2 Around Campus
50 years of the BC Fact Book; Lowell Humanities Series, Robsham events coming up.
3 Council for Women of BC Leadership changes on the horizon for CWBC as it begins third decade.
8 “Landscape of Memory”
New McMullen exhibition set to open this month.
BY JACK DUNN ASSOCIATE VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS
Boston College has named Andrew Davidson, vice president for development at Dartmouth College, as senior vice president for university advancement, effective March 1.
A proven and highly respected fundraiser who brings more than 20 years of advancement experience in leadership roles at Dartmouth and Harvard University, Davidson has managed Dartmouth’s central fundraising programs since 2014, including the Dartmouth College Fund, gift planning, major gifts, corporate and foundation relations, and donor relations and research.
As Boston College formally began the 2023 spring semester this week, 25 BC School of Social Work students were already well into the next phase of their education.
Working in locations as far away as the Philippines, Uganda, Cambodia, and Lebanon as well as in the United States, the BCSSW students are involved in a range of tasks, some providing counseling and case management support to survivors of gender-based violence, or developing and implementing programming for newly arrived refugees. Others are establishing monitoring and evaluation protocols for mental health and psychosocial support programming, or researching and advocating global migration policies and peace theory and praxis.
The 25 form the largest cohort in the 17-year history of BCSSW’s Global Practice program, which prepares students for the fields of global social work, humanitarian aid, and international development. Global Practice focuses on addressing com-
plex social issues that go beyond national boundaries and affect many populations, blending social work praxis with the principles of human rights, human security, human development, and the promotion of sustainable solutions to social problems.
Students in the program go on a field placement for their final semester, working domestically or internationally with one of BCSSW’s intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizational partners such as Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), Catholic Relief Services, International Catholic Migration Commission, International Rescue Committee, Lighthouse Relief, Solid Minds, FXB India Suraksha, and PTI Cebu.
BCSSW administrators say the Global Practice field placement serves as a proving ground for students’ professional, academic, and personal formation—an opportunity to not only put theory, instruction, and values into action under the tutelage of experienced professionals, but test their ability to adapt to unfamiliar environments and cultural perspectives.
“Students learn more about themselves
He also worked with a portfolio of principal gift prospects, and served as a member of the Advancement Senior Leadership Team that led the planning and execution of Dartmouth’s $3 billion “Call to Lead” capital campaign.
In his new role at Boston College, Davidson will direct all fundraising, alumni engagement, and operations of the University’s advancement division. He succeeds Vice President for Development Amy Yancey, who has served as interim senior vice president since the fall.
University President William P. Leahy, S.J., praised Davidson as an accomplished professional with the experience and vision needed to guide Boston College’s advance-
This semester, the Boston College Center for Student Wellness is offering a range of new services and events to help BC students live balanced lives, with a particular focus on mental health support. Jeannine Kremer (right), who became the center’s full-time director last March, shared her thoughts with John Shakespear, a senior digital content writer in the Office of University Communications, on the role of wellness on campus and the resources that her team offers to all BC students.
Kremer: I love doing this work at Boston College, because the Jesuit values really guide our mission. Here in our office, we talk about wellness in terms of mind, body, and soul. These three words seem to resonate with our students. Our vision is about caring for the whole person and developing that whole person in relation to the common good.
In practice, that vision looks like daily collaboration. Our staff and our 26 peer wellness coaches—who are all BC students themselves—partner with faculty and staff to make meaningful connections with students. The goal is to give them opportunities to reflect on their personal wellness so they can develop concrete skills and make healthy decisions that will hopefully last far
beyond their four years here at BC.
Our approach is also rooted in prevention. Sometimes people think, “I should only have a coaching appointment when something is wrong.” And that’s really not the case. We hope the array of programs and coaching sessions we offer will give students the time and space to invest in themselves, define their wellness goals, learn new skills to manage stress, explore new ways of moving, and find a sense of belonging in the BC community. Ultimately, our goal is to create a culture of wellness across this campus, so it’s part of daily life.
“We
—Thomas Crea
If a Trivial Pursuit Boston College Edition existed, the Boston College Fact Book would be required pre-game reading.
Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2023, the Fact Book is much more than a treasure trove of University statistical information; it serves as its historical record, and most significantly, as a single, readily accessible and consistent source of highly pertinent BC data for use by administrators, faculty, staff, and students. Senior administrators from the president and provost to the financial vice president and treasurer keep current copies at their desks.
Comprising eight sections—covering administration and faculty to physical plant and research activity—the 100-page print and online compilation is produced and released annually in the spring semester by the Office of Institutional Research & Planning (IR&P).
While the Fact Book may not rival TikTok for number of views, thousands of visits are recorded throughout the year, particularly by BC administrators who religiously rely on the meticulously collected and reported data.
Amy L. Harrington, assistant director of accreditation and information management at the Carroll School of Management, can’t imagine doing her job without it.
“The Fact Book has been my trusted resource for gathering data to complete our annual Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation surveys,” she said. “It’s such a reliable source of information and incredibly helpful, and the team behind the Fact Book is always so wonderful
to work with.”
“The BC Factbook is a critical element in our undergraduate marketing efforts,” said John Morawiec, director of marketing services in the Office of University Communications. “We often draw upon the key data points compiled by IR&P to design infographics for our recruitment materials, which clearly help increase the overall uniqueness of the pieces, and enhance prospective students’ and their parents’ experience in their college decision process.”
IR&P Vice President Mara Hermano said six of IR&P’s nine team members contribute to the Fact Book production, and typically at least two full-time staff and a graduate assistant are involved in the day-to-day operations.
