Sponsored by Boston College Libraries, English Department, Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies, East European and Eurasian Studies Program, and Boston College Bookstore.
Tuesday, April 30
5:00pm - 6:30pm
Burns Library
Burns Library is pleased to host a celebration of two recent collections of poetry by Boston College faculty. Eric Weiskott will read from Chanties: An American Dream (Bottlecap Press, 2023) and Maxim D. Shrayer will read from Kinship (Finishing Line Press, 2024). Fellow faculty poets Allison Adair and Andrew Sofer will offer introductions and Burns Librarian Christian Dupont will moderate the program and discussion. Refreshments and book sales and signings will follow.
Eric Weiskott is Professor of English at Boston College. He grew up in Greenport, New York, a whaling village on the east end of Long Island. Weiskott is the author most recently of the poetry chapbook Chanties: An American Dream (Bottlecap Press, 2023) and the scholarly monograph Meter and Modernity in English Verse, 1350–1650 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021). His poems appear in Fence, Texas Review, and Exacting Clam.
Maxim D. Shrayer is Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College. He was born in Moscow and emigrated in 1987. Shrayer is the author of over twenty-five books in English and Russian. He has published four collections of poetry in Russian, most recently Stikhi iz aipada (Poems from the iPad, Tel Aviv, 2022) and two collections in English, Of Politics and Pandemics (2020) and Kinship (2024).
For more information, see the article about the event in the Boston College Chronicle.
Hosted in conjunction with Boston College Arts Festival and Department of English
Friday, April 26
1:00pm - 3:00pm
Burns Library
The Creative Writing Concentration is a special track of the English major. Brady Arquin, William Cornelisse, Kerin Dalton, Julia DiGregorio, Kathryn Gilmore, Isaiah Lopez, Beatriz Isabel Pugeda, and Sophia Shay are this year’s graduates. Seniors will read briefly from their work with a reception to follow.
Wednesday, April 10
5:00pm reception, 6:00pm lecture
Burns Library
Click here to watch the recording (closed captioning provided)
Irish historian Felix Larkin will outline the history of Irish cartoons, from Mathew Carey’s Volunteers’ Journal to Martyn Turner, and cartoons about the Irish, from Daniel O’Connell to Brexit.
Cartoons tend to be undervalued as historical sources. While good history – like good journalism – must be nuanced, reflecting the complexity of issues and situations, good cartoons cut through the verbiage with simple truths that override complexity and get to the heart of the matter. Cartoons can provide great insight into contemporary perceptions of past events, and the arguments – and passions – engendered by those events, as well as opportunities for historians to enhance their work with engaging images.
Felix M. Larkin is a former chairman of the Newspaper and Periodical History Forum of Ireland, and has published widely on the history of the press in Ireland and other topics.
The evening will begin with a wine, beer, and hors d'oeuvres reception at 5:00pm in the Burns Library Irish Room. The lecture will follow at 6:00pm upstairs in the Thompson Room. All are welcome.
Wednesday, April 3
4:00pm talk, 5:00pm refreshments and archives display
Burns Library
An introduction to the work of WWI war veteran, poet and visual artist David Jones will be presented by the directors of the David Jones Digital Archive, Anna Svendsen, a Lecturer at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and Thomas Berenato, a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia.
Following the presentation, attendees will have an opportunity to view a display of original archival materials from Burns Library's David Jones Collection.
The event will open a two-day text encoding workshop intensive taught by the Cambridge University digital humanities librarians. Details are available from the following link: David Jones TEI Workshop & Archival Display – BCDS.
Monday, March 25
5:00pm - 7:30pm
Burns Library and other locations
In collaboration with the Romance Language and Literatures department, Burns Library will host programming and book display for the celebration of "Dante Day" ('Dantedì'), an annual commemoration of Italy's most celebrated poet and writer, Dante Alighieri. March 25 was chosen as it is recognized by scholars as the day the poet started his journey in the afterlife in the Divine Comedy.
Boston College's celebration will include the following five events:
For more information, please contact program organizer Maria Sole Costanzo (Romance Languages) at costanmh@bc.edu or 671-552-2064.
Presented by Professor Michael Noone and the Marian Consort, the British vocal ensemble directed by Rory McCleery
Wednesday, February 14
12:00pm lunch, 12:30pm program
Gasson Hall 100
Before and after the program, Burns Library staff will display a selection of rare books, including a recently acquired collection of motets by Tomás Luis de Victoria printed in Rome in 1585. The Marian Consort will perform pieces by Victoria as well as the Salve Regina composed by Juan de Anchieta, a cousin of St Ignatius. Professor Noone will discuss his discovery of a previously unknown manuscript of Anchieta’s Marian antiphon bound into the covers of an account book held in the archives of the cathedral of Segovia, Spain.
