BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Boston College will enhance student health and wellness services through additional staffing, education, and training, and increase access to mental health counseling for all students, thanks to a generous gift from BC alumna, parent, and benefactor Tami Murray ’83, P’09, ’15, ’19.
The gift, made in honor of her late husband, former BC Trustee Stephen P. Murray ’84, will establish the Murray Center for Student Wellness and enhance access to same-day appointment availability for University Counseling Services (UCS), increase education, training, and resource development around health and wellness, and expand the promotion of mental health services.
Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences junior Esosasehia (Esosa) Owens, a leader and advocate for accessible education, is the winner of this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Scholarship. University President William P. Leahy, S.J., presented Owens with the award at Boston College’s 43rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Banquet on February 24.
The MLK Scholarship recognizes a Boston College junior who has demonstrated superior academic achievement, extracurricular leadership, community service, and
2 Around Campus Faculty Pub at the McMullen; WCAS, Messina movie night.
4 Making the Cut BC’s Bowles longlisted for the Booker Prize.
8 Origin Story
Mike Cronin co-authors book on almost forgotten Boston sports legend.
involvement with the African American community and African American issues.
Owens was one of five finalists for the annual scholarship award. She will receive $35,000 towards her senior year tuition and a $1,000 gift certificate to the BC Bookstore.
“When I reflect on Dr. King’s life, I think about how transformative his advocacy was,” said Owens, a business management major and sociology minor from Randolph, Mass. “Growing up, I always had one view of what advocacy looked like, and that was just yelling to a large group of people. But when I think of Dr. King, I think of how he advocated even in small groups or through individual relationships.
“That’s the kind of advocacy I am trying to reflect in my life. Where I’m not necessarily the biggest voice in a crowd, I can see myself advocating for things in small meetings or conversations with people. I’m so grateful to have received this award, but it also reminds me to continue that advocacy in every aspect of my life, whether it’s for people at work or for someone who feels as if they don’t have a voice. Using advocacy in ways that I feel are unconventional is what this award means for me.”
Owens, one of three siblings to attend BC, first found her passion for education accessibility during her freshman year on
It will also integrate campus health and wellness programs, placing University Health Services (UHS), UCS, Sports Medicine, and the existing Center for Student Wellness under the umbrella of the Murray Center, which will work closely with the Dean’s Office in Student Affairs to provide timely support to students in need. The center will be directed by Murray Center for Student Wellness Associate Vice President Dr. Douglas Comeau, who previously served as director of University Health Services and Primary Care Sports Medicine.
“We are grateful for this important gift, which will support a campus-wide effort to promote holistic student wellness, and a proactive, integrated approach to wellness education in support of students’ well-being,” said Vice President for Student Affairs Shawna Cooper Whitehead.
“The Murray Center for Student Well-
ness will play a pivotal role in supporting the BC community through increased outreach and education, training, and resource development to address student needs proactively and collaboratively, placing BC at the forefront of collegiate efforts nationwide to address student wellness.”
Murray said that having observed her sons’ positive experience with the Connors Family Learning Center when they were at BC, she believed creating a center where students could more readily access wellness services would be a great benefit to the Boston College community.
“As a parent, I know there is so much more that young people face today, from social media pressures to increased academic and career competition,” said Murray. “I want anyone who is struggling to have access to services in their time of need. The
‘We
Will Build a Tradition’
Engineering program prepares to graduate first class
BY ED HAYWARD STAFF WRITER
Just a few months away from becoming the inaugural class of graduates from the University’s Human-Centered Engineering program, 28 seniors—working in five teams—are undertaking their Senior Impact Projects and preparing to present their results next month.
Class presentations are nothing new, but in the engineering discipline, they can take on an exalted status. Some engineer-
ing schools cancel classes on presentation days so the student body can attend. Even accrediting agencies take note of a department’s approach to these senior projects and the lessons learned in presenting the essential challenge and solutions to an audience of peers.
“We really want to test our seniors at this point,” said Professor Glenn Gaudette, the John W. Kozarich ’71 Chair of the Department of Engineering. “This is our first go-round, so we are all learning. But along
Tami Murray ’83 and her sons (L-R) Nolan, Ryan, Sean, and Jay.
photo courtesy murray family
Engineering senior Wiliam Gotanda during his mid-semester presentation in the class of Professor Siddhartan Govindasamy.
Around Campus
McMullen Provides Backdrop for ‘Community, Camaraderie, and Collegiality’
During the academic year, a convivial group of Boston College faculty and other colleagues gather regularly for an informal social event against the elegant backdrop of the McMullen Museum of Art.
The Faculty Pub at the McMullen, which also welcomes BC administrators and other community members, takes place in the Museum Atrium from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Launched in 2022 by Carroll School of Management Assistant Professor of the Practice Jeremy Evans and Matthew Rutledge, an associate professor of the practice in Economics, the event—held on a near-monthly basis—offers a casual atmosphere to foster relationships across disciplines and schools.
The gathering has evolved from a handful of faculty members to now more than 40 attendees from a wide array of departments and programs, and includes a mailing list of nearly 600 BC employees that spans nearly every department at Boston College.
Attendees have expressed great enthusiasm for the opportunity to come together for fellowship and collegiality over a glass of wine or beer, and other refreshments.
“Our hope was that this would not just build community, but also help forge interdisciplinary collaborations and cross-discipline knowledge-sharing,” Evans noted. “Walking around the pub events, you will hear historians chatting with physicists, philosophers talking to art historians, and political scientists talking with mathemati-
faculty and sparking interdisciplinary collaborations.”
The initiative was launched “with the goal of growing a sense of community, camaraderie, and collegiality among faculty members, but we are very happy that it is increasingly a place where all Boston College employees feel welcome,” said Evans. “Faculty value the opportunity to meet professors from across the disciplines and talk about shared interests and swap stories,” and are inspired by discussions about their respective research and scholarship.
For Evans, an interaction with CSOM Associate Professor of the Practice Michael Smith led to a new cross-disciplinary course, Ethics of Sustainability, a collaboration between CSOM and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.
Evans, who hopes to increase attendance, cites easy access to the venue, which features free parking.
cians.”