The Fact Book’s importance to BC, she said, reflects the office’s evolution “from a data-only operation to a full-service organization that provides a complex suite of services
to support campus leaders in their strategic thinking as they grapple with decisions that impact the University in both short- and long-terms ways.”
Data requests to campus partners are issued in the fall for the upcoming edition, and it takes approximately four months for data entry, formatting, and review before submission to the printer in January.
“While we collect Fact Book information at the same time each year, not all of the institutional data in one edition is from the same time frame,” explained Stephanie Chappe, IR&P’s director of institutional research. “Some data lag a year, and some are available in the weeks just prior to publication, but nonetheless, our team works diligently throughout the production cycle to ensure that the information is accurate and the most up-to-date possible.”
The Fact Book has evolved over its fivedecade history, just as the University and its
resources have changed, said Chappe; for instance, IR&P integrates tables using the interactive data visualization tool Tableau Software to help the reader better understand the figures.
“The ‘Libraries’ section was renamed ‘Libraries & Information Technology’ in the 1989-1990 edition to accommodate the growing importance of IT infrastructure at BC. The ‘Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Citizenship’ table was recently updated and reorganized so it presents the data in three different ways. We also redesigned and moved the table that shows data by federal reporting standards to the front of the section so it’s more clear and easier to understand.”
A few nuggets from previous Fact Book editions:
•During the 1996-1997 academic year, more than one million emails were sent and more than five million were received on the University’s primary email servers. (Chappe noted that less critical technology data such as “emails sent” were removed when reporting such facts was less practical for an annual publication.)
•In 1972—long before email became integral to everyday work and life—the mailroom handled some 16,000 packages and envelopes per day.
•Health service data are no longer reported, but in 1987-1988 University Health Services reported 31,876 student visits to doctors, nurse practitioners, nutritionists, and physical therapists.
—Phil GloudemansAs the spring semester gets underway, two cultural events will be held on campus next week under the auspices of the University’s Lowell Humanities Series (LHS) and the Theatre Department/Robsham Theater Arts Center.
At a LHS event rescheduled from last semester, Seyla Benhabib, the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy Emerita at Yale University, will speak on “The Seductions of Sovereignty: A Democratic and Cosmopolitan Critique,” on January 25 at 7 p.m. in Gasson 100.
The author of numerous books, Benhabib has received prestigious awards and lectureships in recognition of her work. At Columbia University, she is a senior research fellow and adjunct law professor,
an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Philosophy, and senior fellow at its Center for Contemporary Critical Thought.
Her most recent book is Exile, Statelessness and Migration: Playing Chess with History from Hannah Arendt to Isaiah Berlin Her other books include The Claims of Culture: Equality and Diversity in the Global Era and the award-winning The Rights of Others: Aliens, Citizens and Residents
Benhabib won a Guggenheim fellowship and has been a research affiliate and senior scholar in many United States and European institutions. Her appearance is cosponsored by the International Studies Program and the Global Citizenships Project. For more information on the free, public event, see bc.edu/lowell.
January 26 is opening night for a production of “Idawalley,” a play written by Maggie Kearnan ’14 and directed by Grace Cutler ’24. Inspired by the life of female lighthouse keeper Idawalley Lewis of Newport, RI, the play follows the life of her and her family on Lime Rock: maintaining the lighthouse, facing ghosts from their past as well as the changing times and what they portend for the future.
The play runs January 26–28 at 7:30 p.m., and January 29 at 2 p.m. in Robsham’s Bonn Studio Theater. Ticket information is available at bc.edu/theatre.
The February 2 Chronicle issue will feature the full LHS and Theatre Department/Robsham spring schedules.
—Rosanne PellegriniThe Boston College Chronicle (USPS 009491), the internal newspaper for faculty and staff, is published biweekly from September to May by Boston College, with editorial offices at the Office of University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135 (617)552-3350.
Distributed free to faculty and staff offices and other locations on campus.
Periodicals postage paid at Boston, MA and additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: send address changes to The Boston College Chronicle, Office of University Communications, 3 Lake Street, Brighton, MA 02135.
A flipbook edition of Chronicle is available via e-mail. Send requests to chronicle@bc.edu.
The Council for Women of Boston College, which marked its 20th anniversary in 2022, will undergo a change in leadership effective this spring. Kathleen McGillycuddy NC’71, who has chaired the CWBC since its founding in 2002, will step down from that role, and be succeeded by current vice chairs Patricia Bonan ’79 and Elizabeth Vanderslice ’86, who will serve as co-chairs.
“We are very fortunate to have in Pat and Beth two such talented leaders ready and able to lead the CWBC,” said McGillycuddy in an email to members announcing the leadership transition. “I admire and appreciate all they have already done and all I know they will continue to do for our success.”
McGillycuddy, who said she plans to continue as an active, dedicated CWBC member, expressed gratitude for the support she has received over the years.
The Council for Women of Boston College connects the women of Boston College within and beyond the BC campus, advancing the role of alumnae as leaders and engaged members of the BC community and strengthening their involvement and influence to support the University’s mission, female students, and one another.
The retired executive vice president of the Wealth Management group for FleetBoston Financial, McGillycuddy was the first woman to chair the Boston College Board of Trustees, serving from 2011 to 2014. She and her husband, Ronald Logue ’67, M.B.A. ’74, made a gift to the University to establish the McGillycuddy-Logue Center for Undergraduate Global Studies.
Under her leadership, the CWBC has
grown to more than 180 members and 1,800 associate members, representing 44 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and seven countries. Members are accomplished and diverse graduates from all Boston College schools and represent a wide range of professional fields and personal and philanthropic interests.
