Events
Conferences & Colloquiums
Bothering to Love: James F. Keenan’s Retrieval and Reinvention of Catholic Ethics
A two-day hybrid conference celebrates the scholarship and the legacy of Fr. James F. Keenan, S.J., Vice Provost for Global Engagement, Canisius Professor, and Director of the Jesuit Institute at Boston College.
Crown of Times
This is a performance that critically examines the wounded history of Black Hair Culture over five decades and the influences of American politics, music, and fashion on shaping that culture while exploring Black women's deep, complex, and emotional relationship with their hair.
Boston College Economics Symposium
The theme of this year's Boston College Economics Symposium is Pathways to Innovation, Sustainable Productivity & Equitable Growth. The symposium will touch upon critical features of the economic expansion - monetary policy, prices, business concentration, income distribution.
Liz Cheney, CWBC Colloquium
Join us as we welcome Liz Cheney, former U.S. representative to Boston College, to Boston College.
Evgeny Ibragimov: Creative Residency at Boston College
A 6-day creative residency with the award-winning Circassian-Russian director, playwright, puppeteer, and stage designer Evgeny Ibragimov, co-sponsored the Department of Eastern, Slavic and German Studies and the Theatre Department, with funding from the ILA.
NAVSA Event 2024 (North America Victorian Studies Association)
The Boston hub will take place at Boston College’s main campus and will allow scholars of all career levels to share ideas over three days of talks and events. We welcome paper and panel proposals that speak to any aspect of the general “Event 2024” CFP.
Joining Science and Theology to End Plastic Pollution, Protect Health, and Advance Social Justice
The conference will bring together a distinguished group of scholars–in ethics, law, public policy, economics, and environmental studies to examine some of the major ethical challenges related to plastic pollution on our planet.
Film Screening: Stolen
A Besom Productions/Wildfire Films co-production 2023. The story of several survivors of mother & baby institutions across Ireland, Followed by Q&A with speakers.
Trinity Long Room Hub Researcher Showcase
Graduate students and early career researchers are invited to meet an Irish delegation from the Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute, which supports researchers at all career stages in over twenty disciplines.
Books and Transgressions
The 50th New England Medieval Consortium Conference and Quinquagenary Celebration is going to take place in Tufts University and Boston College. Join us as the conference returns to Boston College for the first time since 1981.
2024 Diversity Challenge Conference
Conference will explore approaches to dismantling the dominance of Whiteness in psychological science, as well as elevating additional racial and cultural perspectives on psychological constructs and research methodologies.
Global Black French Studies across Time and Space
Global Black French Studies across Time and Space: The Formation and Future of the Field is a 3-day event that is going to be taken place in Boston College from October 3-5.
The Aftermath of October 7, 2023 & the Middle East's Power Dynamics
BC welcomes Andres Muñoz Mosquera, NATO senior legal advisor for NATO’s Allied Command Operations Universidad Catolica de Murcia, Professor of International Relations, to address the aftermath of October 7, 2023 & the Middle East's power dynamics.
Women's Religious Life - Tibetan And Catholic
This interfaith event brings together two women who have each, in different contexts, pursued spiritual vocations despite significant obstacles. Students and faculty will hear their stories and so learn about the contours of women's religious life in two regions and two traditions.
Upcoming Events
Past Conferences & Colloquiums
Bridging the Humanitarian, Peacebuilding, and Development Nexus
A two-day hybrid symposium organized by the Boston College School of Social Work’s Research Program on Children & Adversity (RPCA) and Trinity College Centre for Forced Migration Studies.
Contemporary Iran: Realities and Prospects for the Future
This year-long series of speakers and cultural events offers an interdisciplinary approach for contextualizing and understanding contemporary developments in Iran and potential future trajectories, domestically, regionally, and internationally.
Heirs’ Property and the Racial Wealth Gap Conference
This is a two-day conference held at Boston College facilities at 300 Hammond Pond Parkway in Chestnut Hill, MA. See agenda section for session details. Guests may register for either or both dates.
Telling Stories, Telling Silences: Life-writing, Censorship, and Voice
A 1.5-day workshop with scholars from History, English, Religious Studies, and other disciplines that will focus on the tension between storytelling and silence
The Art of Encounter: Catholic Writers from the Margins Friday
A 1.5-day conference seeks to respond to Francis’ call to “widen the tent” to welcome individuals and groups marginalized within the Catholic community because of gender, sexual identity, and ecclesiastical political identities, through encountering the stories told by poets and writers.
A Week on the Verge of the World: Migration, Art, and Humanities
A week-long series of events consists of campus visits, two conferences, and creative writing workshops for BC students during the week of November 13-17.
