News & Events

Speakers (all from BC): 

• Angela Ards (English)
• Vlad Perju (Law)
• Hosfmann Ospino (STM)
• Ken Kersch (Political Science)
• Cathy Kaveny (Law and Theology)
• Peter Krause (Political Science)
• Laura Steinberg (Schiller Director, Earth and Environmental Sciences)
• Jonathan Laurence (Clough Director, Political Science)

+ Selected student speakers (TBD)

Since the founding of the United States, the American Constitution has been central to our public life. It has inspired hope, and it has provoked despair. It has remained in place, as few other national constitutions have. Yet it has also repeatedly been changed, and some today think it needs to change again. At a moment when its basic meaning seems more contested than ever, how should we look at the Constitution today? 

This is the question at the center of “What the Constitution Means to Us,” the Clough Center’s first annual celebration of Constitution and Citizenship day. Loosely inspired by Heidi Schreck’s award-winning play, this event will feature an all-star panel of eight cross-disciplinary scholars from our own Boston College faculty. It will also showcase the work of select undergraduate and graduate students from across the College’s schools. Please join us for a rich evening of conversation, debate, and reflection on America’s founding document–and a lively reception–in what we hope will become a new yearly tradition at BC.

Join us in welcoming the DevTech Research Group directed by Prof. Marina Bers to Boston College and explore their early childhood makerspace and technologies, including ScratchJr and KIBO robotics. Light refreshments will be offered.

To increase understanding and awareness of global climate change policy and action, the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society is hosting an event featuring Somini Sengupta, International Climate Change Correspondent for the New York Times. Sengupta will also be moderating a panel of BC faculty experts, including Lacee Satcher (Sociology), Hanqin Tian (Schiller Institute and Earth and Environmental Sciences), Sandra Waddock (Business), and David Wirth (Law).

Please join us on Wednesday, October 19 from 5-6:30pm in Room 107 (main auditorium) of 245 Beacon Street.

More information about Boston College's involvement in the UN Climate Change Conference and related programming can be found here.

Please register to attend.

In partnership with EcoPledge, BC Environmental Studies and WE Tree Boston, the Schiller Institute is hosting the first annual Halfway to Earth Day event!

This is a volunteer opportunity to plant trees in the West End of Boston

Interested in joining EcoPledge to make Boston greener? Please email westji@xinglongmaofang.com for more information.

Join us on the quad to have a conversation with the students attending COP27, the international conference on climate change mitigation. This is an oppertunity to let student delegates know what you want them to share at the conference where nations build international climate agreements.

The Schiller Institute and student leaders from the UGBC's Environment and Sustainability branch present an interdisciplinary, cross-organizational panel, including BC faculty: Lacee Satcher (Sociology), Michael Glass (History), and Laura Hake (Biology), and the Reverend Vernon K. Walker, Program Director of Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW). 

Please Register using this link and feel free to submit any questions you have for the panelists ahead of time!

The Schiller Institute is hosting a series of informal social events to connect faculty with similar research interests. Please register for as many events as you'd like.

Monday, February 20th, 4-6 PM: Community Engaged Research and Pedagogy

• Presentations by Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Higher Education; and María Piñeros-Leaño, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work

This informal lunchtime seminar series is aimed at sharing methodological approaches and building collaborative, data-focused teams for research in the social sciences and humanities. Through presentations from faculty members and graduate students, this series will promote the cross-disciplinary dissemination of research methods, foster collaboration in the exploration of large-scale data sets, and build the skill sets of faculty and graduate students.
The series will meet monthly in the Schiller Convening Space, Rm 501 in 245 Beacon. The Schiller Institute will provide lunch. Each seminar will run from 12:00 to 1:15. Faculty, post-docs, and graduate students are invited.

Tuesday, February 21: Masha Krupenkin (Poli Sci) and Saber Khani (Sociology):

Methods/Data Type; Application:

• Cell mobility data; Measuring the effect of Covid on economic activity
• Web-scraping; Creating a database of faculty interests, and scraping news outlets

Register for the Eagles Sustainability Competition here.

All registered team are invited to a Meet and Greet. Enjoy food and conversation while meeting other participants. If you have an incomplete team or registered as an individual, this is your chance to choose fellow students to round off your group. 

*teams must be finalized by end of event*

BC student delegates who attended the UN Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt will share their experiences of attending this major global policymaking event as representatives of Boston College.