The CWBC hosts events and programs designed to offer professional development, career advice, and mentoring and networking opportunities, as well as exploration of topics such as spirituality, volunteerism, and lifelong learning. Other council events support specific University endeavors such as the McMullen Museum of Art and women’s athletics.
In 2015, the council, with support from the Institute for the Liberal Arts, es-
tablished the CWBC Colloquium, which brings to campus outstanding thought leaders to consider contemporary issues through the lens of women’s leadership. Colloquium speakers have included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Olympic gold medalist Mia Hamm, and Mae Jemison, the first woman of color to travel into space. In 2020, the council established an endowed scholarship and the CWBC Pops scholarship fund.
Like McGillycuddy, Bonan and Vanderslice are founding members of the CWBC. They have served as CWBC vice chairs since 2019 and are both members of the BC Board of Trustees.
After retiring from a 29-year career in investment banking, Bonan is now the managing member of her family’s com-
mercial real estate holdings. “Over the last 20 years, the CWBC has grown, evolved, and thrived under Kathleen’s leadership. I am excited about the future of the CWBC and honored to partner with my good friend Beth as co-chair of this terrific organization.”
Vanderslice is a partner at Trewstar Corporate Board Services, a search firm specializing in corporate board placements. “Pat and I are blessed to carry Kathleen’s wisdom and support with us as we dedicate ourselves to fulfilling and continually expanding the council’s mission in the years to come. Serving the Boston College community alongside Pat will be a true joy and privilege.”
For more about the CWBC, see bc.edu/cwbc.
ment efforts into the future.
“Andrew Davidson has excelled in fundraising at two leading institutions of higher education and very much wants to help enhance Boston College’s mission and heritage,” said Fr. Leahy. “I am delighted that he will soon be a member of our community.”
Davidson said he was honored to accept the senior vice president’s position and looked forward to joining the BC community and leading its advancement efforts as it prepares for its next fundraising campaign.
“For me, accepting this position at Boston College is the culmination of 20 years of working in higher education advancement,” said Davidson. “It aligns with my beliefs and values and my skills as an advancement professional.
“The importance of a premier Jesuit, Catholic university like Boston College has never been greater in American higher education. The world needs BC to educate men and women who will make an impact
At Dartmouth, Davidson supervised a staff of 100 development professionals who raised approximately $100 million annually, and his principal gift efforts resulted in several eight-figure commitments, including the naming gifts for the Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies and the Magnuson Center for Entrepreneurship.
Davidson also led successful campaign volunteer programs, including the Presidential Commission for Financial Aid, which was charged with meeting a financial aid goal of $500 million. In addition, he implemented a strategic reorganization of departments to create better alignment of frontline staff, and increased personnel by 20 percent in preparation for Dartmouth’s campaign.
Prior to joining Dartmouth, Davidson held several key fundraising positions at Harvard University between 2002 and 2014, including assistant dean for development for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, where he was responsible for
overall campaign fundraising strategy with specific and shared oversight of a $1 billion goal for the $6.5 billion Harvard Campaign.
Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley and Haub Vice President for University Mission & Ministry Jack Butler, S.J., who co-chaired the search, said that Davidson possessed the key qualities they were looking for in the new senior vice president for university advancement.
“The search committee was blessed to be able to select from a strong pool of candidates, among whom Andrew Davidson stood out for his experiences at Dartmouth and Harvard, his belief in the power of higher education to change lives for the better, and his sophisticated understanding of how philanthropy is evolving in our time,” said Quigley. “Andrew impressed me with his vision for how to attract and sustain support for Boston College in a way that is true to and ultimately advances the University’s distinctive mission. I look forward to working closely with him starting later this winter.”
Added Fr. Butler, “Andrew is experienced, knowledgeable, and engaging, and his interest in BC’s mission correlates with his life and personal history. He understands that an essential part of the Jesuit, Catholic educational experience takes place in the classroom, and he knows from his experiences how to support the academic enterprise at elite universities.”
A native of Northboro, Mass., Davidson graduated from Rutgers University in 1992 with a B.A. in English and history. A collegiate oarsman, he still rows competitively at the masters level for Diesel Athletic Club. He and his wife Joyce are the parents of two adult children, Liam and Charlie.
“My wife Joyce and I have had a long connection with Jesuits and Jesuit education through our family, friendships, and work,” said Davidson. “That connection has had an important impact on our lives and the lives of our boys. In many ways, coming to BC builds on our life’s work, and feels like coming home. I am excited to begin this new chapter.”
Oxygen-starved ocean “dead zones,” where fish and animals cannot survive, have been expanding in the open ocean and coastal waters for several decades as a result of human agricultural and industrial activity. Trying to predict the scale and location of future dead zones, scientists have looked to the past for historical clues.
Now, an international team of researchers—including Boston College faculty member Xingchen “Tony” Wang—has provided a useful insight on the issue.
Today’s largest open ocean dead zone, located in the eastern Pacific Ocean, emerged eight million years ago as a result of increasing nutrient content in the ocean, the team reported recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences While the sources of nutrient enrichment today may be different, the mechanics that created what scientists call “oxygendeficient zones” remain the same, according to Wang, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences who is a lead author of the report.
Better understanding ocean dead zones in the past may help future ocean conservation efforts, he said: “In order to better protect marine ecosystems and manage fisheries, it is critical to predict how an ocean ‘dead zone’ will evolve in the future.”
A coastal ocean dead zone is mainly caused by the flow of excess nutrients humans use on land, such as fertilizer application. In the Northern Gulf of Mexico, anthropogenic nutrients delivered by the Mississippi River annually produce a dead zone as big as the state of New Jersey.
