In This Section

Past Events: 2013-2014

FALL 2013

September 11, 2013
The Status of Our Civil Rights: A Campus Fishbowl Discussion —  McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderates a discussion with Holy Cross students, faculty and staff to consider the importance of these current civil rights cases in assessing American attitudes on diversity and inclusiveness. Co-sponsored with the Diversity Leadership Team, Office of Multicultural Education, and Human Resources.

September 12, 2013
Cost-benefit Analysis of Oil Drilling in the Niger Delta: An Ethical Approach — Julia Finomo, an environmentalist and a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, addresses the environmental degradation caused by an increase of oil spills and gas flares since the discovery of oil in Nigeria in 1956.

September 17, 2013
What Are Some of the Things Being Said About the Resurrection Today? — Rev. James Corkery, S.J., International Visiting Jesuit Scholar at Holy Cross, leads a discussion on one of his current projects, contemporary approaches to the resurrection.

September 19, 2013
Edward Snowden: Whistleblower? Traitor? A Campus Fishbowl Discussion — McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderates a discussion with Holy Cross students, faculty and staff on the moral status of Edward Snowden.

October 2, 2013
Synthetic Biology and Redesigning Life: Hopes and Challenges — Jim Collins '87,  a founder of the emerging field of synthetic biology, and William F. Warren Distinguished Professor, University Professor, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Boston University, speaks as  part of the yearlong series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

October 9, 2013
The Price of Truth in Honduras: Human Rights Since the Coup — Rev. Ismael Moreno Coto, S.J., popularly known as "Padre Melo," speaks of the human rights abuses occuring in Honduras, and especially within the world of journalism, and within campesino and indigenous communities.

October 21, 2013
Pictures of Meat — International Visiting Kraft-Hiatt Fellow, Dror Burstein, shares his current work highlighting paintings in which the death of the animals depicted may be seen as an outrage - and therefore observing the picture is outrageous, too - as well as paintings in which the possibility of co-existence and even harmony between man and animal is imaginable.

October 22, 2013
The Changing Face of Biomedical Research, Challenges and Opportunities — Neuroscientist Richard Murphy ‘66, retired president and CEO of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and former interim president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, talks about how the process of doing science has changed and the increasing challenges to secure government funding for research and meet political expectations for results. Part of a yearlong series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

October 23, 2013
Our Lady of the Good Death: Afro-Catholicism in the Brazilian National Imagination — Stephen Selka, associate professor in American studies and in religious studies at Indiana University, talks about the Sisterhood of Our Lady of the Good Death (Boa Morte) in Bahia, Brazil, and their week-long Feast of the Assumption. The festival is fascinating blend of Catholicism and Condomblé, an Afro-Brazilian religion. Part of Catholics and Cultures, an initiative to better understand the religious lives and practices of Catholics around the world.

October 24, 2013
Jewish Music and Musicians from 17th-Century Italy to 21st-Century America: The Sounds of Faith, Perseverance and Optimism — Mark Kroll, professor emeritus at Boston University and harpsichordist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, traces, in words and music, the rise, fall, and rebirth of the Jewish performers and composers such as Salomone Rossi, Felix Mendelssohn, Arnold Schoenberg, Leonard Bernstein and others. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

October 29, 2013
Shared Responsibility: Re-imagining the Future of Governance in the Church — Mary McAleese is the popular former president of Ireland, serving two terms from 1997 to 2011, and author of "Quo Vadis? Collegiality in the Code of Canon Law" (Columba Press, 2013). She brings her experience in civil law and governance and her study of canon (church) law to a discussion of how authority might be more effectively shared in the church for the sake of realizing the vision of Vatican II. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity.

October 30, 2013
The Internship Generation: Working their way up, or getting suckered into working for free? — This campus fishbowl discussion will look at the ethics and economics of unpaid internships. McFarland Center Director Thomas M. Landy moderates a discussion with Holy Cross students, faculty and staff.

November 7, 2013
Jesus and Judaism: The Connection Matters — Amy-Jill Levine, University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University, explains how understanding Jesus in his Jewish context brings new meaning to his parables, his politics, and his piety, and it offers as well a new path for Jewish-Christian relations. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

November 13, 2013
The Quest for Health: Hunting for drugs in large pharmas and tiny biotechs — Mark Murcko, one of the founders of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and co-inventor of a number of marketed drugs and clinical candidates, focuses on the practice of science in different corporate settings, from big pharmaceutical companies to startups, and how they affect decisions about the kind of science that can be pursued. Part of a yearlong series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

November 14, 2013
Why it is (almost) impossible to write a novel in Israel these days — Hebrew literature scholar and author Dror Burstein, who is International Visiting Kraft-Hiatt Fellow at Holy Cross this fall, reads and discusses his latest book "Netanya," which weaves reminiscence, fiction and amateur science into a meditation on both a personal and cosmic scale. Part of the Creative Writing Series and co-sponsored with the Worcester JCC.

SPRING 2014

January 30, 2014
The Scientist's Role — Philip Kitcher, John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, discusses how the sciences have come to play a major part in shaping national and global policy and the ethical issues that have surfaced as a result. Part of a series on "The Practice of Science in a World of Competing Values."