Student Panelists:

• Naomi Alter (Global Public Health)
• Thalia Chaves (International Studies)
• Megan Sharkey (Environmental Studies)
• Jake Supino (Earth and Environmental Sciences)
• Moderated by Professor David Deese (Political Science)

Pizza will be provided.

In collaboration with a team of international scholars, lead author and ECPL scholar, Catalina Rey-Guerra, and Henrik Zachrisson, Professor at the University of Oslo, recently undertook efforts to examine whether within-child changes in center-based care were associated with behavioral changes in 10,105 toddlers and preschoolers across seven studies from five countries. They will join us for February's Seminar hosted by the Institute of Earch Childhood Policy to discuss their study process and present findings from their paper recently published in Child Development.

The Schiller Institute is hosting a series of informal social events to connect faculty with similar research interests. Please register below for as many events as you'd like.

Wednesday, March 1st, 4-6 PM: Science and the Integration of the Scientific Disciplines

If you will be enjoying a spring break staycation in Chestnut Hill, we'd love to see you at the upcoming Schiller Distinguished Lecture.

Dr. Ruby Leung will be presenting: Earth System Modeling for Actionable Science.

Lunch will be provided! Please register: http://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScDp-yev48GyKbSz1TzYdCBPhybmMtX2moQEFpbX-IKOuJN-w/viewform

BC faculty delegates who represented the university in Sharm El Sheikh at the UN Climate Conference (COP27) will discuss the accomplishments and set backs of COP27 and the UN COPs in general.

Faculty Delegate Panelists:

• David Deese (Political Science)
• María Piñeros Leaño (Social Work)
• Lacee Satcher (Sociology)
• Dunwei Wang (Chemistry)

Join us for a discussion on the ways in which law and policy in school discipline creates and exacerbates school inequity for historically marginalized students with an interdisciplinary selection of panelist working at the intersection of research, policy, and practice.  

This informal lunch-time seminar series is aimed at sharing methodological approaches and building collaborative, data-focused teams for research in the social sciences and humanities. Through presentations from faculty members and graduate students, this series will promote the cross-disciplinary dissemination of research methods, foster collaboration in the exploration of large-scale data sets, and build the skill sets of faculty and graduate students.
The series will meet monthly in the Schiller Convening Space, Rm 501 in 245 Beacon. The Schiller Institute will provide lunch. Each seminar will run from 12:00 to 1:15. Faculty, post-docs, and graduate students are invited.

Wednesday, March 29: Kate Willis and Noah Snyder (Earth and Environmental Science):

Methods/Data Type; Application:

• Geographical information systems and geo-based data; Landscape and river mapping over time

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently New York 2140, Aurora, Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312, which was a New York Times bestseller nominated for all seven of the major science fiction awards—a first for any book. He was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995 and returned in their Antarctic media program in 2016. In 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. His work has been translated into 25 languages, and won a dozen awards in five countries, including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. In 2016 he was given the Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction, and asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.” In 2017, he was given the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society. A prolific writer and speaker, his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Nature, and Wired, among many others, and he has lectured at more than one hundred institutions over the last 25 years. His novel, The Ministry for the Future, was selected as one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2020. His most recent book, The High Sierra: A Love Story (May 2022) is a non-fiction exploration of Robinson’s years spent hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains, one of the most compelling places on Earth.

Kim Stanley Robinson is an American science fiction writer. He is the author of more than twenty books, including the international bestselling Mars trilogy, and more recently New York 2140, Aurora, Shaman, Green Earth, and 2312, which was a New York Times bestseller nominated for all seven of the major science fiction awards—a first for any book. He was sent to the Antarctic by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers’ Program in 1995 and returned in their Antarctic media program in 2016. In 2008 he was named a “Hero of the Environment” by Time magazine, and he works with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute, the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, and UC San Diego’s Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination. His work has been translated into 25 languages, and won a dozen awards in five countries, including the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy awards. In 2016 he was given the Heinlein Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction, and asteroid 72432 was named “Kimrobinson.” In 2017, he was given the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Imagination in Service to Society. A prolific writer and speaker, his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Nature, and Wired, among many others, and he has lectured at more than one hundred institutions over the last 25 years. His novel, The Ministry for the Future, was selected as one of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2020. His most recent book, The High Sierra: A Love Story (May 2022) is a non-fiction exploration of Robinson’s years spent hiking and camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains, one of the most compelling places on Earth.

Cosponsored by the Boston College Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies Program, the Lynch School's Center for Psychological Humanities and Ethics, the English Department, and the Institute for the Liberal Arts.

