Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

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

Natsu Saito: Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists

Thu, Oct 6, 2022

Taking Indigenous sovereignty seriously can help dismantle the structural racism encountered by other people of color in the United States. Natsu Taylor Saito's book, _Settler Colonialism, Race, and the Law: Why Structural Racism Persists,_ provides a timely analysis of structural racism at the intersection of law and colonialism. Noting the grim racial realities still confronting communities of color, and how they have not been alleviated by constitutional guarantees of equal protection, this book suggests that settler colonial theory provides a more coherent understanding of what causes and what can help remediate racial disparities. By providing a functional analysis that links disparate forms of oppression, this book makes the case for the oft-cited proposition that racial justice is indivisible, focusing particularly on the importance of acknowledging and contesting the continued colonization of Indigenous peoples and lands. ([Book review on Perlego](https://www.perlego.com/book/1364570/settler-colonialism-race-and-the-law-why-structural-racism-persists-pdf?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&campaignid=15825112969&adgroupid=132780871355&gclid=CjwKCAjw7eSZBhB8EiwA60kCW0AkGCT0O6l1i5HilKV1s8cLAXB0Tk20XaCYvSIRbVyrLPK_c7BYnRoCL5IQAvD_BwE) ) Cosponsored by the [Boston College Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
Drug Use for Grownups: A Human Rights Perspective

Thu, Nov 14, 2019

Dr. Carl Hart is currently investigating the behavioral and neuropharmacological effects of psychoactive drugs in human research participants. A major focus of his laboratory-based research is to understand factors that mediate drug self-administration behavior and to develop effective treatments.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
Michael Witmore: Civic Shakespeare

Wed, Nov 6, 2019

Witmore is a scholar of Shakespeare and early modern literature as well as a pioneer in the digital analysis of Shakespeare’s texts. Based in Washington, DC, the Folger Shakespeare Library is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection. Image: “Portrait of Shakespeare” by Thomas Nast (1840-1902), from the [Folger Digital Image Collection](https://luna.folger.edu/luna/servlet/allCollections)

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
Sandford Biggers: Negerplastic

Wed, Nov 8, 2017

A Los Angeles native working in New York City, Sanford Biggers will discuss his art, which integrates film, video, installation, sculpture, drawing, original music and performance. He intentionally complicates issues such as hip hop, Buddhism, politics, identity and art history in order to offer new perspectives and associations for established symbols. Through a multi-disciplinary formal process and a syncretic creative approach he makes works that are as aesthetically pleasing as they are conceptual.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
Ruth Rubio Marín: Reparations for Historic Institutional Violence

Thu, Nov 1, 2018

###### Reparations for Historic Institutional Violence: Learning from Transitional Justice? Based upon a lifetime of working with harmed individuals in numerous countries, scholar Ruth Rubio Marín discusses her work and the efficacy of transitional justice. Marín’s lecture was part of a two-day conference entitled [“Transitional Justice, Truth-telling, and the Legacy of Irish Institutional Abuse”](http://https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/academics/sites/ila/events/towards-transitional-justice/#about_the_conference.html) supported by the ILA, Office of the Provost, Irish Studies Program, The Jesuit Institute, The Boston College Law School, and the Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
GroundTruth: Reporting in the "Post-Truth" Era

Wed, Sep 19, 2018

Charles Sennott is the Founder and Executive Director of The GroundTruth Project. He is an award-winning foreign correspondent, author, and editor with 30 years of experience in journalism. Sennott has reported on the front lines of wars and insurgencies in at least 15 countries, including the 2011 revolution in Cairo and the Arab Spring. Drawing from his years of experience reporting and working to train the next generation of journalist, Sennott discusses the crisis in the journalism field, the gap in local reporting, and the importance of covering truth from the ground of local communities. Learn more about: [The GroundTruth Project](http://thegroundtruthproject.org/ "The GroundTruth Project") Image: Presentation Slide

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
Kenneth Pomeranz: How did China Get So Big?

Wed, Feb 28, 2018

Kenneth Pomeranz is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current projects include a history of Chinese political economy from the seventeenth century to the present. In this talk Pomeranz examines how and why contemporary China's huge land mass and population have wound up forming a single political unit.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
Kurt Andersen discusses Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire

Wed, Jan 24, 2018

Kurt Andersen takes the long view on fake news in his new book "Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History", arguing that huckstering has always been part of America's DNA.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
The Immigrant in the War on Terror

Wed, Apr 6, 2011

Author and journalist **Amitava Kumar** probes questions raised by the impact of the war on terror on immigrants going about their daily lives. In his book, *A Foreigner Carrying in the Crook of His Arm a Tiny Bomb, * Kumar looks at the role entrapment has played both on the part of recruitment for terrorist organizations and on the part of the U.S. military, and he examines how the distance can be measured between dominant images of terrorists and the 'displaced provincials' who become involved on the front lines of terrorist organizations. _Part of the Institute for the Liberal Arts' 2010-2012 Race and Culture After 9/11 Lecture Series and Symposium. _ Kumar mentions the artist **Hasan Elahi** in his talk. You can learn more about the artist and how he responded to being placed on the FBI's watch list in [his Ted talk.](https://www.ted.com/talks/hasan_elahi?language=en "")

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College
Child Sexual Abuse and the Catholic Church: An Irish Disease and/or Global Phenomenon?

Thu, Mar 24, 2011

Journalist Patsy McGarry, of *The Irish Times* explores the politics, perceptions, and uniquely Irish aspects of the clergy sexual abuse scandal in Ireland. McGarry has reported extensively on the Catholic Church's response to various child sexual abuse scandals as documented by the Ferns, Ryan, and Murphy reports.

Forum Network

Partner:

Boston College