“It’s been wonderful to see the Faculty Pub series take off over the past few years,” said Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley, whose office sponsors the events in collaboration with the McMullen Museum. “Jeremy Evans and Matt Rutledge have regularly brought together colleagues from across the University and the events have built and sustained a strong sense of community. The McMullen Museum
Woods and Messina College to Team Up for a Night at the Movies
The Woods College of Advancing Studies and Messina College will host a joint movie night at the Coolidge Corner Cinema on March 19 at 6 p.m., as part of a mutual effort to bring the Woods and Messina communities together.
Following a welcome from Messina College Dean Erick Berrelleza, S.J., and Woods College Dean David Goodman, students from both colleges will enjoy a private showing of “Inside Out 2” at the iconic cinema, and have the opportunity to reflect on the coming-of-age animated comedy, which deals with substantial themes of anxiety, trauma, and current pressures on young people. A discussion
ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Jack Dunn
SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Patricia Delaney
EDITOR Sean Smith
will follow the screening, led by Woods College part-time faculty member Lindy Desciak and Messina College Professor of the Practice Kat Gonso.
The entire evening is free, including popcorn, drinks, and admission.
Goodman hopes that the movie night is the first of many such events. “We are delighted to be bringing together these two wonderful communities and engaging in an evening of entertainment, shared learning, and good fellowship.”
Woods College and Messina College students can register for the event at apply. bc.edu/register/WoodsMessinaMovieNight. —Ellen Seaward
CONTRIBUTING STAFF
Phil Gloudemans Ed Hayward
Audrey Loyack
Rosanne Pellegrini Kathleen Sullivan
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Caitlin Cunningham Lee Pellegrini
has been the ideal site for generating new friendships and collaborations across campus.”
Inaugural Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Director of the McMullen Museum Nancy Netzer, a professor of art history, concurred: “As a University museum driven by faculty research and student instruction, the welcoming gathering spaces of the McMullen nominate themselves as an excellent place for building camaraderie among our
The next Faculty Pub at the McMullen is scheduled for March 18; dates for the remainder of the semester have not yet been determined.
“This is all made possible by the generosity of the Provost’s Office that provides food and drinks, as well as the McMullen Museum which graciously allows us to use the Atrium. The event is also an opportunity to spotlight the great art collection in the museum, much of which remains open to attendees during the pub events,” said Evans.
—Rosanne Pellegrini
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 University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135 (617)552-3350.
Distributed free to faculty and staff offices and other locations on campus.
Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: send address changes to The Boston College Chronicle, Office of University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135.
A flipbook edition of Chronicle is available via e-mail. Send requests to chronicle@bc.edu.
Coolidge Corner Cinema
A recent Faculty Pub at the McMullen (open to other members of the University community):
“Our hope was that this would not just build community, but also help forge interdisciplinary collaborations and cross-discipline knowledge-sharing,” said co-organizer Jeremy Evans.
photo by lee pellegrini
Coach O’Brien to Speak at Laetare Sunday
The 74th annual Boston College Laetare Sunday celebration—the BC Alumni Association’s oldest tradition—will take place on March 30, featuring an address by Bill O’Brien, the Gregory P. Barber ’69 and Family Head Coach of Boston College Football.
Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent and marks the season’s midpoint. The day will begin with Mass at 9:30 a.m. in Conte Forum, with University President William P. Leahy, S.J., presiding. A brunch will immediately follow; the cost is $25 per person.
A veteran of both the college and professional coaching ranks, O’Brien was named head football coach at BC in February of last year. He guided the Eagles to a 7-6 record—including a 6-1 mark in home games—and an appearance in the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl, held at Yankee Stadium in New York City.
O’Brien’s first head coaching post was from 2012-2014 at Penn State, where he earned the Paul “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year and George Munger Coach of the Year by the Maxwell Football Club honors. In 2014, he became head coach of the National Football League
Houston Texans, leading the team to five winning seasons. He returned to the college ranks as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Alabama for two years before taking the same positions in 2023 with the New England Patriots; he had previously worked with the Patriots as offensive assistant coach, wide receivers coach, quarterbacks coach, and offensive coordinator during 2007-2011.
The Dorchester, Mass., native began his coaching career in 1993 at his alma mater Brown, and went on to posts at Georgia Tech, Maryland, and Duke.
For more information on the event, contact Katherine Walter at bcspirit@ bc.edu or ext. 2-1607.
—University Communications
“I want anyone who is struggling to have access to services in their time of need. The hope in establishing the center is that no student ever feels alone.”
—Tami Murray
Gift Establishes Murray Center
Continued from page 1
hope in establishing the center is that no student ever feels alone, and that the Murray Center will provide comprehensive care for the well-being of all BC students.”
Research shows that a significant number of college students experience depression and anxiety while on campus, a trend that has grown since the COVID-19 pandemic at the start of the decade. Yet most colleges, administrators say, lack the resources and staffing to adequately address the issue.
Comeau said that the advantages of the Murray Center for BC students will include additional staffing and enhanced coordination and communication between health and wellness services, and the addition of pastoral counseling, which will work with the center’s teams to enhance access to spiritual counseling for those who seek it.
In particular, the gift will enable the Murray Center to add a psychiatric nurse practitioner, an additional physician, and BC’s first full-time medical dietician to University Health Services. It will also enable electronic health records to be shared between UHS, UCS, and Sports Medicine, which will aid further collaboration of patient care, particularly during a mental health crisis.
“Health care today is a 24/7 operation
University Is Among Top U.S. Fulbright Institutions
Boston College has once again been recognized as a top producer of student Fulbright Scholarship winners, according to data released by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Founded in 1946, the Fulbright Program is the U.S. State Department’s flagship international academic exchange program. The Fulbright U.S. Student Program provides grants to recent college graduates, graduate students, and early-career professionals who participate in study and research programs or serve as English teaching assistants abroad.
Since its inception, the Fulbright Program has provided more than 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad.
The Fulbright Program’s goal is to increase mutual understanding and support friendly and peaceful relations between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The U.S. government oversees an extensive suite of fellowships and scholarships in partnership with more than 160 countries worldwide.
Twelve Boston College students were selected for Fulbrights for 2024-2025 out of 52 applications. This year, BC Fulbright recipients are studying or teaching in Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Kuwait,
Netherlands, and South Korea.