The Schiller Institute and Entrepreneurs for Social Impact present the Social Impact Entrepreneurship Series. In our first event, we welcome Mona Potter, MD from InStride Health. 

Dr. Potter will talk about her experience as an entrepreneur, followed by audience Q&A, and time for networking.

With nearly two decades of clinical and administrative training and experience in the MGH/McLean/Harvard Medical School system, Dr. Potter, a board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, co-founded InStride Health, an innovative virtual outpatient program that serves the needs of children, teens, and young adults (and their families) diagnosed with anxiety and OCD. 

Prior to InStride Health, Dr. Potter served as the Medical Director of McLean Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Outpatient Services. With an interest in incorporating cutting-edge technologies into treatment, through her role on the leadership team of the McLean Institute for Technology in Psychiatry (ITP), she also helped spearhead the McLean Hospital’s [pre-COVID] telehealth pilot program and use of virtual reality for anxiety and OCD exposure therapy.

In her current position as Chief Medical Officer at InStride Health she strives to bring together the best of academics, technology, and operational efficiencies to offer insurance-based access to care that works

Lecture Title:  Bacterial Genomic Profiling Reveals Novel Routes to Immune Evasion and Targeted Therapeutic Strategies

The Schiller Institute is hosting a series of informal social events to connect faculty with similar research interests. Please register below for as many events as you'd like.

Tuesday, April 4th, 4-6 PM: Climate Change: Adaptation, Impact, and Science

Student Delegates:

• Sara Bernard-Hoverstad (Theology)
• Hilary Nwaina (Theology)
• Ben Skillin (Law)

Please JOIN US for the LEAPS (Leveraging Environmental, Art & Policy Stakeholders) Virtual Conference at Boston College supported by a Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society (SIGECS) FY22-23 grant. 

Learn more and register to attend (drop-in single session attendees or for multisessions are most welcome) or to even present at the virtual LEAPS (Leveraging Environmental, Art & Policy Stakeholders) Conference at BC!  

Registration, attendee information, and instructions for potential presenter submissions found here:   
http://lnkd.in/dEDYW6XM

Virtual Event: 
Thursday, April 13, 2023, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST (can attend parts/sections/sessions or all of the LEAPS symposia).  

Registration is free and now open! 

Join Entrepreneurs for Social Impact, The Schiller Institute, and EcoPledge for a Green Week panel discussion. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in a career in sustainability-related fields. 

Panelists:

• Dr. Bong June Zhang, Director of Product Development and Innovation at Henkel.

• Guy Stuart, Director of Executive Education and Advisory Services at Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.

• Holly Andreozzi, Senior Vice President for Global Leasing’s Energy Services team at Bank of America. 

• David Wenger, Senior Vice President at Bank of America (and a BC alum CSOM ‘89).

Register here.

Join Entrepreneurs for Social Impact, The Schiller Institute, and EcoPledge for a Green Week panel featuring Holly Andreozzi and David Wenger from Bank of America and Bong Zhang from Henkel. This is a great opportunity for anyone interested in a career in sustainability-related fields.

The Schiller Institute and Entrepreneurs for Social Impact present the Social Impact Entrepreneurship Series. We welcome Patricio O’Donnell, Vice President and Head of Translational Medicine at Sage Therapeutics. He will talk about his experience as an entrepreneur, followed by audience Q&A, and time for networking.

Dr. O’Donnell combines an outstanding academic career in Neuroscience with experience in drug discovery and development for neuropsychiatric indications. He grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina and earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Buenos Aires. 

At Sage Therapeutics, Dr. O’Donnell leads a group that is responsible for early clinical trials based on novel biomarkers to inform decisions on the development of new drugs.

Please register here.

This informal lunch-time seminar series is aimed at sharing methodological approaches and building collaborative, data-focused teams for research in the social sciences and humanities. Through presentations from faculty members and graduate students, this series will promote the cross-disciplinary dissemination of research methods, foster collaboration in the exploration of large-scale data sets, and build the skill sets of faculty and graduate students.
The series will meet monthly in the Schiller Convening Space, Rm 501 in 245 Beacon. The Schiller Institute will provide lunch. Each seminar will run from 12:00 to 1:15. Faculty, post-docs, and graduate students are invited.

