Fall 2024 - Spring 2025

Amy Stanley: 鈥淪tranger in the Shogun鈥檚 City: From the Archive to the Page鈥

Amy Stanley is the Wayne V. Jones Research Professor of History at Northwestern University. A social historian of early modern and modern Japan, she has special interests in global history, women's and gender history, and narrative. She is the author of听Selling Women: Prostitution, Markets, and the Household in Early Modern Japan, as well as articles in the听American Historical Review,听The Journal of Japanese Studies, 补苍诲听The Journal of Asian Studies. Her most recent book,听Stranger in the Shogun鈥檚 City: A Japanese Woman and Her World,听won the National Book Critics鈥 Circle Award in Biography and PEN/America Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award in Biography and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She received her PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard in 2007, and she has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.听

Cosponsored by the Boston College History Department and the Program in Asian Studies.


Rita Duffy: 鈥淵ou Can鈥檛 Hope for a Better Past鈥

Rita Duffy was born in Belfast and graduated with an honorary BA and MA in Fine Art from the University of Ulster in 1985. One of Ireland's groundbreaking visual artists, she has produced acclaimed public art projects, including her early project听Thaw, inspired by the Belfast ship听Titanic. This post-conflict project explored Belfast鈥檚 relationship with the iceberg and aimed to connect local experiences of colonialism and sectarianism with a universal climate crisis. In 2011, she was awarded a Leverhulme Fellowship to work at the Transitional Justice Institute, University of Ulster. She was recognised for her contribution to visual arts in Ireland in 2018 and elected to Aosdana, Ireland鈥檚 elected 鈥減eople of the arts.鈥 She was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Society of Architects and was an associate at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she looked at the role of art in post-conflict societies. In 2024, she was appointed the Charlotte Maxeke-Mary Robinson Irish South Africa Research Chair at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa.

Her recent projects include听The Shirt Factory Project,听The Souvenir Shop,听Soften the Border, 补苍诲听The Raft. She has held residencies at the Long Room Hub at Trinity College in Dublin and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Duffy鈥檚 work is held in museum and private collections worldwide and her public art projects continue to grow in scale and ambition, exploring issues of female identity, history and politics, and borders.

Cosponsored by Irish Studies at Boston College and the Art, Art History, and Film Department.


Poetry Days Presents: An Evening with Camille Dungy

Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently听Trophic Cascade, which won the Colorado Book Award. She is also the author of the essay collections听Soil: The Story of a Black Mother鈥檚 Garden听补苍诲听Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dungy has also edited anthologies including听Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry听补苍诲听贵rom the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, her honors include NEA Fellowships in poetry (2003) and prose (2018), an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. Dungy鈥檚 poems have been published in听Best American Poetry,听The 100 Best African American Poems, 迟丑别听Pushcart Anthology,听Best American Travel Writing, and over thirty other anthologies. She is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

Cosponsored by the Boston College Poetry Days Series, American Studies Program, and English Department.


Orna Guralnik: 鈥淟ove and Ideology鈥

Dr. Orna Guralnik is a Clinical Psychologist and Psychoanalyst practicing in New York. She is on the faculty at NYU PostDoctoral Institute for Psychoanalysis and at NIP (National Institute for the Psychotherapies), where she teaches courses on the trans-generational transmission of trauma, socio-politics/ideology and psychoanalysis, and on dissociation. Dr. Guralnik lectures and publishes on topics of couples treatment and culture, dissociation and depersonalization, as well as culture & psychoanalysis. She is on the editorial board of听Psychoanalytic Dialogues听补苍诲听Studies in Gender & Sexuality听补苍诲听co-founder of the Center for the Study of Dissociation and Depersonalization at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she was funded by NIH and NARSAD grants. She has completed the filming of several seasons of Showtime鈥檚 documentary series听Couples Therapy.

Cosponsored by the Boston College Center for Psychological Humanities & Ethics.


Gerson Family Lecture: Reuben Jonathan Miller: 鈥淢ass Incarceration, Voting Rights, & Citizenship鈥

MacArthur 鈥淕enius Grant鈥 Fellow and University of Chicago sociologist Dr. Reuben Miller is the author of听Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration.听As a chaplain at the Cook County Jail in Chicago and as a sociologist studying mass incarceration, he has spent years alongside prisoners, formerly incarcerated people, their families, and their friends to understand the lifelong burden that even a single arrest can entail. What his work reveals is a simple, if overlooked truth: life after incarceration is its own form of prison.Miller is an associate professor at the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and a research professor at the American Bar Foundation. Before coming to Chicago, he was an assistant professor of social work at the University of Michigan, a faculty affiliate with the Populations Studies Center, the Program for Research on Black Americans, and the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. He has been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, a fellow at New America and the Rockefeller Foundation, and a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin and Dartmouth College. A native son of Chicago, he lives with his wife and children on the city鈥檚 South Side.