“I was very pleased to learn that BC has once again been named as a Fulbright Top Producer institution,” said Paul Christensen, a professor of the practice in Political Science who is the Fulbright Program advisor for BC.
“The most important reason for BC’s success in the Fulbright Program this year is that we had an amazing group of students who were willing to put themselves forward and apply for a very prestigious and competitive set of awards. Success in programs like this is, of course, also a team effort. We have a great set of advisors who work with our students on their applications, and our students also receive fantastic support from members of the faculty and the Boston College administration.”
However, Christensen added, the future for the Fulbright Program is uncertain because of the Trump administration’s decision to halt its funding until further notice. The freeze has had an effect on BC alumni currently abroad on Fulbright scholarships, he noted, “as well as our students who have been awarded grants for the coming Fulbright cycle and potentially the BC students who have been named semi-finalists for the next round of awards.”
See the complete list of top Fulbrightproducing institutions at www.fulbrightprogram.org/tpi.
—Kathleen Sullivan
Clough Center Event Eyes ‘Democratic Futures’
that requires access to care and enhanced communication and collaboration between service providers,” said Comeau. “The Murray Center for Student Wellness will do all of that for the benefit of BC students. We are thankful to the Murray family for making this center possible.”
Murray said she and her family are especially grateful to University President William P. Leahy, S.J., Haub Vice President for University Mission and Ministry and President-elect Jack Butler, S.J., and the entire BC community for the support they provided and continue to provide to her and her family, and to Boston College for the profound impact it has had on her, Steve, and their four sons, three of whom received undergraduate degrees and one an M.B.A. from the Carroll School of Management.
“Steve was a person who saw a problem and wanted to do something to fix it,” said Murray. “He loved Boston College and believed in everything it stands for; I know he would be happy that we are doing this. I hope the center will have a welcoming presence at the University, and that students during difficult times will know there is always light and hope, and a place where they can seek assistance without fear of judgment through the Murray Center.”
Brett McGurk, who as the White House’s former top Middle East mediator negotiated the landmark 2025 IsraelHamas ceasefire and hostage release, will be a keynote speaker at the Boston College Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy spring symposium on March 21 and 22.
This year’s symposium, titled “Envisioning Democratic Futures,” will feature presentations and panels on such topics as global trends in liberal democracy; the impact of migration and refugees on democratic politics; descriptive representation and democratic futures; AI and democracy; and religious nationalism, minorities, and democracy.
Also appearing as a keynote speaker will be diplomat and international relations scholar Philip Gordon, who served as assistant to the president and national security advisor to the vice president in the Biden administration.
“The world’s democracies have been rocked by the previous year of elections around the world; more than two billion voters were called to the polls, in a variety of circumstances,” said Professor of Political Science and Clough Center Director Jonathan Laurence, who is among the BC faculty members speaking at the symposium. “This has revealed a clash of philosophies and ideologies, but it has also
illustrated the contest of raw power—of economic resources and communications strategies—that can contribute to, or undermine, democratic institutions and outcomes.
“During our seminars and events this academic year, student fellows and faculty affiliates have taken a step back from this fraught environment, to engage with the annual theme of ‘Envisioning Democratic Futures.’ They will help us take stock of where our democracies are heading.”
Other BC faculty participating in “Envisioning Democratic Futures” include Paul Romer, R. Shep Melnick, Mary Murphy, Kathleen Bailey, Aziz Rana, Fernando Bizzarro, Marsin Alshamary, Peter Krause, and Michael Serazio.
Among the other speakers are Anina Schwarzenbach, who studies sociology, criminology, and political science; Bryn Rosenfeld, a co-principal investigator of the Russian Election Study project; social ethicist and public theologian Nicholas Hayes-Mota; and national security and defense expert Spencer P. Boyer.
The full list of speakers, along with other symposium details, is available at bit.ly/Clough-Center-Spring-Symposium-2025.
—Sean Smith
Bill O’Brien
photo courtesy bc athletics
BC Professor Makes the Booker Prize Longlist
BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
Associate Professor of German Studies Daniel Bowles received some welcome news recently, when he learned that the English-language version of Swiss author Christian Kracht’s novel Eurotrash—which Bowles translated from its original German—has been longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize.
The annual prize, split equally between author and translator, recognizes fiction from around the world that has been translated into English and published in the United Kingdom and/or Ireland. Eurotrash is one of 13 titles—representing novels and short story collections—on the longlist.
The six-book International Booker Prize shortlist will be released on April 8, and the winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on May 20. [See more at bit.ly/ daniel-bowles-booker-prize]
Eurotrash follows the odyssey of Christian, a jaded writer who embarks on a tragicomic road trip with his elderly mother and her ill-gotten wealth. The novel has received plaudits from major reviewers such as Publishers Weekly and The Times (U.K.), which included it among the “Best Books of 2024.”
“It’s a tremendous and humbling honor to be recognized, together with the author,” said Bowles, who is working in Hamburg, Germany, this semester. “For a translator, the International Booker Prize is as close to the Nobel Prize for Literature as one can get, so I’m pretty excited. To have been involved with one of 13 books chosen from
among 154 nominations from all around the world is also immensely gratifying.”
For Bowles, the experience of working with Kracht has been an honor in and of itself: They’ve collaborated on several translations, beginning with Kracht’s 2012 novel, Imperium, which earned Bowles the Goethe-Institut’s Helen & Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize.
“Christian is a leading voice in contemporary German literature and already enjoys a strong following in the Germanspeaking world, so I’m all the happier to be a part of this recognition of his work among Anglophone readerships,” said Bowles. “Having written Imperium, he was looking for a translator and contacted me to gauge my interest after he’d read my translations of two books by Thomas Meinecke, which he’d enjoyed. At the time, I was already a fan of his first three novels so there was no question in my mind whether to send him a sample.
“Once it was official and I had completed a draft, he traveled to Boston the weekend before the 2013 Marathon bombing to look through the manuscript with me. Because of the lockdown order, we spent the week holed up inside reading the manuscript aloud to one another, from beginning to end. That started a tradition we’ve kept going to this day. I have enormous respect for the beauty of his writing in German, and he rightfully keeps his writing process private, so I only ever see the German original once it’s in corrected galleys.”