These zones also occur naturally in the open ocean, with the largest found in the eastern Pacific Ocean. “It remains unclear how these dead zones will change as the planet warms. So, we studied the history
of the eastern Pacific dead zone in order to better predict its future behavior,” Wang said.
The researchers from universities in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, and Australia set out to determine the evolution of open ocean dead zones before human activity began to impact the ocean, Wang said: Did these dead zones always exist? If so, why?
The team examined the chemical composition of ocean sediments near today’s largest ocean “dead zone” in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The team obtained sediment samples—the “history books” of ocean activity—going back 12 million years and analyzed nitrogen contained in microfossils, known as foraminifera.
“Fossil foraminifera in ocean sediments are mainly made of calcium carbonate and they have been used to study past climate change for decades,” said Tianshu Kong, a doctoral student in Wang’s lab who studies
foraminifera in her research. “Most foraminifera found in ocean sediments actually came from the surface water, so they can tell us what happened in the upper ocean”.
The team looked in the dead zones for signs of denitrification, which occurs when oxygen content is so low that microbes instead use nitrate to power their biological activity. Nitrogen has two stable isotopes, nitrogen-14 and nitrogen-15, and microbes prefer to consume the lighter isotope of nitrogen-14 during denitrification.
When oxygen deficient zones expand, denitrification zones also expand, raising the nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 ratio of the remaining nitrate, which is then recorded in ocean organisms such as foraminifera through the cycling of nitrogen in the marine ecosystems, according to the report.
“By analyzing the nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 ratio of foraminifera in ocean sediments, we can reconstruct the history of the extent of oxygen deficient zones,” said Wang, whose work on the project was funded in part by the Simons Foundation.
In addition, the researchers analyzed the phosphorus and iron content of the same sediments, which reveal the ancient nutrient content in the deep Pacific Ocean, according to the report.
“Deep-ocean nutrient content is hard to reconstruct and our record is the first of its kind over the past 12 million years; its trends have important implications for the global carbon cycle and climate change,” said Woodward W. Fischer, a co-author of the study and professor at the California Institute of Technology.
The sedimentary records showed the team that the largest open ocean dead zones gradually expanded over the past eight million years, said Wang, whose project colleagues also included researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Chemis-
try, Princeton University, National Taiwan University, University of Toronto, Texas A&M University, and the University of Western Australia.
“Further, the expansion of these dead zones was mainly caused by nutrient enrichment,” he said. “This mechanism is similar to the formation of dead zones in today’s coastal waters, except that humans are responsible for the current nutrient enrichment.”
The researchers were struck by data that showed much lower nutrient content in the ocean prior to eight million years ago.
“The nutrient increase since eight million years ago was likely caused by increased weathering and erosion on land which would increase the delivery of phosphorus to the ocean,” said Fischer.
“In addition, terrestrial ecosystems underwent a major transition between eight and six million years ago,” Wang said.
“Many forests were replaced by less dense grassland, known as the expansion of C4 ecosystems. With more grassland, soil erosion might have increased during this period, and it would have triggered a greater transfer of organic nutrients to the ocean.”
Wang said a likely next step in this research would be to determine how the flow of nitrogen into the ocean from human activity can impact the ocean’s nutrient cycle.
“The key questions lie in our coastal zones, where the most anthropogenic nitrogen enters the ocean,” Wang said. “If most of anthropogenic nitrogen is removed in coastal regions—essentially by denitrification taking place in the sediments—then that could lessen the impact on the whole ocean. Our research group at BC is currently doing some work in the Northern Gulf of Mexico to better understand the fate of anthropogenic nitrogen in the ocean.”
BY CAITLIN CUNNINGHAMBoston College faculty, staff, and students are now able to access individualized online training in numerous fields and subjects—for free—via the LinkedIn Learning program.
Introduced late last year, LinkedIn Learning provides more than 15,000 courses taught by instructors with realworld experience, available 24/7 on any laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone. Current faculty, students, and staff sign in with their BC username and password to log onto the Linkedin Learning site [bc. edu/linkedinlearning]; it is not necessary to have a LinkedIn account.
The LinkedIn Learning implementation team included representatives from Student Affairs, Information Technology Services, University Libraries, Human Resources, the Center for Digital Innovation in Learning, and the Center for Teaching Excellence.
Since the program’s launch, some 1,400 members of the University community
have activated LinkedIn Learning accounts.
The program is designed to supplement classroom learning and increase students’ career readiness by helping them acquire technology, business, and other professional skills employers seek. Faculty also can enhance class materials with LinkedIn Learning content.
Through LinkedIn Learning, BC employees can explore new technology, upgrade technology skills, and strengthen interpersonal, professional, and management skills.
Continuous learning is among the 11 University-wide performance attributes/ competencies, notes the BC Linkedin Learning site. “These competencies are the skills, knowledge, and abilities that reflect the mission and values of Boston College.”
For assistance with the LinkedIn Learning login process, contact the BC Help Center at (617) 552-4357 or bc.edu/techchat.
—University Communicationsthan they might think,” said BCSSW Assistant Director for Field Education Lyndsey McMahan. “How do you interact with someone whose life seems to have little in comparison to yours? How do you live in a place that’s so vastly different than what you’re used to? How do you navigate a situation when basic supplies and staples of everyday life aren’t available? That’s when their problem-solving skills are needed.”
“So much of this work you learn by doing, meeting challenges, and pivoting,” said Assistant Dean for Global Programs and Professor Thomas Crea. “It requires a combination of what might be called ‘hard skills’—like program management, evaluation, and budgeting—as well as ‘soft skills,’ like openness and cultural awareness. We open the door to these students, but when they step through that door, it’s up to them to work through what they find using the skills we’ve taught them.”
