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The celebrated Lowell Humanities Series continues its nearly six-decade tradition of hosting influential and high-profile speakers — novelists, poets, journalists, scholars and others from a variety of disciplines.
Associate Professor of English James Smith has taken the reins as director from department colleague Professor Carlo Rotella, who was at its helm since 2010 and expanded the range of fields represented by guests.
“I am excited by the opportunity to build on Carlo’s hard work over the past five years and to continue enhancing the place of the Lowell Humanities Series at Boston College,” said Smith. “Since its inception in 1957, the series has made significant contributions to the intellectual environment on campus and again this year we welcome an impressive lineup of creative writers, scholars and public intellectuals.”
This fall, Smith said, the series will host “two important voices in the ongoing debate surrounding race and the judicial system in this country”: Alice Goffman, an American sociologist and urban ethnographer whose book, On The Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, examines the surveillance state in a disadvantaged Philadelphia neighborhood, on Sept. 8; and The Atlantic correspondent Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of Between the World and Me, a powerful book on race and America, on Oct. 21 (presented with the Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics).
The series, in collaboration with Fiction Days, will present award-winning novelist Edwidge Danticat, widely considered to be one of the most talented young writers in the US, on Sept. 29. Her appearance is part of a three-day residency at BC. [She will discuss her work and contemporary Haiti with Assoc. Prof. Regine Jean-Charles (Romance Languages) on Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m. in Devlin 101.] On Oct. 14, renowned poet and translator David Ferry will present a reading as part of Poetry Days. On Oct. 28, environmental writer and social critic James Howard Kunstler — who published the first critique of American architecture and urban planning as well as other bestselling books – will appear.
The series’ fall program continues Nov. 12 with what Smith calls an important and timely topic “for all of us working in the humanities”: “Why Liberal Education Matters,” presented by historian and Wesleyan University president Michael Roth.
“I look forward to meeting members of faculty at one or more of these talks, and encourage them to bring these events to the attention of their students and urge them to attend,” said Smith, who welcomes suggestions (at james.smith.2@bc.edu) for future speakers – especially those “whose work is linked to course syllabi and/or to new initiatives on campus. The more students reading or studying the work of our Lowell guests, the better.”
The first in a series of campus events which mark the centenary commemoration of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916 – a pivotal event in modern Irish history, which began Ireland’s struggle for independence – will take place on Nov. 18. Declan Kiberd, author and leading international authority on the literature of Ireland, both in English and Irish, from Notre Dame University, will present “Militarism or Modernism? Intellectual Origins of the Easter Rising, Dublin 1916.”
Kiberd’s visit is tied to an interdisciplinary course taught by Seelig Professor in Philosophy Richard Kearney, Professor of the Practice of History Rob Savage and Associate Professor of Fine Arts Sheila Gallagher. Making Memory: History, Story, Image explores the contestious history of Ireland and Britain.
For complete details on speakers, as well as the times and locations of their appearances, see www.bc.edu/lowellhs. Lowell Humanities Series events are free and open to the public. The series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, BC’s Institute for the Liberal Arts and the Office of the Provost.