Bowles’s job goes beyond the more familiar idea of what a translator does: mak-
ing words in one language understandable for people who speak or read in a different language.
“With ‘literary translation,’ there’s the implication that the translator is dealing with a work of art, shepherding and transforming it from one language into another, from one culture to another,” he explained. “Literature is, after all, art: an artful use of language in written form. But every linguistic culture has its own aesthetic proclivities, its own ways of producing and judging literary art. So, it’s vital to understand and recognize what those are and to find ways to render them in a different language
where they convey a similar feeling, tone, atmosphere, meaning, and so forth. It’s not just about the words but about contexts, subtexts, and aesthetics, too.”
Reading—“deeply, carefully, and a lot”—is a must for an effective literary translator, said Bowles.
“When I was in high school, I was very fortunate to have literature teachers who helped me develop a sense for the aesthetics of language and who encouraged my lifelong enthusiasm for reading. And I’m very lucky to be here at Boston College where my research and teaching involve making sense, with my students, of that documentation of human cultures and creativity and wisdom in literature. That’s valuable practice and opportunity for encountering the formativeness of literature as art. The best part? There’s always more to read and grapple with.”
Bowles is already at work on the translation of Kracht’s newest novel, Air, which is being published in German this month. “Each of his novels is so vastly different from the one before, and this is no exception, save for the beauty and sound of his writing.”
In addition, two other English translations of Bowles—author of the 2015 book The Ends of Satire: Legacies of Satire in Postwar German Writing—are scheduled for publication later this year: a new novel by German author Jan Philipp Sendker, and Uwe Wittstock’s nonfiction book Marseille 1940, which recounts how German Jewish and leftist refugees in France escaped fascism with the help of Varian Fry’s Emergency Rescue Committee.
Graduate Research Symposium Will Take Place March 26
A showcase of diverse research by some 40 Boston College master’s- and doctorallevel students—in fields including social work, management, education, nursing, and more—will be the focus of the Graduate Research Symposium on March 26, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the Corcoran Commons Heights Room.
The event brings together graduate students from across the University to share their work through oral and poster presentations. The symposium helps build community and recognizes student success, according to organizers, and also enhances participants’ professional and career development skills, through the process of research submission and the presentation of their findings in a public forum.
“Giving opportunities for graduate students to share their empirical research within a community of their peers is reflective of BC’s commitment to graduate student formation,” said Boston College School of Social Work Doctoral Program Assistant Director Deborah Hogan, who organized the event in collaboration with the other sponsoring schools outlined below.
According to Hogan, 49 proposals were received from students at all eight of BC’s graduate schools, and symposium presenters were selected through a blind faculty
review process. Oral presentations will be given by 14 students from BCSSW, the Connell School of Nursing, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and Clough School of Theology and Ministry.
In addition, 23 students from BCSSW, CSON, MCAS, LSOEHD, BC Law School, and the Woods College of Advancing Studies will present posters during a session which runs from 9-10 a.m.
Following welcoming remarks at 9:45 a.m. by Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School, oral presentations—organized into five themes—will run in concurrent sessions in the Boston and Newton Rooms from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Students will each give a 10-minute synopsis of their respective empirical research, followed by five minutes of audience questions.
Themes this year include: Care, Ethics, and Those Affected; Exploring and Understanding Identity in Community; Mathematics and Technology: Curricular Considerations; The Impacts of Violence; and Writing and Reflecting in Teaching and Learning.
At the conclusion of the symposium, a lunch-and-learn event on public scholarship will be held only for BC graduate
students, with featured guest speaker Kenneth Carter, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Psychology and director of the Center for Public Scholarship and Engagement at Emory University. Published extensively in both academic and lay publications, Carter actively engages in the translation of psychology research into everyday language.
The symposium is open to the BC community. Attendees of last year’s gathering offered enthusiastic comments to
organizers, saying they were impressed by the student participation at both the master’s and doctoral levels, as well as by their resulting conversations with the graduate student researchers.
In addition to BCSSW, the 2025 symposium is sponsored by the Connell School, Lynch School, MCAS Graduate School, and Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.
—Rosanne Pellegrini
Gasson Chair Will Speak on China’s Control of Religion in March 20 Lecture
Gasson Chair Paul Mariani, S.J., will present the spring Gasson Lecture, “How Does China Control Religion?” on March 20 at 5 p.m. in Higgins 300.
Fr. Mariani has researched and written about religious policy and conflict in the People’s Republic of China, with a particular focus on Christian resistance in post-1949 China. His 2011 book, Church Militant: Bishop Kung and Catholic Resistance in Communist Shanghai, explored church/state conflict in a time of mounting tension between the newly
victorious Chinese Communist Party and Shanghai’s well-organized Catholic community.
He also co-edited the 2020 book People, Communities, and the Catholic Church in China, and has published such articles as “The Rise of the ‘Underground’ Catholic Church in Early Reform-Era China” and “Gender, Catholicism, and Communism in 1950s Shanghai,” which both appeared in Review of Religion and Chinese Society —University Communications
Daniel Bowles: “For a translator, the International Booker Prize is as close to the Nobel Prize for Literature as one can get.”
photo by hias/claudia höhne
Engineering Seniors
the way, we will build a tradition that all of our students will be proud to participate in.”
Gaudette added, “All accredited engineering programs do capstone design projects. They are even recognized as part of our accreditation process. This is an essential part of our students’ education and preparation for their future careers.”
The University’s human-centered approach to engineering aims to provide a broad sweep of engineering education and training, infused with an underlying philosophy that the practice of engineering must take into account how applications and solutions will impact individuals and society.
“What is distinct about our program is it brings together social, environmental, and other factors into the process that are so important to decision making, and we ask our students to also reflect on how their decisions will affect others,” Gaudette said. “This is the influence of Boston College and the liberal arts on engineering education that we think will make a big difference in the world.”
The five-person senior teams recently assembled in a brightly lit room in the Service Building to run through their talks and update progress in meeting the objectives that have been laid out for them as part of the project-guiding course taught by Gaudette, Professor and Sabet Family Dean’s Faculty Fellow Siddhartan Govindasamy, and Associate Professor Susan (Shufen) Pan.
