News

WORCESTER, Mass. – Trent Pomplun, author of Jesuit on the Roof of the World: Ippolito Desideri’s Mission to Tibet, will speak about his book in a lecture titled, “Inter-Religious Dialogue in Tibet,” Thursday, Feb. 18, at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is part of the Presidential Colloquia on Jesuits and the Liberal Arts, sponsored by the president’s office and the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. It is free and open to the public.

Jesuit on the Roof of the World (Oxford University Press, 2009) is the first full-length study of the Jesuit explorer and missionary who traveled in Tibet from 1715-21. In it, Pomplun retraces Ippolito Desideri’s journey across the great Western deserts of Tibet, his entry into the court of the Mongol chieftain Lhazang Khan, and his flight across Eastern Tibet during the wars that shook Tibet during the 18th century. He also relates Desideri’s personal conflict between his own Roman Catholic beliefs and his appreciation of Tibetan religion and culture.

Pomplun is associate professor of theology and director of the Catholic Studies Program at Loyola University Maryland. He is an editor of The Blackwell Companion to Catholicism (Wiley Blackwell, 2007).

To learn more about this program and other Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture events, visit holycross.edu/crec.

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College’s commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Black Student Union (BSU) at the College of the Holy Cross will hold its 12th annual Black and Gold Fashion Show and Dinner on Friday, Feb. 5 at Mechanics Hall in downtown Worcester.  Dinner is scheduled for 6:45 p.m. and the fashion show will begin at 8 p.m.

“Our annual Black & Gold Fashion Show kicks off our Black History Month program with much fervor and excitement,” says Tiffany Reid, BSU co-chair.

Holy Cross men and women from all class years, backgrounds, shapes, and sizes will hit the runway to strut their stuff and model the latest trends.  Clothes are donated from local stores, including Bonardi’s Formal Wear, Mr. Tux, Cache, Delia’s, Marshalls, BCBG, Everything But Water, and Tush Boutique.

“A part of the proceeds will go to the American Heart Association and the Haiti Relief Effort,” explains Reid. “The show will also include a brief presentation from a Holy Cross Haitian student.”

“While the show will represent only a cross-section of the depths of our African Diasporic culture, the confidence conveyed by every model will be demonstrative of the pride inherent to the nature of the black experience,” says Reid. “Friday evening, that pride will also be a testament to the strength, confidence, and beauty of the Haitian people. We will walk in solidarity with them, our brothers and sisters, and we invite the Holy Cross and Worcester communities to join us.”

WORCESTER, Mass. – Vancouver is not likely to profit from hosting the Olympics, despite the large crowds expected to descend upon its hotels, restaurants and shops, according to sports economists Robert Baumann and Victor Matheson.  “If a city is expecting a financial windfall for hosting the Olympics, past experience suggests that the host will be in for a rude awakening,” they say.

Their research, which examined the economic impact of the Salt Lake City Games, shows that the event fails to generate significant profits, despite promises of a payout in the billions of dollars made by the International Olympic Committee and other event boosters.

Baumann and Matheson, both associate professors of economics at the College of the Holy Cross, have expertise in sports economics and the impact of mega-sporting events on host cities. During Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics last fall, their work was referenced widely.

For additional information, see their paper, “Slippery Slope? Assessing the Economic Impact of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.”

Members of the media seeking additional information or assistance scheduling an interview should contact Kristine Maloney (director of national communications and media relations) or Cristal Steuer (manager of communications and media relations) at 508-793-2419.

WORCESTER, Mass. – On Saturday, Feb. 13, the Holy Cross men’s hockey program will host “Pink The Rink” at the Hart Center during its game versus Bentley at 7 p.m. The team will be wearing a special edition pink jersey to show its support for breast cancer awareness. The jerseys will be auctioned off throughout the game with all proceeds going to the Levine Cancer Center in Worcester. Also a limited amount of special edition “Pink The Rink” t-shirts will be available for purchase.

This event is a part of Breast Cancer Awareness Day at Holy Cross as the women’s basketball team will play Bucknell at 3 p.m. at the Hart Center and will be taking donations in support of the Zona Fund, a scholarship fund for the niece and nephew of Ann McInerny, associate head women’s basketball coach at the College, whose sister lost a battle with breast cancer this past summer. The games are also a part of winter homecoming at Holy Cross.

“We are really excited to be a small part of trying to help find a cure for breast cancer,” said Holy Cross head men’s hockey coach Paul Pearl. “With this game we want to energize the community in helping raise money to find a cure.”

There will be 28 game jerseys available to bid on during the silent auction with a minimum bid of $200 for each jersey. The auction will start at 6 p.m. David Joy (Class of 1974) generously donated the jerseys so all of the proceeds from the auction of the jerseys will go to the Levine Cancer Center.

A ceremonial puck drop will feature Holy Cross professors and breast cancer survivors Kathy Kiel (economics) and Helen Freear-Papio (modern languages and literature).

“Like many women, I didn’t really have an idea before my diagnosis of how prevalent breast cancer is, nor did I sufficiently realize that finding a cure depends so much on raising public awareness,” said Professor Freear-Papio. “I’m very proud that the men’s ice hockey team, the coaches and their supporters have taken on the challenge to bring this cause to the community’s attention and I’m honored to have been asked to help them ‘Pink The Rink.’”