Rebecca Carney, a native of Harmony Township, NJ, who is in a field placement with JRS in Lebanon, found the Global Practice program was a logical extension of her work with NGOs responding to natural disasters, armed conflicts, or other emergencies in the U.S. and around the world.
“I witnessed the breakdown of community supports and structures, and felt drawn to understanding and addressing the daily stressors and mental health needs for impacted populations as well,” said Carney, who is working in the JRS Mental Health and Psychosocial Support department. “The desire to provide more holistic and integrated services led me to pursue social work. The BCSSW program is incredibly unique in how it practically prepares students to work in a variety of contexts with a global
lens to better support individuals and communities. With a macro track in the Global Practice program, I hope to continue working in humanitarian action to develop integrated mental health and psychosocial support programs for refugees and other displaced persons.
“The field placement provides a remarkable opportunity towards this goal by drawing on past experiences and BC classes to continue learning and provide tangible support to NGOs.”
While some students like Carney come to the Global Practice program with prior experience in humanitarian or developmental work, the field placement is nonetheless a significant part of their training, noted Crea and McMahan. The assignment is less about directly administering aid—serving food or providing medical care to refugees, for example—than it is evaluating, adjusting, or creating programs or policies that provide longer-term and more holistic solutions to address issues affecting populations in need.
At the same time, they added, the Global Practice program stresses the need to be open-minded and look beyond conventional Western-based perspectives and approaches.
“We can never know what we need to know about a culture or community until we take the time to watch and listen,” said McMahan. “So, we emphasize the need to be respectful and not make broad assumptions about what’s needed and how problems can be solved.”
Jacob Furey-Rosan, whose field placement is in Uganda with JRS Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, said his first few days were enlightening and, in some respects, challenged his preconceptions.
“I can say confidently that Uganda is welcoming to refugees, and hosts nearly one-and-a-half million refugees fleeing violence and instability in neighboring African countries like South Sudan, Ethiopia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, among others. That makes Uganda one of the top refugee-hosting countries in the world.
Here, they have greater freedom of movement and legal ability to work and study than in other host countries.”
“The placement in Romania gives me the skills I’m looking for, and to me that’s more important than location,” said Vincent Sweeney, in an interview a couple of weeks before leaving the U.S. for his JRS placement in Bucharest. “I tend to thrive in a crisis situation, and this feels like a good setting for me. Even if the war in Ukraine were to end tomorrow, there are many complex issues here that need to be addressed.”
Refugees face many daunting challenges, note the Global Practice students, and one of these is the perception that they are beyond the capability to lead any kind of normal life. This view, say the students, ignores the physical and mental trauma refugees endure, and discounts the resilience and strength of character they possess.
“This assumption reinforces power imbalances that strip refugees of any agency and deteriorate individual and community resilience,” said Carney. “In the Global Practice program, we discussed how displaced persons can go through distressing events, but with mental health and psychosocial support, basic needs, and other services, they can make decisions to promote their own well-being and thrive. As a social worker in a humanitarian space, I consistently and consciously counteract this narrative by aiming to operate with humility, awareness, and intention.”
“[Refugees] have proven themselves capable by escaping from the dangers they fled, across mountains, deserts, oceans, hostile cities, and dangerous borders,” said Furey-Rosan. “If they were completely helpless, lacking in skills or aptitude, how could they have made it? Triumph can still come at a cost, though, and no one can do it all alone. Now, in a new, strange, and in some cases unwelcoming country, they will need help to adjust, to recover from the difficulties and adversity they faced, and learn new skills to match their new home.”
Kremer: I always say that the best place to start is to stop by the center and say hello and visit our “health hub” just outside Gasson 013. We want this to be a welcoming space where students can make tea and coffee, have a snack, study, and connect with us. Alternatively, they can easily go online and schedule a wellness coaching session with a peer wellness coach. In those sessions, the student is in the driver’s seat— our goal is to give them strategies for the specific areas of health they want to work on, whether that’s getting more exercise, reflecting on their substance use, or finding more community.
When they stop by, students can also pick up a personalized wellness kit that includes tea, a stress ball, a sleep mask, and wellness tips. In the fall semester, with the help of partners across campus, we put together 2,000 wellness kits and distributed them in offices and classrooms around campus.
We also have plenty of online resources
available on our website for tending to your mind, body, and soul, including expert tips and videos on nutrition, mental health, sleep, relationships, and so much more. Students can use our online BeWell and ChooseWell screenings to self-assess their wellness when it comes to their general health and their substance use; through those screenings, too, we can connect them with the resources and services that seem most helpful to them.
Q: What are some new initiatives and events this semester?
Kremer: This year, we created a dedicated position focused on mental health and wellness. As we started to roll out initiatives like the Mental Health Matters: Let’s Talk About It campaign, I was blown away by how many students and student groups came to the office to say, “We want to do more around mental health, and we want to work with you.”
Through those partnerships, we’re going to do an event around Autism Awareness Day on April 2, and in early May, we’re going to collaborate with several
student groups to put on a Mental Health Awareness Week. Different student organizations will be tabling and hosting events, and there will be something different every day for students to engage in. In February, we are also launching a pilot of our campus-wide QPR suicide prevention program, and we have 13 people on campus who’ve been certified to train others to be “gatekeepers” who recognize the warning signs when a student is in crisis.
In partnership with University Counseling Services and University Health Services, we’re organizing three “Wellness Wednesdays”—one in February, March, and April. The Center for Student Wellness is going to host the first one on February 15. It’ll be a chance to come together over hot cocoa, do some fun activities, and make new connections in the middle of the semester. And throughout the semester we’ll be hosting Mindful Mondays, where students can stop in during lunch and learn some mindfulness techniques. For those who want a deeper dive, we’re also going to be offering four-week train-
ing sessions in the Koru Mindfulness curriculum, which is designed for college students. The goal of all these initiatives is to reduce stigma so students feel comfortable talking about mental health, and to ultimately help them build their mental health toolkits.
