Burns Library will be hosting a number of events during the 2022-2023 academic year. Please check back here regularly for information about upcoming events. We invite you to join our mailing list to receive announcements directly. Most events are free and open to the public as well as our Boston College community.
Directions, parking, and accessibility information are available on our website. Researchers who wish to use our reading room should refer to additional information on our research services page.
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In collaboration with Boston College Department of English
Wednesday, April 19, 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Burns Library
A kaleidoscopic portrait of one family’s displacement across four countries, Kantika—“song” in Ladino—follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and start anew, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way—a failed marriage, the need to earn a living, but also passion, pleasure and motherhood. Moving from Spain to Cuba to New York for an arranged second marriage, she faces her greatest challenge—her disabled stepdaughter, Luna, whose feistiness equals her own and whose challenges pit new family against old.
Elizabeth Graver is co-director of the Creative Writing Concentration at Boston College, where she teaches fiction and nonfiction writing workshops. Kantika is her fifth novel.
Light refreshments will be served following the program. Copies of Kantika will be available for sale and signing.
In collaboration with the History Department, Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, and Office of the University Historian
Thursday, April 20, 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Burns Library
Boston College enjoys a rich history – from its founding in 1863 as a small commuter college to educate children of immigrants, to its status 170 years later as a major university of national and international standing. University Historian James O’Toole’s new book, Ever to Excel: A History of Boston College, explores that transformation and the people and events that have shaped it.
This program will engage O’Toole in a conversation with Greg Kalscheur, SJ, dean of the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, and Margaret McGuinness, emerita professor at La Salle University and a specialist in American Catholic history.
Reflecting together on O’Toole’s book, these three scholars will explore questions such as: Why write the history of an institution? What are such a book’s larger contributions, and those to the university community? What are the advantages as well as the limitations particular to the writing of an institutional history?
The event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow in the Burns Library Irish Room. RSVPs are not necessary but appreciated to assist with catering: https://bit.ly/evertoexcel.
Copies of Ever to Excel will be available for purchase through the Institute of Jesuit Sources.
Hosted in conjunction with Boston College Arts Festival and Department of English
Friday, April 28, 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Burns Library
Graduating seniors from the Creative Writing Concentration program will read from their portfolios. Light refreshments will be served.