Team Waterlogged has been working on a rain gauge for deployment in schools to help teach students lessons about the environment and climate. They hope to create a connective precipitation collection data system that provides high-quality data and is cheap to operate, according to one team member, adding that the team hoped to partner with schools in Boston using a
“community science approach.”
They described a process of interviews with officials at the National Weather Service and the Boston Water & Sewer Commission, as well as with specialists about their ideas, especially the “tipping bucket” design that can empty the collection basin after each rain event.
Waterlogged members discussed how they assessed the technical components they considered to make a unit that can relay new data as part of an interconnected network of sensors, empty the catch basin after each precipitation event, and survive the wear and tear of the elements.
Team AQIQ is developing an indoor air quality-monitoring platform that can be deployed in multiple locations within a residential or commercial space to determine the levels of airborne particulate matter, a central component of air pollution.
The team has incorporated machine learning to give the monitoring system the power to predict indoor air quality in the future, said team member Jaxen Farrell.
“We decided to combine machine learning with indoor air quality data collection in order to create the capacity of our device to predict future air quality and give the users the knowledge to take action to ensure healthy and safe environments.”
Other projects include: Underwater Multispectral Camera System, which is designing a video system to better monitor efforts to protect eelgrass on the Maine coast; ColdSnap, creating a vending machine that stores and serves ice cream made by the company of the same name; and ePEN-nephrine Convenient Nasal Epinephrine Delivery System, a sustainable device that discreetly administers epinephrine to patients experiencing anaphylactic shock.
“We are getting close,” Gaudette told the teams. “I am going to be tough on you. In less than three months, it is going to be ‘go time.’ So I want everybody here, standing up front, making decisions even
about who stands on which side.”
Gaudette asked the seniors to be able to put a fine point on project specifications: “If you say ‘durable,’ how durable? What does that mean?”
Students described the projects as a way to express the curriculum they have studied during the past four years.
“The first year focuses on design, not necessarily technological engineering,” said Charlie Neill. “But it’s a very important part of the program. The next two years involve a lot of technical education and experimentation. It’s really nice to put those two things together and apply engineering knowledge and skills to the real world.”
Nava Bozorgmehri added, “From the technical foundations of the courses we’ve learned over four years, we now have the base level knowledge to start with. This opportunity allows us to take it to the next level and gain confidence through experiences and education.”
Peyton Carter emphasized the creativity involved, saying, “As an assignment this
is a lot more open-ended than others that we have had. This allows for a great deal of creativity.”
Will Sweeney highlighted the holistic approach: “No problem is ever solved in a vacuum. If you get too focused on one thing, you may miss out on opportunities to help people. This program gives you a way to approach the world and problems and people, not just a way to fix something.”
Throughout their four years, students have undertaken a number of class projects, often working with faculty to create the assignments. Gaudette said the senior projects follow in that light, but with less step-bystep faculty input.
“Throughout the program, we give them some guardrails,” said Gaudette. “They may not see them and that’s fine. When they are seniors and they do these capstone projects we take those guardrails off and they have to decide what to do and that is going to prepare them for when they are working in the field in just a few months.”
AI and Health Is Subject of CSON Pinnacle Lecture
Artificial intelligence and health informatics will be the focus of the Connell School of Nursing’s March 25 spring Pinnacle Lecture by Patricia Dykes, a nurse scientist whose research aims to improve quality and safety through patient engagement and clinical decision support (CDS).
As the Dr. Maureen P. McCausland Pinnacle Keynote Speaker, she will present “AI and Health Informatics: How Nurses Are Shaping the Future of Patient Care” at 5 p.m. in the Yawkey Center Murray Room.
Dykes is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and research program director in the Center for Patient Safety, Research and Practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She leads a series of projects to improve outcomes for patients in different care settings including primary care, hospital, and skilled nursing rehab. Her clinical trials test interventions designed to improve fall prevention in primary care and care transitions from hospital
to primary care for patients with multiple chronic illness.
She also leads development of CDS and an electronic clinical quality measure to prevent and quantify delayed diagnosis of venous thromboembolism (VTE) for patients who present in primary care with VTE symptoms.
Her other responsibilities include serving as site primary investigator for the CONCERN study, which uses artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches to identify hospitalized patients at risk for deterioration based on nursing documentation patterns. She also leads a clinical trial that tests an informatics intervention to improve post-fracture care at care transitions (into skilled nursing rehab and back to primary care) for patients with lower limb fragility fractures.
The author of two books and nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications, Dykes has presented her work nationally and inter-
nationally. She is a board member of the National Pressure Injury Prevention Panel, past president and board chair of the American Medical Informatics Association, and an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, American College of Medical Informatics, International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, and the National Academy of Medicine.
Each semester, the Connell School brings an inspiring leader to campus to speak on an issue at the forefront of health care. Dykes’ lecture is free and open to all Boston College students, faculty, staff, and alumni, as well as preceptors, practitioners, and scholars.
Dykes’ Pinnacle Lecture will be followed by an audience Q&A. To register for the event, or learn more about the lecture series, see bit.ly/CSON-pinnaclelecture-spring-2025.
—University Communications
Nurse scientist Patricia Dykes will present “AI and Health Informatics: How Nurses Are Shaping the Future of Patient Care.”
“I am going to be tough on you,” Kozarich Chair of Engineering Glenn Gaudette warned his class as they worked on presenting their projects (in photo above). “I want everybody here, standing up front, making decisions even about who stands on which side.”
photo by lee pellegrini
Forum Examines U.S., Ireland, Northern Ireland Relations
BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
The past, present, and uncertain future of the American-Irish relationship will be the subject of a daylong conference next week, through a recently formed collaboration between the Boston College Irish Institute, the University of Galway, and Queen’s University Belfast.
“Peace, Prosperity, and Future Relations: The United States and Ireland, North and South,” which takes place on March 19 in Gasson 100, will feature talks by prominent political and governmental figures from Ireland and Northern Ireland as well as distinguished experts in Irish and Northern Ireland politics and history.
A closing fireside chat with Massachusetts Congressman Richard Neal will add further perspective to the conversation, according to organizers.
The event is free and open to the public; full details and registration, which is required, are available via the Irish Institute website at bc.edu/content/bc-web/academics/sites/irish-institute.html.
