Boston College Front Row

Lectura Dantis, an ongoing public reading of Dante's Divine Comedy, presents "Paradiso 24" with Chris Constas, adjunct associate professor in the Arts and Sciences Honors Program at Boston College. The presentation of the text is in English, and the reading in Italian.

Novelist and playwright Earl Lovelace reads from his novel, Is Just A Movie. His published works include While Gods Are Falling; The Dragon Can't Dance; and Salt, which won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers Prize.

Lectura Dantis, an ongoing public reading of Dante's Divine Comedy, presents "Paradiso 23" with Rachel Jacoff, professor emerita of Italian at Wellesley College. The presentation of the text is in English, and the reading in Italian.

Rabbi James Rudin, the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Religion and Judaica at Saint Leo University, talks about how Cardinals Richard Cushing and Francis Spellman influenced the Second Vatican Council to adopt Nostra Aetate—a statement against anti-Semitism—and how Cardinal John O'Connor transformed that document's sentiments into practical results a generation later. Rudin is introduced by Ruth Langer, associate director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College; Martin Kaplan, chair of the American Jewish Committee's Interreligious Affairs Commission; and Raymond Flynn, former mayor of Boston and United States Ambassador to the Holy See.

David McMenamin, director of the PULSE Program for Service Learning at Boston College, answers the question, "If you had the chance to give the last lecture of your life, what wisdom would you impart upon your students?"

Alan Jacobs, the Clyde S. Kilby Chair Professor of English at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, talks about the role of literature in sustaining religious belief. Judith Wilt, the Newton College Alumnae Professor Emerita, provides a response.

Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at MIT, is a noted linguist, philosopher, and social critic. Following his lecture, Chomsky answers questions from the audience.

John Palfrey, the Henry N. Ess Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, delivers the keynote address at the Open Access Symposium. The symposium featured a panel discussion about open access publishing and the future of new scholarly publishing models.

Andrew Sofer, associate professor of English at Boston College, reads from WAVE, his recently published book of poems. Introduced by Maxim D. Shrayer, Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies.

Croatian-born author Dubravka Ugresic talks about her life during communist rule in Eastern Europe.

Why aren't we being recruited as aggressively to commit to teaching for two years in our highest poverty communities as we are to commit two years to work on Wall Street, says Wendy Kopp, echoing the question that led her to found Teach for America, the teaching corps that began as Kopp's undergraduate thesis at Princeton in 1989 and has grown to place more than 9,000 recent college graduates in classrooms in 43 low-income urban and rural communities across the country. Kopp addresses the Lynch Leadership Academy and discusses her recent book, A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All.

Curtis J. Evans, assistant professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School, delivers this lecture as part of the New Directions in African Diaspora Studies Series.

Daniel Chowning, O.C.D., a Carmelite writer, lecturer and retreat leader, delivers a lecture about Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, the Carmelite nun and writer who lived from 1880 to 1906 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1984.

Dan DiLeo of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change discusses the Church's teaching and message on climate change and environmental stewardship.

"A growing number of 20- and 30-somethings have come to view living alone as a key part of the transition to adulthood," says NYU sociology professor Eric Klinenberg, editor of the journal Public Culture, and author of the forthcoming book Alone in America. Klinenberg traces the history and sociology of solitary living in urban America, from the days of immigrant boarding houses at the turn of the 20th century, to today, when 40 percent of unmarried people ages 20 to 29 live away from their parents.

Lectura Dantis, an ongoing public reading of Dante's Divine Comedy, presents "Paradiso 14" with Adoyo Owuor, teaching fellow in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. The presentation of the text is in English, and the reading in Italian.

Nancy Abelmann, the Harry E. Preble Professor of Anthropology, Asian American Studies, and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois, talks about her book, The Intimate University: Korean American Students and the Problem of Segregation, an ethnographic study of the tensions between the ideals of higher education and the experiences of Korean American undergraduates at the University of Illinois.

Samy Gemayel, one of the youngest members of the Lebanese parliament, talks about his native country and the sacrifices its people and allies have made for its stability.

Richard Grayson, senior lecturer in British and Irish Politics at Goldsmith, University of London, discusses how a civil war between Unionists and Nationalists over home rule in Ireland was averted when men from both factions enlisted to fight together in the British armed forces during World War I.

Jane Brox, award-winning author Here and Nowhere Else: Late Seasons of a Farm and Its Family, reads from her new book Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. Brox traces the history and importance of man-made light from the time cave artists used limestone and tallow lamps, through today.