Cosponsored by the Boston College PULSE Program for Service Learning, Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, Forum on Racial Justice in America, and Sociology Department.


Sy Montgomery: 鈥淭he Secrets of the Octopus鈥

Sy Montgomery is the author of 34 books, including听The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness,听which was a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a听New York Times听best seller,听The Good Good Pig,听How To Be A Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals,听Becoming A Good Creature,听Journey of the Pink Dolphins,听Spell of the Tiger, 补苍诲听Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell. Her books for children include听Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea听补苍诲听Kakapo Rescue: Saving The World's Strangest Parrot听won Silbert Medals. She has scripted, directed, and appeared in a National Geographic segment 鈥淪pell of the Tiger鈥 and 鈥淢other Bear Man.鈥 Her most recent book听Secrets of the Octopus听is the companion to National Geographic鈥檚 2024 miniseries of the same name.听She is the winner of the 2009 New England Independent Booksellers Association Nonfiction Award, the 2010 Children鈥檚 Book Guild Nonfiction Award, and the Henry Bergh Award for Nonfiction. She is a 1979 graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied Magazine Journalism, French Language and Literature, and Psychology. She has been awarded Honorary Doctorates of Humane Letters from Keene State College in 2004 and Franklin Pierce University and Southern New Hampshire University in 2011. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and dog.


Gerson Family Lecture: Ed Yong: 鈥淲hat Pandemics Teach Us鈥

Named 鈥渢he most important and impactful journalist" of 2020 by Poynter, Ed Yong was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his crucial coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. He anticipated the course of the virus, the complex challenges that the U.S. faced, and the government鈥檚 disastrous failure in its response. An accomplished speaker, Yong brings his vast scientific knowledge and engages his audiences through his insightful conversations about the pandemic, the animal kingdom, and the challenges of science journalism.

He is the best-selling author of听I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us, a groundbreaking and entertaining examination of the relationship between animals and microbes. His second book听An Immense World听takes a comprehensive look at the fascinating sensory worlds of animals. A听New York Times听产别蝉迟蝉别濒濒别谤,听An Immense World听was longlisted for the PEN America 2023 Literary Award and has made many Best Books of the Year lists. A longtime science reporter for听The Atlantic, Yong鈥檚 work has also appeared in听National Geographic,听迟丑别听New Yorker, Wired, Nature, New Scientist,听补苍诲听Scientific American.鈥

Cosponsored by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series, Boston College Asian American Studies Program, and Schiller Institute for


Annual Candlemas Lecture: Graham Ward: 鈥淟oneliness: A Theological Appraisal鈥

Graham Ward is the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford and Extraordinary Professor of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology at the University of Stellenbosch. Among his books are听Cities of God,听Cultural Transformation and Religious Practice,听True Religion,听Christ and Culture,听The Politics of Discipleship,听Unbelievable, 补苍诲听Unimaginable. For the last ten years he has been working on听Ethical Life, a major four-volume systematic theology, which includes two already-published volumes听How the Light Gets In听补苍诲听Another Kind of Normal听and the upcoming听Salus.

Cosponsored by the Boston College Theology Department.听


Javier Zamora: 鈥淪olito: Home, Identity, and the Immigrant Experience鈥

Memoirist and poet Javier Zamora鈥檚 memoir听Solito听provides an intimate account of his near-impossible journey and the unexpected moments of kindness, love, and joy scattered across perilous boat trips, desert treks, arrests, and betrayals. Longlisted for the PEN America 2023 Literary Awards,听Solito听was a听New York Times听bestseller and a 2023 American Book Award winner.听

Zamora has been a Stegner fellow at Stanford University and a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard, and holds fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Zamora has also been granted fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University, the Lannan Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, Macondo, and Yaddo. His debut poetry collection听Unaccompanied听is rooted in the indelible experiences of a nine-year-old boy navigating politics, racism, war, and the impact of a border crossing on his family. Zamora holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and has earned an MFA from New York University. The recipient of the 2017 Narrative Prize, the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and the 2020 Pushcart Prize, Zamora has been published in听Granta, 迟丑别听Kenyon Review,听American Poetry, 迟丑别听New Republic, 迟丑别听New York Times, 补苍诲听Poetry, among other publications. Javier Zamora lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Cosponsored by the Park Street Corporation Speaker Series and Boston College Romance Languages and Literatures Department.