I’m also excited that we’re expanding our Collegiate Recovery Program and our outreach to women in recovery. BC’s Recovery House is joining our center this year, and Sober on the Heights AA meetings have returned in person. This spring, we will offer groups for children of adult alcoholics for the first time.
As always, we’ll wrap up the semester by hosting our annual Finals Relaxation Day. It’s a chance for students to stop in for a massage, a DIY goodie bag, and some stress and time management tips that will hopefully help them finish off the year healthy and well.
For more about the Center for Student Wellness, go to bc.edu/student-wellness.
For his work in discovering new phenomena and developing novel tools to probe and control materials, Professor of Physics Kenneth Burch has been named a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), the world’s largest organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines.
“It is a real honor to be included in such a distinguished set of physicists,” Burch said. “I’m very grateful to the wonderful students, colleagues, and collaborators over the years that contributed to our success.”
The honor is highly selective, with fewer than 250 members nominated annually from the organization’s approximately 50,000 members. Burch was recommended for the honor by the Condensed Matter Physics division of the society, according to a letter from APS President Frances Hellman, who noted Burch is being recognized “for pioneering studies of two-dimensional materials including van der Waals heterostructures and developing the methods used to created layered van der Waals heterostructures.”
Van der Waals crystals, which are held together by friction, have been used to isolate single-atom-thick layers of material used to detect new physical effects and applications. The most common example is graphene, which is composed of atom-
thick layers that can be peeled off by applying a piece of clear household adhesive tape.
Burch has used this procedure to create new interfaces between highly distinct materials. Specifically, he produced the thinnest and most uniform samples, then combined them to serve as a platform upon which to create unique states with a range of physical properties. The twodimensional magnetic crystals are being
explored for a range of uses, including the potential to use their electronic properties—most notably “spin”—to advance quantum computing, “spintronics,” magnetic and optical sensors, and high temperature superconductors.
“The work being cited includes our efforts to create novel physical phases and unleash new phenomena through combined optical studies and creation of new devices,” Burch said.
That includes his team’s discoveries of the Collosal Bulk Photovoltaic effect— among the largest conversions of light to electricity of any material—and the recent finding of an Axial Higgs Mode in a twodimensional charge density wave system, a previously undetectable quantum excitation Burch describes as a magnetic relative of the mass-defining Higgs Boson particle.
“We have also uncovered new superconducting states and developed a novel biosensing platform based on graphene single atomic layer of carbon,” Burch said. “To achieve this, the group has created a cleanroom in a glovebox, the first of its kind to allow fabrication of nanoscale devices entirely in an inert atmosphere. This enabled cutting edge and rapid progress by postdocs, graduate and undergraduate students in fabricating and measuring nanomaterials.”
Burch is one of six current and two former Boston College faculty named APS Fellows, including six from the Physics Department and two from the Chemistry Department.
“This prestigious distinction is a well-earned recognition of Prof. Burch’s highly productive and creative research program, and reflects the commitment of our department and Boston College to both fundamental and applied science,” said Professor of Physics and Department Chair Michael Graf.
The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College, a premier international research center for the study of Chinese-Western cultural exchange with a core focus on the social and cultural history of Christianity in East Asia, has announced a partnership with the Harvard-Yenching Institute, an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture.
The two institutes will offer a Joint Visiting Researcher Fellowship, which allows for a researcher engaged in historical scholarship of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, or Vietnam) culture across various disciplines in the humanities and social sciences to undertake six months of independent research in Boston during the 2023-2024 academic year, utilizing the resources of the Ricci Institute and the Harvard-Yenching libraries. The fellowship is open to candidates, regardless of citizenship, who are full-time faculty members at Asia-based universities or full-time fellows at research institutions in Asia.
Candidates for the fellowship must show how their research will be advanced by access to the collections of both the Ricci and Harvard-Yenching libraries. Fel-
lows will be expected to deliver a public lecture or seminar presentation, to be jointly hosted by Ricci and HarvardYenching during their stay. The deadline for applications is January 31; details are available via the Ricci website, bc.edu/ ricci.
“Working together with [Harvard-
Joint Visiting Researcher Fellows will have the opportunity to interact with other researchers at Ricci and HarvardYenching and have access to all Boston College and Harvard University libraries.
The Ricci Institute collections include some 100,000 volumes on East Asia. The collections focus primarily on traditional
its inception in 1928. With its 1.6 million volumes in more than a dozen languages, Harvard-Yenching holds the most comprehensive East Asian collection of any American university and has become the largest academic library for East Asian studies in the Western world.
The Ricci Institute opened at BC last spring after a relocation from its original home at the University of San Francisco. During the summer it hosted nearly a dozen doctoral/post-doctoral fellows, representing Italy, Spain, China, and Korea, among other countries. The scholars made use of the institute’s vast holdings to conduct research on subjects including music in Christianity, Chinese-Christian art history, and early Chinese translations of Biblical texts. This month, two additional postdoctoral fellows from China arrived in Boston to begin their three months of research at the institute.
Yenching Institute Director] Professor Elizabeth J. Perry, we are excited to launch this new joint fellowship program which will bring scholars from East Asia to Boston for half a year of intensive research at both institutions,” said Ricci Institute Director M. Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J. “It marks the launch of a new initiative that will expand the international scholarly outreach of Boston College while deepening ties with our colleagues in East Asian studies at Harvard.”