French Spiritualism as Resource for Philosophy and Theology
A three-day conference fostering contemplation on modern and contemporary philosophy, theology, and ethical-spiritual practice will take place at Boston College and be simultaneously broadcast live over Zoom.
Empowering Wellness: A Journey Through Mental and Physical Health in Black and Brown Communities
This three-day event will embark on an enlightening journey through multifaceted aspects of mental and physical health in Black and Brown communities.
O Lungo Drom (The Long Road) ~ An Oratorio on the Sinti and Roma People
This event consists a concert, a pre-concert lecture titled "Past Silence: Exploring the Romani Holocaust Today" delivered by Siv B. Lie from the University of Maryland, and an interview featuring composer Ralf Yusuf Gawlick in conversation with Ioanida Costache from Stanford University.
Boston College Economics Symposium: Exploring Insights on Sustainable Growth
A one-day event organized by the Boston College Economics Department, in collaboration with a diverse group of research specialists, business leaders, and finance professionals, dedicated to exploring insights on sustainable growth.
Not Now: Modernism, Nativism, and Fascism in American Art and Culture
Not Now examines the relationship between nativism, fascism, and modernism in American art and the writing of its histories. Grounded in the work of Black artists and writers of the 1930s, it takes seriously the implication that fascism is “native” to America.
Seamus Heaney: Afterlives
A three-day event that will celebrate, interrogate, and develop the legacy of Seamus Heaney as critic, public intellectual, and major moral and aesthetic force of twentieth and early twenty-first century Ireland.
Stories Everywhere: Listening to Latin America with Daniel Alarcón
A two-day event consists of workshop, lecture, and roundtable talk. The event is cosponsored by Lowell Humanities Series, and the second day of the event is open to Public as part of the Lowell Humanities Speaker Series.
The Tibetan Buddhist Monks of Gaden Shartse
Boston College has the rare opportunity to host four Tibetan Buddhist scholar-monks visiting from Gaden Shartse Monastery (South India). The monks will offer prayers and chants focusing on the Buddhist ideal of compassion, and on the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara.
Solmaz Sharif, Scholar in Residence
Solmaz Sharif will be in residency April 25-26, 2024
Black Mental Wellness Symposium
A one-day symposium, grounded in an Afrocentric framework, strives to elevate the Black community within Boston College and Greater Boston by highlighting the significance of Black mental health and sharing Afrocentric perspectives.
ACIS Conference: De-Hibernicizing Irish Studies
This three-day event is a unique double-regional ACIS conference centered around the theme "De-Hibernicizing Irish Studies," which will employ innovative 'unconference' formats and engaging interactive sessions.
Triggered Life: A Requiem of Healing
A two-part series, Triggered Life, is a multi-sensory, multimedia, post-traumatic story followed by talkbacks facilitated by Roxann Mascoll MS, MSW LICSW.
Schiller's Ode - Beethoven's Ode
A discussion with Professor Michael Resler (German Studies) and Professor Jeremiah McGrann (Music) on Schiller’s poem “An die Freude” and it’s use in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
A Celebration of Hispanic and Latinx Cultures and Their Global Diversity
Students from Spanish courses will attend presentations and workshops that celebrate the diversity of Hispanic and Latinx societies and cultures. They will be exposed to various fields such as social justice studies, topics in sociological and ethnographic research & activism, food, arts and crafts.
Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Seminar
This seminar brings together faculty, staff, and students at Boston College to kick start and sustain a campus-wide discussion on the study of ethnicity, race, and migration.
Chat GPT: Implications for Teaching and Learning
A recent headline in the New York Times announced that "Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach."
Jenny Fleiss, Colloquium
Join us as we welcome Jenny Fleiss is an entrepreneur and intrapreneur, to Boston College.
Moral Theology of Pope Francis: Expanding the U.S. Reception of the First Jesuit Pope
The papacy of Pope Francis has ushered in remarkable changes for the Roman Catholic Church. From a new emphasis on collegiality in ecclesial governance to a transformed set of public priorities for the global church, Pope Francis’s unique model of pontifical leadership holds far-reaching implication
Adam Smith and Capitalism Today
How ought we then understand capitalism’s present state and possible future? For guidance, our conference proposes to go back to the past and revisit the social vision of Adam Smith, the thinker who more than any other thinker in our tradition is credited as the founding father of modern capitalism.
Rewilding Planet Earth
The series invites us to take seriously the biodiversity extinction crisis, to think critical about what we mean by nature and the wild, and to participate in the UN decade for ecosystem restoration.
