Boston College Front Row

Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, delivers the Evelyn Underhill Lecture in Christian Sprituality.

Students selected by their professors at 25 Boston-area colleges and universities read from their own poetry at this annual event. Irish poet, editor, and publisher Peter Fallon delivers the keynote address.

Author Lee Woodruff speaks to more than 300 people gathered in the Yawkey Center about the journey she and her family embarked on after her husband, journalist Bob Woodruff, suffered a near-fatal traumatic brain injury while on assignment in Iraq in 2006. Her talk, “Family Journey, Recovery, and Resilience: A Caregiver’s Perspective” is part of the Connell School of Nursing’s Pinnacle Lecture Series, which invites speakers to campus each semester to address issues at the forefront of healthcare today.

Ernesto Cortés, co-director of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), talks about social entrepreneurship's role in democratic citizenship as part of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life's 12th Annual Prophetic Voices Lecture.

Rabbi Michael J. Cook, Ph.D., delivers the second annual John Paul II Lecture in Christian-Jewish Relations. He is the Bronstein Professor of Judeo-Christian Studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

Panelists Eric Gregory, professor of religion at Princeton University, Susan Crawford Sullivan, assistant professor of sociology and Edward Bennett Williams Fellow at the College of the Holy Cross, and William Julius Wilson, the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University, discuss poverty in the U.S. and the ways in which we (the government and citizenry) act to alleviate it. Erik Owens, associate director of the Boisi Center and adjunct assistant professor of theology and international studies at Boston College, moderates the panel discussion.

Laurent Dubois, the Marcello Lotti Professor of Romance Studies and History at Duke University, talks about his book Haiti: The Aftershocks of History (2012). He is the author of Soccer Empire: The World Cup and the Future of France (2010) and Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004), and is currently writing a history of the banjo.

William Glavin is chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Oppenheimer Funds, an investment bank and full-service investment firm. In an interview with Robert Radin, graduate programs lecturer, Glavin describes his work and career.

Richard Garnett is the associate dean for faculty research and a professor of law and political science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of dozens of scholarly articles and book chapters, and comments regularly in print and broadcast media on legal matters.

Anthony Grafton, the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, delivers this Lowell Humanities Series lecture, titled “The Florentine Renaissance Portrait: Cultural Origins of a New Art Form.”

Glenn Carle served for 23 years in the CIA, where his last position was deputy national intelligence officer for transnational threats of the National Intelligence Council. He is author of The Interrogator: An Education (2011).

Sean Wilentz, the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History at Princeton University, delivers the second-day keynote address at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy's conference, titled “The 2012 Election in Comparative and Historical Perspective.”

Fay Donohue, CEO and president of Dental Service of Massachusetts, talks to Bob Radin, lecturer in the Carroll School of Management, as part of the Manager's Studio series.

Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust launches Boston College's Sesquicentennial Speakers Series, reflecting on "who and what" higher education is for. She was awarded a Sesquicentennial Medal for her work as a historian and a leader in education. University President William P. Leahy, SJ, welcomed Faust.

Pedro Noguera, the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University delivers the keynote address at this academic symposium, titled "Education and Its Role in Democratic Societies." The symposium is one of the first programs put on as part of the University's Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Jeremy Waldron, the Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, University of Oxford, and University Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, delivers the inaugural Clough Distinguished Lecture in Jurisprudence. He is the author of Torture, Terror, and Trade-offs: Philosophy for the White House (2010); God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations of Locke’s Political Thought (2003); and The Right to Private Property (1988).

Daniel Kanstroom, professor of law and director of the International Human Rights Program at Boston College, and Mary Waters, the M.E. Zukerman Professor of Sociology at Harvard University, discuss the deportation system in the United States and Kanstroom's recently published book, Aftermath: Deportation Law and the New American Diaspora.

Delano Lewis, former ambassador to South Africa from 1999 to 2001, delivers the Graduate School of Social Work's Distinguished Speakers Lecture. Lewis is introduced by Ruth McRoy, the Donahue and DeFelice Endowed Professor in the Graduate School of Social Work.

Marc Lynch, associate professor of political science at George Washington University, talks about the recent uprisings in several Middle Eastern countries. He is the author of The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East.

Karen Daley, M.S.'04, Ph.D.'10, president of the American Nurses Association, delivers the Connell School of Nursing's Pinnacle Lecture, titled "Leading the Charge: A Nursing Agenda in the Age of Health Care Reform." A perfect storm of factors, Daley says, is converging and could undercut recent health care reform efforts, including an unsustainable cost trajectory for health care, the aging of the baby boomer generation, and a shortage of providers, both primary care physicians and nurse practitioners. "The focus for me as a nurse," she says, "is about shifting the conversation away from illness care to a conversation about wellness and prevention in this country."