Irish Institute Director and Professor of Political Science Mary C. Murphy said the conference offers a welcome opportunity to examine the trajectory of United States-
Ireland relations. Areas of focus will be the U.S. contributions to peacebuilding and reconciliation on the island of Ireland; new details about recent history and politics of U.S.-Ireland/Northern Ireland relations; and—given changing domestic politics in the U.S. as well as Ireland, north and south—what role the U.S. might play in the future.
“Typically, the U.S.-Ireland relationship has been girded in the Northern Irish peace process and more recently Brexit,” said Murphy, co-author of A Troubled Constitutional Future: Northern Ireland After Brexit “With time and other factors, new issues and challenges have come to the fore, some of which are linked to the legacy of the Northern Ireland conflict, and others which are a consequence of domestic and international political developments and geopolitical instability. The second Trump administration seeks a return to protectionism and isolationism, with above all else an emphasis on keeping the U.S. strong in trade and security components. This is problematic, because Ireland has a trade surplus with the U.S. and is militarily neutral, and also sympathetic to Gaza.
“It seems as if the U.S., Ireland, and Northern Ireland are on different playing fields, and there are many big, difficult-to-
Lynch School’s Dougherty Selected for Early Career Award
Lynch School of Education and Human Development Professor Shaun M. Dougherty has been selected for the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) by the Institute of Education Sciences—the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on early-career scientists and engineers.
Dougherty, who is director of the program in Research and Evaluation Methods in the Lynch School’s Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics and Assessment Department, was praised for his “exceptional contributions to the education sciences” by Matthew Soldner, acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences, and commissioner of the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance: “Your leadership, ingenuity, and commitment to solving complex challenges will undoubtedly continue to inspire change and foster progress in education and beyond.”
Dougherty’s research and teaching interests focus on education policy analysis, causal program evaluation and cost analysis, and the economics of education, with an emphasis on career and technical education, educational accountability policies, and the application of regression discontinuity research designs.
He is also the director of BC’s Catholic Education Research Initiative, launched in 2022, which focuses on finding problembased solutions to the challenges that educators in Catholic schools face.
“We are very pleased to see this recogni-
answer questions about what it all means. So at this event, we will take a close look at the intricacies of the U.S.-Ireland-Northern Ireland connection to determine what challenges are ahead and how they might be best mediated.”
Murphy will be part of a 10:45 a.m. panel discussion, “Academic Perspectives,” that includes Queen’s University Belfast Senior Lecturer Peter McLoughlin, an expert on the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process and the political history of Ireland; University of Galway Professor Niall Ó Dochartaigh, a researcher on areas such as conflict, negotiations, and peace processes, and author of a book examining the secret negotiations and back channels in resolving the Northern Irish conflicts; and panel chair Cera Murtagh, assistant professor of comparative politics and Irish politics at Villanova University.
A key facet of the conference will be on-the-ground insights from speakers with extensive experience in the Irish and Northern Ireland administrations. A 9:30
a.m. fireside chat will spotlight Simon Coveney, former deputy leader of Fine Gael, who served as Irish minister for foreign affairs and trade with special responsibilities for Brexit, and in other ministerial portfolios. A “Practitioners Perspective” talk at 1:45 p.m. will bring together former Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Mark Durkan; ex-Democratic Unionist Party Director of Policy Lee Reynolds, who was a special advisor to Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster; and former U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Claire Cronin.
Neal, whose fireside chat begins at 3 p.m., has been an advocate for Irish concerns throughout his congressional career, and strongly supported an American role in the peace process culminating in the Good Friday Agreement.
“Peace, Prosperity and Future Relations” represents an important benchmark in the BC-University of Galway-Queen’s University Belfast collaboration that launched last fall, said Murphy. To underscore the alliance, senior administrators representing the three institutions—Boston College Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley; Queen’s University Belfast Vice Chancellor and Professor Sir Ian Greer; and University of Galway Vice President Helen Maher— will deliver opening remarks.
“This partnership represents a coming together of both parts of Ireland—Galway in the south, Queen’s University in the north—with Boston College representing the U.S.-Ireland transatlantic dimension, which has been so important to Irish history and culture,” she explained. “As the U.S. and the island of Ireland confront new domestic and political challenges, the need to continue our institutional and research cooperation is as important as ever.
“Thankfully, our collaboration enjoys support at the highest level of our respective institutions, and this will be reflected in the presence of three top-level officials offering welcomes at the conference.”
tion for Shaun Dougherty, and it’s very appropriate that he has been recognized for his important work and promising research trajectory,” said Stanton E. F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. “It’s also great to have him working with colleagues on a range of projects, including emerging work on Catholic schooling in the U.S.”
Last spring, Dougherty began a one-year appointment as a senior advisor in the Office of the Chief Economist, located within the Office of the Undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education. His responsibilities include economic analysis and providing guidance on policy related to education.
—Phil Gloudemans
Irish Institute Director Mary Murphy
photo by caitlin cunningham
Shaun Dougherty
photo by peter morenus
Masti performed as part of the Boston College South Asian Student Association’s recent show in Robsham Theater.
photo by ann hermes
MLK Winner Aims for ‘Transformative Advocacy’
Continued from page 1
the Jamaica Magis service immersion trip to Kingston, where students live with and serve the people of the community who have faced social, political, and economic oppression.
“The day after my freshman year ended, I got on the flight to Jamaica. Our primary responsibility was to be teaching assistants at a local primary school. Being so immersed in how school systems run in low-income communities really opened my eyes to how resource allocation is something that these areas struggle with compared to more affluent areas, whether that’s in Kingston or even in Massachusetts and other parts of the United States.
“But on top of the teaching service that we did in the schools, we also worked in mustard seed communities”—vulnerable groups in Jamaica living with disabilities, HIV/AIDS, or teen mothers and their children—“to help serve these different groups of people who are marginalized in Jamaica as well.”
This past winter break, Owens returned to Kingston as a leader of Jamaica Magis with a mission to teach fourth grade, reuniting with the second-graders she taught two years ago.
“A couple days before we started school, I saw one of my kids from afar. She was just walking. Then we made eye contact, and in a matter of seconds she ran up and hugged me. I was just so happy,” she recalled.