February 19, 2014
“Do I Look Illegal?” Race, Immigration, and U.S. Political Culture — Matthew Frye Jacobson, the William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies & History and professor of African American studies at Yale University, speaks as part of the series "Race and National Imaginaries in the Americas," co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Carson Lecture Series.

February 27, 2014
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them — Joshua Greene, the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences and director of the Moral Cognition Lab at Harvard University, discusses themes in his recent book, “Moral Tribes”  (Penguin Press, 2013). Co-sponsored with Montserrat , and the departments of Psychology and Philosophy.

March 11, 2014
Dacia Maraini's "Chiara di Assisi: In Praise of Disobedience" —Celebrated Italian writer Dacia Maraini talks about her latest book on Saint Claire (Santa Chiara). Co-sponsored with Italian and Montserrat (Global Society).

March 12, 2014
Anti-Haitian Exclusionism in the Dominican Republic: A Biopolitical Turn? — Sam Martinez, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Connecticut, speaks on the recent court ruling in the Dominican Republic that denies citizenship to residents of Haitian descent. Part of the series "Race and National Imaginaries in the Americas," co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies and the Carson Lecture Series.

March 13, 2014
"Our Catastrophe is Here at Hand": The Jesuit Suppression — Robert Maryks, visiting scholar at the Jesuit Institute at Boston College and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Jesuit Studies, speaks about the causes and history of the 18th-century expulsion of the Society of Jesus.

March 20, 2014
Food that Divides, Food that Unites: Meals in Jewish and Christian Tradition — Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus, professor and chair of religion and coordinator of Jewish Studies at Wheaton College, talks about religious rituals involving food that are intended to create synaesthetic, or multi-sensory, experiences. Supported by the Kraft-Hiatt Fund for Jewish-Christian Understanding.

March 27, 2014
American Poverty and a Moral Underground — Lisa Dodson, a research professor in sociology at Boston College and author of "The Moral Underground: How Ordinary People Subvert an Unfair Economy" (The New Press, 2011), speaks about the conflicts that many Americans are experiencing in the context of deepening poverty and inequality. 

March 28-29, 2014
Celebrating Philosophy: A Dialogue on the Nature of Morality, Reality, and Knowledge — In this two-day undergraduate conference, distinguished student presenters from a broad range of colleges and universities come together to  discuss Divinity & Morality; the Rationality of Religious Belief; Mind, Perception & Knowledge; Art, Morality & The Social Sphere; Forgiveness and Repentance; Philosophy & The Arts; and finally, Vernunft! Owen Flanagan, the James B. Duke Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Neurobiology at Duke University, offered the keynote address on "Varieties of Moral Possibilities." Co-sponsored by the McFarland Center, the Office of the Dean, and the Department of Philosophy. 

March 31, 2014
Feminism, Theology, and the Bible: The Scholarship of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Why It Matters — Holy Cross faculty and students participated in a lunch discussion of Schüssler Fiorenza’s work. Co-sponsored with Class of 1956 Chair in New Testament Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. 

CANCELED: April 2, 2014
Notes on a Moral Masculinity: Rethinking Relationships between Homophobia, Heterosexism and Sexual Violence — Sociologist CJ Pascoe is assistant professor at the University of Oregon and author of "Dude You’re a Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School" (University of California Press, 2007). Co-sponsored with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Committee on Sexual Assault Facts and Education (SAFER).

April 3-4, 2014
Adam Smith: Moral Philosopher and Economic Theorist — Keynote speakers for this two-day conference are Charles Griswold, Jr., a prominent Smith scholar and professor of philosophy at Boston University, and Ryan Patrick Hanley, associate professor of political science at Marquette University. Part of the Charles Carroll Program, this event is co-sponsored with the Department of Political Science and the McFarland Center. 

April 7, 2014
"the strong critical view": Catholic Practice, Modern Fiction, and the Irish Woman Writer — Paige Reynolds, professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross, examines how Irish women writers represent the practice of prayer. Part of the initiative Catholics & Cultures and one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity. 

April 8, 2014
Prophetic Rhetoric in the Public Square — M. Cathleen Kaveny, Endowed Professor of Law and Theology at Boston College, analyzes both effective and divisive forms of prophetic speech and suggests ways to identify and manage the tension between truth and civility. One of the Deitchman Family Lectures for Religion and Modernity.

April 10, 2014
The Apocalypse of John: Its World of Vision and Our Own?  — Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, the Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, discusses the Book of Revelation’s world of vision and ask whether it proclaims God’s word as a word of liberating justice or as a word of vengeance and destruction. Co-sponsored with the Class of 1956 Chair in New Testament Studies. 

April 10, 2014
Vocation of the Writer — American novelist and essayist Siri Hustvedt is the author of internationally bestselling novels “What I Loved” and “The Summer Without Men” and most recently, “The Blazing World.” Co-sponsored with the Creative Writing Series. 

April 15, 2014
Affirmative Action for Latinos — Jorge J. E. Gracia is Samuel P. Capen Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor in the departments of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at SUNY Buffalo. Part of the series "Race and National Imaginaries in the Americas," co-sponsored with Latin American and Latino Studies, and the Carson Lecture Series.