sean.smith@bc.edu

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Newsmakers

Elisabeth Bailey, a clinical instructor at the Connell School of Nursing, is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatric clinical nurse specialist who serves as a clinical preceptor for graduate students pursuing psychiatric nursing. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a master’s of science in nursing from BC, and is pursuing a doctorate in nursing practice. Her clinical areas of interest are pediatric psychopharmacology and mental health in primary care settings. She works as an advanced practice nurse at the Manville School, Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, where she provides psychiatric evaluation, diagnosis and psychopharmacologic management for children in grades K-10 in a therapeutic day school setting.

Andrew Hession-Kunz brings an unlikely background to his position as a part-time faculty member in the Carroll School of Management, where he began teaching as an adjunct lecturer in 2002, three years after receiving his master’s degree in finance from the school.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Hession-Kunz became a satellite physicist, then began his own furnituremaking business that specialized in Japanese-style Shoji and Teahouses – one of seven ventures Hession-Kunz would start or help launch. He has also been a commodities broker, a software programmer, and a business development executive for scientific test instruments. Hession-Kunz teaches Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Venture Capital.

Erika Sabbath brought a background in public health to the School of Social Work, where she is now in her second semester as an assistant professor. Sabbath earned master’s and doctoral degrees in social and behavioral sciences from the Harvard School of Public Health (the doctorate was awarded jointly with Université Paris XISud), where she also worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the school’s Center for Population and Development Studies. She researches issues related to occupational health, life-course epidemiology, health disparities, and healthy aging, and last fall earned a Mentored Research Scientist Development Award – known as a K01 grant – from the Centers for Disease Control and its National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to support her project “Quantifying Economic & Health Effects of Psychosocial Workplace Exposures.” Sabbath, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, will teach a required MSW course in program evaluation this semester.

–Kathleen Sullivan, Sean Hennessey and Sean Smith Photos by Lee Pellegrini and Caitlin Cunningham

Broido Elected APS Fellow Professor of Physics David Broido has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the world’s second-largest organization of physicists, the society has announced.

The APS’s Fellowship Program recognizes members who have made exceptional contributions in areas of research, leadership, service, education and applications in physics. The distinct honor is limited to no more than one half of one percent of the more than 50,000 APS members.

The society cited Broido for his outstanding research, which is focused on developing predictive theoretical approaches to better understand heat conduction in solid materials. Discovery of new materials with very low and very high thermal conductivity can aid in efficient harvesting of electricity from heat and in cooling of microelectronic devices.

Ferris Professor and Chairman of Physics Michael Naughton praised Broido’s selection, which makes him the fourth Physics faculty member to receive the honor.

“This is a richly deserved honor for David,” said Naughton. “In a sense, with recent discoveries of new classes of thermoelectric materials, the world is catching up to his ideas.”

–Office of News & Public Affairs

Political Science Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Laurence and Asst. Prof.

Peter Krause discusssed last week’s terror attack in Paris and the global approach to dealing with Islamic extremists in interviews with CNN, Bloomberg TV, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and New England Cable News’ “Broadside.”

Prof. Alan Rogers (History) spoke with “CBS This Morning” in their report on the recovery from the Massachusetts State House of a time capsule buried by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere in 1795.

Prof. James Bretzke, SJ (STM), and Assoc. Prof. Rev. James Weiss (Theology) offered comments to the International Business Times on Pope Francis’ appointment of 15 new cardinals, most of whom are from developing countries.

College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program faculty member Martha Bayles offered her views to the Boston Globe on the complex

relationship between the CIA and journalists.

The New York Times highlighted the transformation of Boston College’s Brighton Campus from an expanse “once so packed with Catholic institutions that it was referred to as Little Rome.”

BC BRIEFING Vanderslice Professor of Chemistry T. Ross Kelly’s longtime use of scientific curiosities to create hands-on learning experiences for students was featured by the Boston Globe.

Publications Prof. Maxim D. Shrayer (Slavic and Eastern Languages) contributed a two-part essay on JewishSoviet memory to the Visiting Scribes series published by the Jewish Book Council.

Lynch School of Education Brennan Professor Andy Hargreaves placed sixth on the 2015 RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings, released last week. The list recognizes 200 university-based scholars in the US who are contributing most substantially to public debates about education.

Cawthorne Professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith of the Lynch School also is among the nation’s top 50, according to the rankings published by Education Week. Cochran-Smith recently received the Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award from the Literacy Research Association in recognition of her work, with co-recipient Susan Lytle, on literacy theory, research and practice.

NOTA BENE Frederick J. Adelmann, SJ, Professor of Philosophy John Sallis presented a series of four lectures at Wuhan University in China, a university of more than 50,000 students.

The lectures, under the general title “The Dialogue between Philosophy and Painting,” were “Hegel and the Metaphysics of Art,” “From Hegel to Impressionism,” “Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Cezanne” and “Klee as Theorist and Artist.”

Working at the Institut Laue-Langevin, an international research center based in Grenoble, France, Professor of Biology Daniel Kirschner and graduate student Andrew Denninger led a team of scientists that used neutron diffraction to analyze myelin, a layer of insulation which coats humans’ nerve cells and plays an important role in ensuring rapid signal propagation. These experiments, the first of their kind in 45 years, revealed new insights into myelin structure and the distribution and exchange of water in myelin. [To read more about their work, see http://bit. ly/1GsGVKZ]

Asst. Prof. Hosffman Ospino (STM) was named one of the “Catholics of the Year” by Our Sunday Visitor, the largest national US Catholic newspaper, for his research on Hispanic Catholic parishes.