Using the Liberal Arts to Explore and Heal from Moral Distress
The goal of the conference/workshop is to give graduate students in nursing, theology, and education (as well as any other interested students) the opportunity to learn about moral distress and how tools from the liberal arts may facilitate the exploration and mitigation of it.
The Hermeneutics of Hope
This conference will discuss several questions, such as, when routine human life is affected by natural or human-made catastrophes, what would be the alternatives to ordinary life? Is hope really a theological virtue? How efficiently does hope function in a condition of discomfort?
New Directions in Ecclesiology: The Contributions of Richard Gaillardetz
The author of nine books, editor of six others, and author of over a hundred articles, Prof Gaillardetz has been one of the most important voices of his generation in the development of ecclesiology, the interpretation and reception of Vatican II, and questions of authority in the church.
Conference on the Four Day Week
Conference on the Four Day Week will bring together company representatives and researchers to discuss findings from the global trials and collectively explore the four-day workweek.
American Rookie
The Courageous Conversations is delighted to welcome playwright Dipti Bramhandkar to Boston College to present her story, American Rookie.
Democracy and Enlightenment: The Challenge of Rousseau
Democracy and Enlightenment: The Challenge of Rousseau aims to reopen the conversation over the challenges Rousseau’s thought continue to pose today.
2022 BAD Meeting | Boston College
6th Annual BAD meeting: Boston Area Drosophila Meeting Local organizers: Eric Folker and Vicki Losick
SCENE (Strengthening Capacity for Equity in New England Evaluation Collaborative)
This initiative explores how applied research and evaluation can center social and environmental equity and justice. We bring together professional evaluators and researchers, faculty, graduate students, and community organizations to go on a collective learning journey.
Accompaniment of Migrants and Refugees
Realities and Challenges for the Accompaniment of Migrants and Refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean is a seminar series that discusses the findings of a research project sponsored by the Jesuit Network with Migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Faith & Reason in Action: Celebrating 52 Years of PULSE and Its Founder, Prof. Patrick Byrne
"Faith & Reason in Action: Celebrating 52 Years of PULSE and Its Founder, Prof. Patrick Byrne" is a daylong celebration on Saturday, April 30 at Boston College to celebrate PULSE's 52nd anniversary and to honor PULSE founder Prof. Patrick Byrne on the occasion of his retirement.
Montesquieu’s Persian Letters at 300
2021 marks the 300th anniversary of the publication of one of the Enlightenment’s most important works, Montesquieu’s Persian Letters. This two-day conference will allow participants to explore the text and its significance.
Rewilding Planet Earth
The series invites us to take seriously the biodiversity extinction crisis, to think critical about what we mean by nature and the wild, and to participate in the UN decade for ecosystem restoration.
Blacks in Boston Conference
Blacks in Boston Conference, April 9, 2022
Flann O'Brien Six
Boston College is happy to host the VIth International Flann O’Brien Conference. After Vienna, Rome, Prague, Salzburg, and Dublin, this will be the first time Flanneurs will gather outside Europe.
Mia Hamm, Colloquium
Join us as we welcome Mia Hamm, Olympic Soccer Gold Medalist and Women's World Cup Winner.
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
In an original dramatization of C.S. Lewis' classic work, the magic and mystery of Aslan, the White Witch, and four children who wander into an old wardrobe takes the stage!
Claudia Rankine, Scholar in Residence
Claudia Rankine will be in residency, March 2-3, 2022
Guestbook Project: Hosting Earth Conference
The Hosting Earth Conference explores the question of ecological hospitality by asking what it would mean for us to be guests of the earth as well as hosts.
Reimagining the Moral Life
This two-day conference examines the current state and growing edges of the discipline of Christian ethics through the lens of Professor Lisa Sowle Cahill’s contributions to the field.
The Rising Global Cancer Pandemic: Health, Ethics, and Social Justice
Cancer is the first or second cause of death in 134 countries, the leading cause of death in most high-income countries, and the leading cause of death by disease in American children.
Jehu’s Tribute: What Can Biblical Studies Offer Assyriology?
The fundamental problem this gathering intends to address is what, exactly, does the discipline of biblical studies have to offer Assyriology? Speakers will approach it from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, including intellectual history and museology, as well as religious and political history.
Building the Fugitive Academy
In this ongoing moment of global consciousness and uprising about racism, classism, sexism, ableism, and other forms of oppression, collaboratively creating theories and tactics used to dismantle violent institutions and create liberatory worlds is necessary and urgent work.
An Evening with Lulu Wang, Writer and Director of The Farewell
Join BC alumna Lulu Wang ’05 as she discusses her hit film The Farewell (2019) with Professor Tina Klein. Starring Awkwafina as a struggling writer in New York and based on a “true lie” from Wang’s life.
