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Boston College

Boston College is a coeducational university with undergraduate and graduate students hailing from every state and more than 95 countries. Founded in 1863, it is one of the oldest Jesuit, Catholic universities in the United States.

Since its founding in 1957, the Lowell Humanities Series has brought distinguished writers, artists, performers, and scholars to Boston College. Follow the series on Twitter at @BCLowellHS .

http://www.bc.edu

  • Authors Andrew Sullivan and David Morrison discuss homosexuality in Catholic culture. Sullivan argues that there is no scriptural substantiation for the Church's stance against homosexuality, while Morrison promotes chastity for those who are attracted to persons of the same sex. The program is introduced by Joseph Appleyard, vice president for University mission and ministry at Boston College.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree Jr. and Boston University Law Professor Keith Hylton give a two-part keynote address from a Boston College symposium, "Healing the Wounds of Slavery: Can Present Legal Remedies Cure Past Wrongs?"
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Five journalists and scholars explore the changing landscape of American faith, using as a starting point two recent books: *A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Catholic Church in America*, by *New York Times* religion correspondent and former *Commonwealth* editor Peter Steinfels; and *The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith*, by Boston College political science professor and Boisi Center director Alan Wolfe. Steinfels and Wolfe are joined on the panel by R. Scott Appleby, director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and professor of history at Notre Dame; David Brooks, a columnist for *The New York Times*; and Wendy Kaminer, contributing editor of *The Atlantic Monthly*. The panel is introduced by moderator Ben Birnbaum, special assistant to the president and editor of *Boston College Magazine*.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Professor James Smith of Boston College's English department discusses the beginnings of an "architecture of containment" in Ireland, constructed to silence those whose sexual behavior or family circumstances contradicted an emerging image of Irish Catholic identity. James O'Toole, history professor at Boston College, responds. This talk is the second in the series "Ireland Before the Republic: Culture and Politics 1922-1949." Smith is introduced by Robin Lydenberg, English professor at Boston College.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Alan Berger, the Raddock Chair of Holocaust Studies at Florida Atlantic University, talks about educating students for altruism, and the lessons that can be learned from Holocaust rescuers. Berger is introduced by Philip Cunningham, executive director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Patrick Guerriero discusses the experience of being Republican and gay, and outlines his perspective on the movement for gay and lesbian civil rights. The Log Cabin Republicans recently broke with President Bush in opposition to a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Marking the 30th anniversary of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, noted journalists and scholars, nearly all of whom have written books about American presidents, gather for three panel discussions on the shifting fortunes of presidential reputations. Panel one, 'The Press and the Presidency', includes Jack Beatty, a senior editor at the Atlantic Monthly; Kathleen Dalton, an associate fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University; and presidential biographer and prize-winning journalist Tom Wicker. The panel is moderated by Ellen Hume, a former White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, who now directs the Center on Media and Society at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Marking the 30th anniversary of the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, noted journalists and scholars, nearly all of whom have written books about American presidents, gather for three panel discussions on the shifting fortunes of presidential reputations. The third and final panel, 'The President and His Enemies,' features Joyce Appleby, professor emeritus of history at the University of California, Los Angeles; Pulitzer Prizewinning historian James MacGregor Burns; and John Dean, former White House counsel to President Richard Nixon. The moderator is David Halberstam, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • William Murnion, co-editor of *Being and Thought in Aquinas*, examines the "just war" ethic within the context of St. Thomas Aquinas' writings, arguing that it reveals a fundamental incoherence in his philosophy. He reconsiders Christian ethics of peace as they might be applied today to the problem of terrorism.
    Partner:
    Boston College