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James Smith is currently employed as an Associate Professor of English at Boston College, where he specializes in modern and contemporary Irish literature and culture, and cultural studies. His book,* Ireland's Magdalen Laundries and the Nation's Architecture of Containment *(2007), focusing on cultural representations of institutional care, reflects his interest in twentieth-century Irish narrative from a post-colonial perspective. Similar interests inform Smith's recent graduate seminars, "Twentieth Century Irish Fiction," "Contemporary Irish Fiction," and "Ireland: The Colonial Context." He have taught undergraduate electives on contemporary British Isles fiction, American realism and naturalism, major Irish writers, and both 19th and 20th century Irish literature surveys. Smith am also interested in recent scandals in Ireland's Catholic Church and the manner in which these affect relations between church, state, and society.

From February, 1976, to January, 1977, Mr. Gibson was a White House correspondent for ABC News. During this time, he covered Gerald Ford's 1976 Presidential campaign. Mr. Gibson came to ABC News in May, 1975, from a syndicated news service, Television News, Inc. His first job in broadcasting was Washington producer for RKO Network in 1966. The National Endowment for the Humanities named Mr. Gibson a National Journalism Fellow at the University of Michigan in 1973, and he has served as a board member of the Michigan Journalism Fellows since 1988. He is a graduate of Princeton University, where he was news director for the University radio station, WPRB-FM. Mr. Gibson was honored with the 1992 John Maclean Fellowship, awarded to Princeton University alumni "who have made a major contribution to American society." Mr. Gibson, a native of Evanston, Illinois, grew up in Washington, D.C. He and his wife, Arlene, a school headmistress, reside in New Jersey. They have two daughters.

Roger Angell has been a contributor to *The New Yorker* since 1944. He became a fiction editor in 1956 and is now a senior editor and staff writer at the magazine. His first contribution to the magazine was a piece of fiction titled "Three Ladies in the Morning". While stationed in the Central Pacific during the Second World War, where he was the managing editor of the Air Force enlisted-man's weekly *TIG Brief,* he wrote an article for *The New Yorker* about a bombing mission to Iwo Jima. After his work on *Brief*, he became a senior editor at *Holiday* magazine, where he remained from 1947 to 1956. Once on the *New Yorker* staff, he continued to contribute stories, casuals, and "Notes and Comment" pieces to the magazine, and began reporting on sports. Since 1962, he has written more than a hundred "Sporting Scene" pieces, mostly about baseball. He continues as one of *The New Yorker*'s fiction editors, editing the stories of John Updike, William Trevor, and Woody Allen. Angell has won a number of awards for his writing, including a George Polk Award for Commentary. He is a long-time ex-officio member of the council of the Authors Guild.

Robin Lydenberg is the author of *Contemporary Irish Art on the Move: At Home and Abroad with Dorothy Cross*.

Lawrence Lucchino, (born 6 September 1945 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is the current president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, and a member of John W. Henry's ownership group. Lucchino graduated from Princeton University in 1967 and later attended Yale Law School. At Princeton, Lucchino was on the basketball team with Bill Bradley who later became an NBA star and United States Senator from New Jersey. After law school, Lucchino practiced law with the Washington, D. C. law firm of Williams & Connelly. The founder, famed litigator, Edward Bennett Williams, had ownership interest in both the Washington Redskins and the Baltimore Orioles. Lucchino's law practice at Williams & Connelly included a substantial amount of work for those two sports teams. Through that work he ultimately became president/CEO of the Baltimore Orioles and later, the San Diego Padres. Under his watch, both teams built new stadiums Camden Yards and Petco Park.

Anouar Majid is founding chair and professor of English at the University of New England and the author of *Freedom and Orthodoxy: Islam and Difference in the Post-Andalusian Age*, *Unveiling Traditions: Postcolonial Islam in a Polycentric World*, and *Si Yussef*, a novel. He is also co-founder and editor of *Tingis*, a Moroccan-American magazine of ideas and culture.

Jerry Remy is a former second baseman in Major League Baseball who is currently enjoying success in broadcasting, working for the New England Sports Network (NESN). He began as NESN's Boston Red Sox color analyst in March of 1988, teaming up with veteran play-by-play announcer Ned Martin. He now broadcasts along with play-by-play announcer Don Orsilo. Voted Massachusetts' favorite TV announcer by *Sports Illustrated* in 2004, Remy has been honored with 4 Emmy Awards and was named the Massachusetts Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association in 2004. In 1971, Remy was drafted in the 8th round by the California Angels. He played three seasons for the Angels starting in 1975 before being traded to the Boston Red Sox. He played second base for the Red Sox from 1978-1985, when a knee injury forced his retirement during spring training of 1986. Remy had his best year in 1978 when he batted .278, scored 87 runs, stole 30 bases and was selected to the American League All-Star team. He finished his career with a .275 average, 208 stolen bases and a .981 fielding percentage. Bill James in his *Historical Abstract* rated him as the 100th greatest second baseman of all time, as of 2002.

W. Grant McGimpsey received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Queen's University, Ontario, Canada in 1985 and spent several years as research scientist at the National Research Council Canada. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. In 2005, McGimpsey was appointed as the Director of WPI's Bioengineering Institute (BEI), an organization focused on the development and commercialization of medical technologies. In 2007, McGimpsey was also named the WPI Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Studies ad interim. In addition, he is president and co-founder of Active Surface Technologies Incorporated, a company developing thin film technology for medical, sensor and energy applications. McGimpsey's research interests focus on surface chemistry, thin film devices, nanotechnology, molecular scale devices, micro- and nano-fluidics and biosensors. His research program, which has attracted nearly 8.5 million dollars in external support over the past 15 years is currently funded by the Department of Defense. In 1995, McGimpsey was visiting scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Radiation Chemistry in Germany and in 2002 he was visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He is now adjunct research professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at UMASS. Also in 2002, McGimpsey was given the WPI Trustees Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Scholarship.

Jack Newfield pioneered a new kind of investigative journalism -- a passionate advocacy of social causes and political reforms backed up by relentless digging for the facts. He began in the 60's as a columnist for *the Village Voice*. He left after 24 years and continued his investigative reporting successively for *the New York Daily News*, *the New York Post*, *the New York Sun* and *The Nation* magazine. He was a fellow of the Nation Institute. Jack was the author of 10 books and collaborated on numerous documentaries. He received the George Polk Award for Investigative Journalism in 1990, an Emmy for his documentary on Don King in 1991, and numerous other awards. Jack Newfield died on December 21st, 2004.