Poet Allison Adair Reads from The Clearing
BC Book Launch: Allison Adair will read from her debut prizewinning poetry collection, The Clearing, which was selected by Henri Cole as the winner of Milkweed's Max Ritvo Poetry Prize.
Conference: Simone Weil
Simone Weil on Spirituality, Beauty, and Aliveness, Keynote address April 21; Conference April 22-24.
A Celebration of the Career of Robert Faulkner
Schedule for Honorable Ambition: A Celebration of the Career of Robert Faulkner With speakers participating in sessions and a roundtable discussion.
In Media Res(t): Social Media Now
The Phi Beta Kappa Society, PBK of Boston Association, and The Institute of Liberal Arts of Boston College invite three panelists for a timely panel and community discussion on social media through a liberal arts lens.
When They DON’T See Us: A Global Summit
Increasing attention has been given to the relationship between violence and racism over the last several years. This conference will focus on the issue of how to conceptualize and address the harm caused to a traumatized group and/or individual.
Gayle King, Colloquium
Join us as we welcome Gayle King, co-host of "CBS This Morning" and Editor-at-Large of O, the Oprah Magazine, to Boston College. King previously hosted "The Gayle King Show," a live, weekday television interview program on OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network.
Problemizing Chinese Food: Public Lectures
Join us as we welcome Dr. Mindi Schneider and Dr. Chunghao Pio Kuo to discuss changes in the Chinese culinary world.
When Everyone Has A Camera
The right to photograph someone in a public space without first asking permission is legal, but is it ethical? What about posting these photos on the internet and social media platforms? The purpose of this panel is to engage these important and timely issues.
Ethical Challenges in Global Public Health
This conference brings together a distinguished group of scholars in ethics, law, public policy, economics, and global public health to examine some of the major ethical challenges facing global public health in the 21st century.
Narrative Peace Pedagogy
The Guestbook Project will host an international symposium on 'Narrative Peace Pedagogy' at Boston College, April 17-18, 2020.
Pulse 50
In 2019-2020, PULSE will be celebrating 50 years of educating students for social justice.
China: Media-Technology Nexus
China is a society of Netizens. This conference explores developments in cinema, television, social media and technology flowing on China's communication infrastructure. Cultural and social challenges abound!
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
In Spring 2020, BC will celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth.
The Spirit of Scholarship
This international conference highlights the historical-critical study of the Hebrew Bible in its ancient Near Eastern context as an enduring concern in theological research at leading Roman Catholic institutions of higher education.
Claudia Rankine, Scholar in Residence
Claudia Rankine will be in residency, April 1-2, 2020.
NiLA
Series of events on neuroscience from a liberal arts perspective.
Formative Education Conference
To stimulate further dialogue and debate on formative education, we are inviting colleagues from across campus to participate in a conference on November 14th and 15th of this year to explore and further develop Boston College’s shared praxis in the area of formative education.
The Early Americas Seminar Series
The Early Americas Seminar fosters interdisciplinary conversations between scholars who work on early North American and Latin American studies from 1492 through the mid-nineteenth century.
Towards Transitional Justice
Realities and Challenges for the Accompaniment of Migrants and Refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean is a seminar series that discusses the findings of a research project sponsored by the Jesuit Network with Migrants in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Celebrating M. Shawn Copeland
This two-day event celebrates the life and work of M. Shawn Copeland, Professor of Theology and African and African Diaspora Studies at Boston College, who plans to retire at the end of this academic year.
Catholic Social Thought in the Era of Pope Francis
This conference is part of a project that aims to make Saint Alberto Hurtado's ideas accessible to English speakers. More than 20 people from 6 different countries will deliver papers about Hurtado's work and Catholic Social Thought.
Amending America's Unwritten Constitution
This conference aims to advance the field by focusing on theoretical, conceptual, and practical questions concerning what it means to “amend” America’s “unwritten constitution”.
Women in STEM
To support undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty in STEM fields at Boston College and beyond, this program aims to establish a new program focused on promoting and enhancing women’s successes.
Metaphor, Making, and Mysticism
This interdisciplinary conference brings together theologians, philosophers, artists, art historians, historians, poets, musicians, literary scholars, and contemplative practitioners to examine the ways in which metaphor and artistic production have been used to express the mystical.
RISE3
Each RISE3 symposium invites one scholar & one senior practitioner to interrogate the impact of the intersection of racial identity, poverty status & place on outcomes in a key area of social policy.
Reshma Saujani, Colloquium
Join us as we welcome Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, a national non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in technology and prepare young women for jobs of the future, to Boston College.