Owens is also a member of the Synergy hip-hop dance team, a historian of the African Students Organization, a student panelist for the Student Admissions Program, and a student employee at Bourneuf House and the African and African Diaspora Studies Program.
Balancing her involvement in campus activities with her academic and social life
is no easy feat, but being intentional with how she spends her time is the key reason for Owens’ engagement, she said. “If you want to be able to do well academically, but also serve the balance of social life, it is crucial to be intentional about what you want to get involved in. My intentions behind each thing I do make these extracurriculars feel less like work but more enjoyable, which I feel allows me to balance my academics, even when it does get overbearing at times.”
Through her unwavering commitment to accessible education, leadership, community service, and advocacy on behalf of others, Owens hopes to continue her work as a public servant by interlacing her knowledge of business with education and becoming a mediator in education systems.
“The school environment that a student is in really determines their trajectory in life. I hope one day I can be a mediator who can do away with those differences.”
Esosa Owens: “The school environment that a student is in really determines their trajectory in life. I hope one day I can be a mediator who can do away with those differences.”
photo by caitlin cunningham
The MLK Scholarship ceremony also included a keynote speech by Associate Professor Angela Ards, director of the BC journalism program, who is the author of Words of Witness: Contemporary Black Women’s Autobiography in the Post-Brown Era.
Other finalists for the 2025 Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship were: Victoria Adegboyega, Pawtucket, RI
Major: Psychology/Minor: African and African Diaspora Studies
Student worker at the Boston College Women’s Center, president of R&B/soul a cappella group Black Experience in America through Song (BEATS), Cura facilitator, resident assistant, and McCrory-Francis Scholars Program member. Long-term goal is to be a public health servant and professional, working with women in the healthcare system and to establish a safe and supportive birthing center for women of color seeking medical care.
Anthony Delgado, Pawtucket, RI
Majors: Applied Psychology and Communication/Minor: Management and Leadership
Resident assistant, student worker at Robsham Theater Box Office and Lynch
Jobs
The following are among the recent positions posted by the Department of Human Resources. For more information on employment opportunities at Boston College, see www.bc.edu/jobs or scan the QR code at right.
Network Project Manager
The Boys Hope Girls Hope Network, an international charitable organization, has awarded Boston College the 2025 Partner in Hope Award, in recognition of BC’s efforts to support first-generation students for career success and to assist them in graduating with minimal debt.
The mission of the Boys Hope Girls Hope Network is to “nurture and guide motivated young people in need to become well-educated, career-ready men and women for others.” Since 2010, BC has graduated six Boys Hope Girls Hope alumni who have achieved exceptional success in their career pursuits.
Associate Director for Undergraduate Admission Paul Bonitto has played a key role in strengthening the partnership between the Boys Hope Girls Hope Network and BC. As a member of the Boys Hope Girls Hope Post-Secondary Advisory group, Bonitto has helped plan and execute the Envision U program for rising seniors, a summer program designed for Boys Hope Girls Hope scholars to explore their
passions and purpose.
“Boston College’s mission aligns well with the work of Boys Hope Girls Hope to nurture and guide motivated young people in need to become welleducated, career-ready men and women for others,” said Bonitto. “This award also honors our partnership to highlight other colleges and universities committed to the same work that we do.”
This year’s Partner in Hope Award will be presented on March 27 at the seventh annual Excellence Awards Dinner at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Museum in Baltimore, part of the four-day Boys Hope Girls Hope Leadership Gathering. Vice President and Executive Director of the Pine Manor Institute for Student Success Joy Moore will accept the award on behalf of BC.
For more information on the 2025 Partner in Hope Award or the Boys Hope Girls Hope Network, see boyshopegirlshope.org.
—Audrey Loyack
School of Education and Human Development media department, an entrepreneur reselling sneakers and clothes, and a powerlifter. A member of AHANA Caucus representative of the Cape Verdean Student Association Club, Montserrat Board, McCrory-Francis Scholars Program, Dedicated Intellectuals of the People, and the Management Leadership for Tomorrow organization.
Skyla DeSimone, Revere, Mass.
Majors: Studio Art and Sociology/Minor: Global Public Health
PULSE Council member, Prosocial Bystander on the Bystander Intervention Team, Member of Free, Period., Jamaica Magis Service Immersion Trip leader, and participant in intramural sports. Certified crossfit trainer and competitive crossfit athlete. Aspires to become a firefighter to engage with marginalized communities, aiming to advocate for justice for those living in poverty and underprivileged environments.
Nnenna Okorie, Bronx, NY.
Major: Sociology/Minor: Business and African and African Diaspora Studies
Resident assistant, Undergraduate Research Fellow in the Sociology Department, Bowman Advocate for Inclusive Culture, Career Prep Fellow of the Management Leadership for Tomorrow organization, and Final Talent Pool member of the T. Howard Foundation. Recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship and the Diversity and Inclusion in Residence Undergraduate Award.
Associate Director of Financial Systems, Reporting and Planning
Leadership Coach, Lynch Leadership Academy
Associate Vice President of Facilities Services
Job Coach/Case Manager for Supported Employment
Associate Director, Pre-Award Administration
Program Director and Assistant Program Director, AMDG
Public Safety Dispatcher
Assistant Director of Biology Labs
Assistant/Associate Director, Undergraduate Career Services
Temporary Office Pool
Director of Assessment and Accreditation, Lynch School of Education and Human Development
Senior Budget Financial Applications Analyst
Campus Security Officer
Resident Director
Member Services Associate, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship
First Cook/Chef
Campus Minister
Registered Dietitian
Associate Director, Procurement Services
Physician, University Health Services
The ‘Boston Game’
Did a group of Boston schoolboys organize the first American football team? It’s a complicated, fascinating story, according to BC’s Mike Cronin—and has to do with a lot more than sports
BY SEAN SMITH CHRONICLE EDITOR
They were an accomplished band of friends, successful in family, business, and civic life, and many of them held a place of prestige and power in 19th- and early 20th-century Boston Brahmin society.
But for all their achievements as adults, their collective identity was fixed in a period from their teenage days, as reflected by their group correspondence and its “Dear Teammates” salutation.