China with a special concentration on the Jesuit missions, East–West cultural exchange, and the history of the Ming-Qing period, roughly from the 16th–19th centuries. In addition to these volumes there are more than 400,000 digital documents, photos, manuscripts, microfilms, paintings, and artifacts, including 15 special archival collections.
The Harvard-Yenching Library has held a rich collection of research materials and rare books in East Asian languages since
Recently, Fr. Ucerler and Ricci staff members Mark Mir and Virginia Greeley traveled to South Korea, where the institute organized a Henry Luce Foundation post-doctoral workshop at the Institute of Humanities at Seoul National University, the premier university in the country. During their stay in Seoul, they also met with Sogang University President Luke Sim Jong-hyeok, S.J., and other faculty members, to discuss future cooperation in the study of Christian history in East Asia.
The fellowship program “marks the launch of a new initiative that will expand the international scholarly outreach of Boston College while deepening ties with our colleagues in East Asian studies at Harvard,” according to Ricci Institute Director M. Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J.Kenneth Burch is the latest Boston College faculty member to be honored as an American Physical Society Fellow. photo by gary wayne gilbert
Distinguished Research Professor of Physics Emeritus Gabor Kalman, a presence in the department for 48 years and a leader in the field of plasma physics, died in his native Hungary on December 10 following an illness. He was 92.
Dr. Kalman’s research focused on strongly coupled coulomb systems, such as plasmas, charged particle layered systems, bilayers, and fluctuation–dissipation theorems, along with other aspects of plasma physics, according to his biography on Wikipedia.
His research group, which he directed with K.I. Golden, became one of the leading theoretical groups in the area of strongly coupled plasma research. In the 1990s, their efforts culminated in the creation of a novel approach to the analysis of collective phenomena in strongly coupled plasmas, the Quasi–Linear Charge Approximation, which since then has been described as “the workhorse for the theoretical underpinning of experimental and computer simulation research in the area of complex plasmas.”
A native of Hungary, Dr. Kalman earned
Boston College School of Social Work Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Rocío Calvo was appointed last fall to the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Advisory Commission by Governor Charlie Baker before he completed his term of office.
The commission will work to address barriers to the delivery of equitable, culturally competent, and clinically-appropriate behavioral health care. Its task will be to identify and assess the challenges facing the behavioral health workforce; examining the feasibility of increasing the behavioral health competency of mental health workers through training programs; and analyzing the factors that create or perpetuate disparities in health care.
The commission’s findings will determine its recommendations for the distribution of money in a newly established trust fund for behavioral health care, and prioritize the needs of communities that were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is an acute need for culturally and linguistically appropriate behavioral health care in Massachusetts,” said Calvo, an associate professor whose research focuses on the role that social services play in integrating immigrants into American society. “I’m so appreciative of the Massachusetts leadership for responding so decisively and with such intention to these issues.”
The Society of Christian Ethics (SCE) honored Monan Professor of Theology Lisa Sowle Cahill with the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award at its annual meeting earlier this month in Chicago. A scholar of global renown and influence, Cahill is the author of 11 books and hundreds
a bachelor’s degree at Technical University in Budapest in 1952. He emigrated to Israel in 1956, where he received a D.Sc. at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He
held positions in France, at the University of Colorado, and at Brandeis University before he joined the Boston College faculty in 1970. He was promoted to Distinguished Research Professor in 1998, a position he held until his retirement in 2019.
Colleagues lauded Dr. Kalman’s accomplishments in research, teaching, and graduate student mentoring, as well as his efforts to serve as a bridge between academics in Eastern Europe and the United States.
“Recognition of Gabor’s distinguished career included fellowships in the American Physical Society and the New York Academy of Sciences, and he was elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences,” said Professor of Physics and Department Chair Michael Graf. “He was a highly respected researcher, teacher, and mentor who enhanced Boston College’s scholarly reputation around the world.”
Dr. Kalman’s research was supported by agencies including the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Air Force Geophysical Laboratories, the U.S. Department of Energy, and from the National Science Foundation.
of articles examining the range of ethical concerns including sex and gender, bioethics, war and peacemaking, Catholic social teaching, and ethical theory. She is a former president of SCE and the Catholic Theological Society of America, and has served on the editorial boards of numerous journals of theology and ethics.
Libby Professor of Theology and Law M. Cathleen Kaveny presented “East of Eden: A Case Against Nostalgia” as the Danforth Lecture in the Study of Religion at the Princeton University Department of Religion. The author of four books and more than 100 articles and essays, Kaveny has been published extensively in the areas of law, ethics, and medical ethics.
Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life Director Mark Massa, S.J., organized the conference “Orthodox and Catholic Theories of Just War in Light of the Ukraine Invasion” in conjunction with the Trinity College Greenberg Center in Hartford. Boston College participants included Libby Professor of Theology and Law M. Cathleen Kaveny, School of Theology and Ministry Associate Professor Brian Dunkle, S.J., and Joshua Snyder, assistant professor of the practice in the Theology Department.
Mathematics Professors Benjamin Howard and Joshua Greene were recognized at the recent Joint Math Meetings in Boston: Howard received the AIM Alexanderson Award for his co-authored paper “Modularity of generating series of divisors on unitary Shimura varieties,” Greene for receiving the Levi L. Conant prize for his article “Heegaard Floer homology,” published in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
BC Research Professor of Physics Andrzej Herczynski said Dr. Kalman was the first colleague he met the first day he entered the Physics Department offices in Higgins Hall in 1998. He found Dr. Kalman’s office rather elegantly decorated with fine art paintings, tasteful furniture, and area rugs.