Time and a Half Assoc. Prof. Andrea Vicini, SJ (STM), presented “Approaching the End of Life: Roman Catholic Perspectives” at the international meeting “Interreligious Dialogue on the End of Life” held at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.

Prof. Maxim D. Shrayer (Slavic and Eastern Languages) presented the following: “Leaving Russia: A Jewish Story,” University of Potsdam; “Bunin and Nabokov: A History of Rivalry,” Humboldt University of Berlin; and “Pavel Antokolsky as a Witness to the Shoah in Ukraine and Poland,” Russian Holocaust Museum, Moscow. He also taught a guest seminar on Andrei Platonov and Shoah at the Institut für Slawistik at Humboldt University of Berlin.

JOBS The following are among the most recent positions posted by the Department of Human Resources.

For more information on employment opportunities at Boston College, see www.bc.edu/offices/hr: Assistant Director for Residential Ministry Assistant Director for Marketing and Communications, Career Center Assistant Director for Finance, Auxiliary Services Director for Faculty Programs, Center for Teaching Excellence Manager, Student Support Services Assistant Manager, Dining Services Director of Housing Operations, Residential Life Associate University Librarian Grant Manager, School of Social Work Assistant/Associate Director for Parents’ Fundraising, Development

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TAKEI TREKKING TO ROBSHAM

TV and movie star – and, more recently, Internet sensation – George Takei (known to many as “Mr. Sulu” from the original “Star Trek” series) speaks at 7 p.m. tomorrow in Robsham Theater.

Admission is free with a BC ID; one ticket per ID at the Robsham Photo: Adam Bouska box office. E-mail asiancaucus@gmail.com for information.

BC SCENES

Gaby Gerster

Dennis Lehane

Mathieu Zazzo

Alison Bechdel

Vincent Hoban

The Lowell Humanities Series, which sponsors campus appearances by high profile, distinguished authors, begins its spring semester schedule later this month. Here’s a look at the line-up: Jan. 28: Sheri Fink A New York Times correspondent, Fink is the author of that publication’s best-selling book, Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for nonfiction, the Ridenhour Book Prize, the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her news reporting has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the National Magazine Award, and the Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award, among other journalism prizes.

Feb. 11: Alison Bechdel An internationally acclaimed cartoonist, Bechdel’s darkly humorous graphic memoirs and evocative drawing have had wide appeal. Her 2006 Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which focused on the suicide of her closeted bisexual father, was named Best Book of the Year by Time magazine and a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award, and adapted into an award-winning musical that opened off-Broadway in 2013, with a Broadway premiere planned for 2015. Her work also includes a 2012 memoir, Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama, and

Elena Seibert

Bechdel, Lehane, Ferriter Among Humanities Series Speakers

Diarmaid Ferriter

Dinaw Mengestu

her self-syndicated Dykes to Watch Out For, an award-winning generational chronicle, ran from 1983 to 2008. She is a Marsh professor-atlarge at the University of Vermont.

March 11: Dennis Lehane The appearance of critically acclaimed and popular author Lehane is made possible through the support of the Gerson Family Lecture Fund. Since the Dorchester

native’s first novel, A Drink Before the War, won the Shamus Award, he has published nine more that have been translated into some 30 languages, won numerous honors and become international bestsellers, with three adapted into awardwinning films. Among his works are Gone, Baby, Gone; Mystic River; Shutter Island; Moonlight Mile and Live by Night. His next, World

ONE JOURNEY ENDS, ANOTHER BEGINS

For some Boston College students, the end of the fall 2014 semester also marked the close of their years at the Heights. The annual Baccalaureate Mass for seniors who have completed their undergraduate requirements was held Dec. 15 in Gasson 100.

Photos by Lee Pellegrini

Gone By, will be published this March. A writer for the HBO series “The Wire,” Lehane is currently a writer-producer on HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” and is working on “Ness,” a drama series in development at WGN America.

March 18: Diarmaid Ferriter One of Ireland’s leading historians and BC’s Burns Library Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies from 2008-2009, Ferriter is a professor of modern Irish history at University College Dublin. His most recent book is Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s; his others include the bestsellers The Transformation of Ireland 1900-2000; Judging Dev: A Reassessment of the Life and Legacy of Eamon de Valera; and Occasions of Sin: Sex and Society in Modern Ireland. In 2010 he presented a three-part television history of 20th-century Ireland on RTE. March 25: Ira Berlin Berlin is a distinguished historian of America and the larger Atlantic world in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly the history of slavery. His books – which have received many honors – include Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South; Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in Mainland North America; and Generations of Captivity: A History of Slaves in the United States. Berlin is the founding editor of the Freedmen and Southern Society Project,

whose multi-volume Freedom: A Documentary history of Emancipation has twice been awarded the Thomas Jefferson Prize of the Society for History in the Federal Government, among other awards.

April 8: Dinaw Mengestu BC Fiction Days presents Mengestu, author of Los Angeles Times bestseller The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, as well as How To Read the Air and All Our Names. Two years after his birth in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, he immigrated to the US with his mother and sister to join his father, who fled during the Red Terror.

A graduate of Georgetown University and Columbia University’s MFA program, Mengestu received a 2006 fellowship in fiction from the New York Foundation for the Arts and, in 2007, a “5 Under 35” Award from the National Book Foundation.

All Humanities Series events, which are free and open to the public, take place at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100, with the exception of Mengestu’s April 8 appearance, which will be held in Devlin 101.

The series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, BC’s Institute for the Liberal Arts and the Provost’s Office.

Complete series details — including full speaker bios, directions and parking information — are at www.bc.edu/lowellhs.

–Office of News & Public Affairs