Thursday, April 27: Theresa Betancourt, Sarah Jensen, and Matias Placencio-Castro (School of Social Work):

Methods/Data Type; Application:

• Longitudinal data, cluster randomized trial; Early childhood development
• Presentation title: "Unpacking broader impact of interventions: Examining spillover effects of a parenting intervention in Rwanda"

Join us to learn about the application process to become a student member of BC's delegation to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28). COP28 will be held from Nov. 30 - Dec. 12, 2023 in Expo City, Dubai, UAE. At this session, you will hear from a Schiller Institute staff member who manages the process and from a few of the BC student delegates that attended COP27. We will offer light refreshments.

Attending the info session is not mandatory to apply. A campus-wide Call for Applications will be sent to all non-graduating students and faculty in late April.

Student Delegates:

• Leon Liu (Environmental Studies)
• Shaun McGuire (Business)
• Haley Rowlands (Law)

The Film Studies Program and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society present The U-Boat and the Rocket: The Fate of Two German Brothers in Postwar America.

Co-Producers:

• John J. Michalczyk
• Susan A. Michalczyk
• William Callahan, Esq

Politics, science and ethics collide as the Steinhoff brothers arrive in America in 1945. Friedrich, a U-boat commander, surrenders his submarine in Portsmouth, NH, is brutally interrogated by Navy officials in Boston’s Charles Street Jail and allegedly commits suicide. His brother Ernst, recruited by Wernher von Braun to eventually supervise control and instrumentation of the V-2 rocket at Peenemunde, is welcomed through Operation Paperclip and is inaugurated into the International Space Hall of Fame. Two destinies in postwar America could not be more different.

A conversation with Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J., Under Secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Holy See’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

Cardinal Czerny will discuss with Professor Heyer and Fr. Olayo-Mendez his work with Pope Francis on issues surrounding refugees and migration around the world, particularly in the age of COVID-19. What challenges are refugees and migrants currently facing? How can we help to support and accompany migrants and refugees in their areas and to advocate for helpful public and international policy on these issues so that “no one is forgotten?”

»REGISTER

Panelists include:

Kristin E. Heyer, Ph.D.,
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies
Boston College Theology Department

Fr. Alejandro Olayo-Mendez, S.J.,
Assistant Professor,
Boston College School of Social Work.

Date and Time: Tuesday, November 17, 12-1pm 

Boston College Entities Co-sponsoring the Event: The Church in the 21 st Century Center, The Roche Center for Catholic Education, The Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies, Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, BC Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good, Office of Global Engagement, School of Social Work; International Studies Department, PULSE Program for Service Learning.

Join Dr. David Pellow and Rev. Mariama White-Hammond for a moderated discussion about environmental racism. Dr. Pellow is the Dehlsen and Department Chair of Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He will present an overview of the challenge of environmental racism and an exploration of some of the most important dimensions of the struggle for environmental justice in the U.S. and globally. Drawing upon years of research, as well as personal involvement and participation in the movement for environmental justice, Pellow will offer analysis and critique, and describe measures for promoting collective action for transformative change. Rev. White-Hammond is the founding pastor of New Roots AME Church in Dorchester, and is a prominent advocate for ecological & social justice, youth engagement, and Spirit-filled organizing. Drawing upon decades of engagement with Boston communities and viewing issues with an intersectional lens, she will offer remarks about ecological justice, local struggles and opportunities for justice in Boston.

Register for the Event

Join Dr. Richard M. Mizelle, Jr., Dr. Kimberly L. Jones, and Mr. Adin Henderson for a moderated discussion about environmental racism. The event will be co-moderated by Laura J. Steinberg, Seidner Family Executive Director, Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, and Conevery Bolton Valencius, Professor, Department of History.

Register for the event

The Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society

Panelist Bios

Dr. Mizelle is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Houston, and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History. Living, working, and even playing in stressful environments takes a significant toll on the bodies of minorities in this country. Dr. Mizelle's talk will focus on stressful landscapes that must be constantly navigated and the experience of disease and illness that vulnerable groups face from toxic exposure. 

Dr. Jones is Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education (College of Engineering and Architecture) and Professor and Chair (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) at Howard University. She will be speaking about Flint, Michigan water contamination, toxic landfills, and environmental justice regulations.

Mr. Henderson is a senior in the Environmental Studies program at Boston College. He is the Co-President of the Black Student Forum as well as the AHANA+ Outreach Coordinator for the Student Admission Program. Throughout his time at Boston College, he has combined his advocacy for racial justice with his academic pursuit of environmental issues towards fighting for environmental justice.”