“I’m very pleased to be part of the ‘Pink The Rink’ event,” said Professor Kiel. “This type of event keeps the fight against breast cancer in front of the public and reminds all of us that we need to do all we can to eradicate this disease. The fact that people where I work (including students, faculty and staff) are committed to this cause means so much to me, and to my family as it is a reminder of the support that we received and that we hope to give to others.”

The jersey numbers that will be available in the auction are #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #11, #12, #14, #15, #17, #18, #19, #20, #21, #22, #24, #26, #27, #28, #29, #30, #32, #33, #35 and #44.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Mark P. Freeman, professor of psychology and dean of the Class of 2011 at the College of the Holy Cross, has released a new book titled Hindsight: The Promise and Peril of Looking Backward (Oxford University Press, 2010).

In Hindsight Freeman asserts that reviewing the past can serve as a source of insight, understanding and self-knowledge.  He sees hindsight as a process of “narrative reflection” in which the distance separating the past from the present allows individuals to look back and see past experiences in a new light, as episodes in an evolving story.  Freeman contends that “being in the now” and “living in the moment” are important, but it is no less important to pause and look backward to understand experiences that would otherwise escape our attention.

“There’s so much that goes on in our lives that’s difficult to make sense of in the immediate moment,” says Freeman.  “In some cases, we can’t see what’s going on, and in other cases we won’t.  But beyond these instances, there’s the fact that we often don’t understand the meaning and significance of experiences or events until later on, when we can look back and discern their place in our unfolding stories.  In this sense, hindsight is a key aspect of living the examined life.”

The book is already receiving praise.  According to Dan P. McAdams, author of The Redemptive Self: Stories Americans Live By, “Mark Freeman is the rare psychologist with the gift of discerning the philosophical undercurrents and the deep moral significance of everyday behavior and consciousness. In this provocative and personal meditation, Freeman explores the nature of memory, narrative, and time in human lives. His intriguing examples and insights will pull you along as you read; and in hindsight, you will look back on your time with Freeman’s book as a profound intellectual experience.”

Freeman earned his B.A., in psychology, from the State University of New York at Binghamton (now Binghamton University) and his Ph.D., in human development, from the University of Chicago. A member of the Holy Cross faculty since 1986, he served as assistant dean of the College from 1992-96 and associate dean of the College from 1995-2000.  He has also served as the W. Arthur Garrity, Sr. Professor in Human Nature, Ethics and Society.

Freeman’s teaching and research interests include the history and philosophy of psychology, the psychology of the self, narrative psychology, and the psychology of art and creativity.  Recently, he has tried to extend his research in narrative psychology by focusing on the aesthetics and ethical dimensions of narrative, specifically in the context of autobiographies.  His first book, Rewriting the Self: History, Memory, Narrative, received the Alpha Sigma Nu National Book Award in 1994.  His second book, Finding the Muse: A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Conditions of Artistic Creativity, was named an “outstanding book” by Choice magazine in 1995.  Freeman has also written numerous articles and reviews for a variety of scholarly books and journals.   He is a resident of Worcester, Mass.

WORCESTER, Mass. – Sr. Catherine Cowley, R.A., Ph.D., associate director of the Institute for Religion, Ethics and Public Life at Heythrop College, the philosophy and theology college of the University of London, will give a lecture titled “Values in Economic Life” at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 16 in Rehm Library, Smith Hall, at the College of the Holy Cross. The event is free and open to the public.

The lecture is part of the yearlong economic series “After the Fall: Capitalism and a just way forward,” sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, which explores the lessons learned from the credit crisis that began in 2007 and offers diverse perspectives on how to construct a new economy that is sustainable and just.

“The credit crisis of the past two years provides us with an important opportunity to assess the benefits and shortcomings of our economic system, to examine how it embodies our social priorities, and to imagine what kind of system we really want and can have,” said Thomas M. Landy, director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.

Cowley, who worked in banking before becoming a religious sister, studies the social ethics relating to the economy and the financial sector. In her book The Value of Money: Ethics and the World of Finance (T&T Clark, 2006), Cowley explains the danger of risk, and the fact too little attention was being paid to it in the pursuit of profit. Before the banking collapse, Cowley predicted that derivatives, with complex and unquantifiable risks, in combination with volatile markets could destabilize whole economies.

Cowley worked in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors prior to joining the Congregation of the Religious of the Assumption. She studied theology at the Gregorian University, Rome. Following some years in pastoral ministry, she obtained a master’s degree in philosophy and religion and then a doctorate at Heythrop College.  She teaches Christian ethics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and is degree convener for the master’s in Christian ethics. She is secretary to the Association of Teachers of Moral Theology.

Upcoming economic series events:

• Thursday, Feb. 25; 4:30 p.m., Rehm Library
Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture. Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of Cheap, will discuss the U.S. labor market and consumer culture. Shell is professor of journalism and co-director of the Science and Medical Journalism Program at Boston University.

• Thursday, March 11, 7:30 p.m., Rehm Library
Jonathan Gruber — Considered one of the Democratic party’s most influential health-care experts, Gruber is director of the Health Care Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research and professor of Economics at MIT.

The talks in the lecture series are recorded for podcast and available at www.holycross.edu/crec/listen_learn.

To learn more about this series and to sign up for email updates from the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, visit www.holycross.edu/crec.

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College’s commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.