Arthur Frank: 鈥淧olyphonic Suffering: Reading Shakespeare to Respond to Illness鈥

Arthur Frank is professor emeritus at the University of Calgary, Canada. Since his retirement in 2013, he has been Professor II at VID Specialized University in Oslo, visiting professor in the Program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, and Francqui Fellow at the University of Ghent. His books on illness experience, ethics, clinical care, and narrative include听At the Will of the Body,听The Wounded Storyteller,听The Renewal of Generosity,听Letting Stories Breathe, and most recently听King Lear: Shakespeare鈥檚 Dark Consolations听as part of Oxford鈥檚 鈥淢y Reading鈥 series. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and winner of the Society鈥檚 medal in bioethics. He has also been recognized with a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Bioethics Society.

Cosponsored by the Boston College Center for Psychological Humanities & Ethics.


Katherine McKittrick: 鈥淎 Poetics of Declension鈥

Katherine McKittrick is Professor of Gender Studies and Canada Research Chair in Black Studies at Queen鈥檚 University in Kingston, Canada, where she researches in areas of Black studies, anti-colonial studies, and critical-creative methodologies. She has authored multiple articles and is a former editor at听Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. Her books include听Dear Science and Other Stories听补苍诲听Demonic Grounds: Black Women and the Cartographies of Struggle. She also edited and contributed to听Sylvia Wynter: On Being Human as Praxis. Recent and forthcoming projects include the limited-edition boxset听Trick Not Telos, a collaboration with Liz Ikriko and Cristian Ord贸帽ez, and the tryptic honoring NourbeSe Philip听On the Declension of Beauty. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has a Ph.D. in Women鈥檚 Studies from York University.

Cosponsored by the Boston College Program in African and African Diaspora Studies.


John McNeill: 鈥淭he Industrial Revolution as Global Environmental History鈥

Since 1985, John McNeill has taught history at Georgetown University. He has received two Fulbright awards, a Guggenheim fellowship, a MacArthur grant, and a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He has had visiting appointments at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and Universities of Oslo, Bologna, Canterbury, Otago, and was a Guest Professor at Peking University. Since 2011, he has served as a member of the Anthropocene Working Group. He has served as President of the American Society for Environmental History and the American Historical Association.

He has authored or co-authored eight books including听The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History听and听Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-century World, which was the co-winner of book prizes from the World History Association and the Forest History Society and runner-up for the BP Natural World Book Prize. It was listed by听The Times听among the best science books ever written and translated into nine languages. His book听Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620鈥1914听won the Beveridge Prize from the American Historical Association. His most recent books are听The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene, 1945鈥2015,听The Webs of Humankind, 补苍诲听Sea & Land: An Environmental History of the Caribbean. He has edited or co-edited 17 other books. He is co-editor of the Cambridge book series Studies in Environment and History.

Cosponsored by the Boston College History Department and the University Core Curriculum.


Fiction Days Presents Anne Berest: 鈥淔amily Fictions: The Postcard, 骋补产谤颈毛濒别, and Writing True Novels鈥

Anne Berest鈥檚 first novel to appear in English,听The Postcard,听was a national bestseller, a听Library Journal, NPR, 补苍诲听TIME听Best Book of the Year, a听Vogue听Most Anticipated Book of the Year, and a finalist for the Goncourt Prize in France. It was described as 鈥渟tunning鈥 by Leslie Camhi in听The New Yorker,听as a 鈥減owerful literary work鈥 by Julie Orringer in听The New York Times Book Review,听and as 鈥渋ntimate, profound, essential鈥 in听ELLE听magazine. With her sister Claire Berest, she is also the author of听骋补产谤颈毛濒别, a critically acclaimed, best-selling 鈥渢rue novel鈥 based on the life of her great-grandmother Gabri毛le Buffet-Picabia, wife of Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp鈥檚 lover and muse, a leader of the French Resistance, and an art critic. Berest lives in Paris with her family.听

Cosponsored by the Boston College Fiction Days Series.


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