“I clicked with him very quickly right then and there because we shared a lot beyond our interest in science: We were both from Eastern Europe and both of Jewish descent,” said Herczynski. “Both of us were
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interested in art. Gabor was a real aficionado of modern art, so this was a point of contact. Even though our personalities were different, we shared a lot.”
His friend could be perceived as gruff, but that exterior belied a broad range of intellectual and cultural interests he was willing to thoughtfully share, said Herczynski, who was among a group of faculty members who sent a video of well wishes to Dr. Kalman last fall.
“He had a slightly crusty exterior that might have been off-putting to some, but if you put a little effort into getting to know him you learned he was a warm person,” said Herczynski, recalling dinners with Gabor and his wife, Susan. “I was very lucky because I got to know him.”
Dr. Kalman maintained close ties with his peers in his native country and for many years brought Hungarian researchers to BC during the summer for collaborative projects. He effectively built a bridge between researchers in Eastern Europe and the West, Herczynski said.
Dr. Kalman’s nearly five-decade tenure at BC was fostered by a true love of the discipline of physics, Herczynski said.
“Physics is a subject you can only do if you love it,” he said. “It takes time. You can’t do anything else, almost. It requires all your effort and it is not possible to do halfheartedly. Once you do it and you love it, then you don’t want to stop. It gives you enormous pleasure and satisfaction. He was of that mold.”
Dr. Kalman was predeceased by his wife. He is survived by their children, Ron and Katalin.
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An upcoming exhibition at Boston College’s McMullen Museum of Art explores the rich and complex history of the Middle East region, probing questions of causes and effects of war, personal and national identity, exile and belonging, and memory and commemoration in films, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and multimedia displays.
“Landscape of Memory: Seven Installations from the Barjeel Art Foundation (Sharjah, UAE),” which will be on display from January 30 to June 4 in the Daley Family and Monan Galleries, comprises works created between 1998 and 2011 by renowned artists Adel Abidin, Sadik Kwaish Alfraji, Marwa Arsanios, Mona
Hatoum, Lamia Joreige, Maha Maamoun, and Basim Magdy. The exhibition is the first to present this assemblage of inventive installations, drawn from the collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.
“The McMullen is pleased to invite our audiences to engage with seven multimedia installations from the outstanding collection of the Barjeel Art Foundation, which examine the role of memory in shaping understanding of our identities and concepts of home,” said Inaugural Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Director of the McMullen Museum of Art Nancy Netzer, a BC professor of art history.
As part of the “Landscape of Memory” installation, Netzer added, a portal with immersive audio and visual technology provided by Shared_Studios “will connect small groups with others throughout the world to participate in dialogue about the artists’ works and exhibition themes in real time.”
With roots in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Europe, and the United States, the seven innovative artists featured in the exhibition provoke reflection on what it means to remember and the landscapes their memories inhabit.
In Cairo, Basim Magdy’s “My Father Looks for an Honest City” reenacts a stunt of ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes the Cynic that features his own father, and Maha Maamoun’s “Domestic Tourism II” splices together decades of video footage of Giza’s pyramids. Baghdad sets the scene for both Sadik Kwaish Alfraji’s “The House My Father Built,” a large-scale visualization of the artist’s first painful visit home following his father’s death, as well as Adel Abidin’s rumination on the lonely consequences of war in his “Memorial.”
Lebanon’s Acapulco beach resort and the streets of Beirut are host to Marwa Arsanios’s and Lamia Joreige’s respective installations that recall false promises symbolized by modernist architecture and the rupture of violence on the cyclical nature of time. The lights of Mona Hatoum’s “Plotting Table” raise the specter of conflict on an international scale.
Organized by the McMullen Museum in conjunction with the Barjeel Art Foundation, the exhibition has been curated by Political Science Professor of the Practice Kathleen Bailey, director of the University’s Islamic Civilization and Societies Program.
“The Middle East is a region that has been touched by internecine conflict, outside intervention, interstate warfare, environmental degradation, and climate change, which have provoked migration and a refugee crisis that has persisted over several generations. It is also a region of perseverance, humanity, and hope,” said Bailey. “The work of the artists included in ‘Landscape of Memory’ encapsulates this history by evoking universal feelings of identity, memory, home, displacement, and loss, while also posing the question of who we are as humans when faced by the devastation caused by conflict. The instal-
lations depict a complex and provocative reality of loss and grief, but also of rebirth and compassion.”
Major support for “Landscape of Memory” has been provided by Boston College and the Patrons of the McMullen Museum. The Shared_Studios Portal has been underwritten by the Islamic Civilization and Societies Program, the University Council on Teaching, and the Institute for the Liberal Arts at Boston College.
In-person and virtual public programming is planned for the general public and museum members. For more information, and to sign up for those events that require advance registration—and for updates on additional events—go to the McMullen Museum website [bc.edu/artmuseum]; a subscription link to the McMullen mailing list also is available at the website. Members of the University community received an email invitation from the museum to register to attend a January 28 Zoom lecture on the exhibition by curator Kathleen Bailey. The lecture will begin at 11 a.m.
Admission is free; the museum, located at 2101 Commonwealth Avenue on BC’s Brighton Campus, is wheelchair accessible. Hours during this exhibition: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday–Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.
More than 250 undergraduates participated this past weekend in Endeavor, Boston College’s annual career exploration program for sophomores and juniors with liberal arts or undecided majors. Returning to an in-person format, this year’s event included a keynote address from Annelise Hagar Preciado ’14, M.A. ’15, program manager of central product management at Lyft (above). Among other activities, students listened to panels of liberal arts alumni from diverse industries, practiced networking (right), and took a “career trek” to Boston-area organizations such as Wayfair (far right).