Such were the golden years for the members of the Oneida Football Club, which made an important contribution to American sports history—or, as others have suggested, perpetrated a myth-making hoax.
A new book authored by Boston College Ireland Academic Director Mike Cronin and international sports historian Kevin Tallec Marston tells the full story of the Oneidas, who claimed to be the first organized American football club, having played the game on Boston Common in the early 1860s—well before other milestone events in the sport’s history. So convincing was their assertion, made through a campaign of memoirs, commemorative events, and artifact donations, that in 1925 a monument was erected on the Common to venerate the club’s self-proclaimed achievement.
Decades later, the club’s legacy, as represented by the monument, would be the subject of a tug-of-war between differing viewpoints as to which sport the Oneidas had in fact helped pioneer.
But Inventing the Boston Game: Football, Soccer, and the Origins of a National Myth is about more than sports and Boston history, say Cronin and Tallec Marston, whose research materials included correspondence by the Oneidas from a historical archive: The book also is an examination of memory and memorialization, and of the desire to create origin stories and narratives that reinforce individuals’ elite status amidst social and economic change.
“It’s not a history of the origins of football; it’s a history of the history,” explained Cronin, a part-time faculty member in the Woods College of Advancing Studies. “We take a look at the Oneidas, the nature of their claim to be the forefathers of American football, and how they continued to promote it over time. We also set their story against the backdrop of a changing Boston, and a changing America, in which the Oneidas’ status is no longer what it was.
“At the center of it all is the Oneidas, who numbered at least 52, and their deep, lasting friendships and ties. Eighty percent of them went to Harvard. Two-thirds would end up living within six blocks of each other. They would marry one another’s sisters, sometimes even one another’s daughters. They were well to do—almost a dozen of them became millionaires—and
served on numerous civic and cultural boards, committees, and societies.
“But it seemed very important to them that, when they died, they be remembered as ‘members of the first American football club.’ There’s a poignancy to that.”
The Oneidas’ story is complicated, say Cronin and Tallec Marston, because the origins of American football are complicated.
From the early 19th century on, various iterations of “football”—often chaotic, sometimes violent—were common in the United States, noted Cronin. “Schoolboys played ‘football’ on Boston Common for ages. You chose up teams, then agreed on the rules and started playing.”
But Gerrit Smith Miller, a student at Boston’s Epes S. Dixwell School—an archetype of 19th-century upscale “training schools” that prepared boys for college—decided to create a more formalized version of football, and in 1862 organized a team of classmates to play on the Boston Common against a squad comprising other students from Dixwell as well as Boston English and Boston Latin. He called his team the “Oneida Football Club of Boston,” named for the lake near his home in upstate New York.
Over the next three years, the club would score victories in a series of matches with other local schoolboy teams, including one in November of 1863 that was considered the “Boston game” championship. After 1865, with most of its members having moved on to college, the team essentially disbanded. But as the book explains, the Oneidas became something of a cross between fraternity and alumni association, championing themselves as the inaugural American football club.
Interest in football began to grow regionally, then nationally. In the 1870s and ’80s, Walter Camp, a college football player and later coach, proposed a series of rule changes that codified many aspects of the game as it is now played. These and other subsequent innovations helped make football more popular among the general public, and colleges across the United States began fielding teams. Camp was, and still is, widely referred to as the “Father of
American Football”—although the Wikipedia page for Miller refers to him as “the father of football in the United States.”
Meanwhile, the Oneidas grew older, most of them occupying positions of wealth and influence in Gilded Age Boston, as chronicled by Cronin and Tallec Marston: “It was a world in which most of them were entirely comfortable and content to live. They understood networking and how to use and preserve power.” As American football flourished, Miller and his fellow Oneidas continued to stake their claim as the sport’s pioneers, and their message found resonance in the local media as well as among their peers in business and social circles—but not so much at a national level.
The world that the Oneidas had known began to change toward the end of the 19th century approached, as other cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago
look at popular childhood games and activities during the mid-19th century. He described the 1863 Boston Common match, but made no mention of the Oneidas nor their claim as the first organized football team; this absence may be explained by Lovett’s personal modesty, Cronin and Tallec Marston speculate, or that the team’s history might have been outside the scope of Old Boston Boys.
Inventing the Boston Game describes, in often granular detail, the dilemmas, challenges, and uncertainties surrounding the Oneidas’ efforts to advocate for their legacy, culminating in the unveiling of the Boston Common monument when only six of the team remained. One source of contention is whether the ball the Oneidas donated to a historical society was the same one used in the 1863 “championship” game as they had claimed. Even the exact membership of the team was imprecise for many years until the six survivors sat down and tried to define who was a member and who was not.
The monument itself became a source of controversy. When soccer began gaining popularity in the U.S. during the 1980s, a national Soccer Hall of Fame that opened in upstate New York included a photo of the Oneida ball—which was round, as were most sports and recreational spheroids of the era—but its caption described the team as “the first organized soccer club in America” and thus put Boston in the limelight when the World Cup came to the U.S. in 1994. The ball depicted in the Oneida monument, however, was ovalshaped, like the modern American football, thus precipitating a campaign in 1996 to
began to surpass Boston in wealth, influence, and population, and massive immigration affected the city’s demographics.
With the ebbing of the Gilded Age, Brahmins sought to affirm their contributions to Boston and American history, heritage, and culture: The construction of the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment at the edge of Boston Common was a prominent example.
One Oneida, James D’Wolf Lovett, published a book in 1906, Old Boston Boys and The Games They Played, a nostalgic
renovate and rededicate the monument— which wound up sparking a counter campaign to restore the marker as it had been.
“There are some overarching themes here: What is it that’s remembered, and who decides?” said Cronin, who last year published a book on the critical years of 1913-1923 in Irish history. “Do we know exactly what game the Oneidas played? Perhaps not as such. Did they stretch the truth a little, perhaps? Maybe. But they also have some evidence on their side. Perhaps the thing to do is simply appreciate what they did, and the bond they shared.”
Six surviving members of the Oneida Football Club in 1925, on the day a monument honoring the team was unveiled on Boston Common.
photo courtesty of revolutionary spaces
Boston College Ireland Academic Director Mike Cronin, co-author of Inventing the Boston Game: Football, Soccer, and the Origins of a National Myth
