Faculty, staff, students, and friends are cordially invited to join us on Wednesday, April 19 at 4 p.m. in Villanova University’s Connelly Cinema for a special event titled, “Bridging Cultures: A Celebration of Arab and Palestinian Music.”

The event will feature Issa Boulos, an international award-winning composer, lyricist and songwriter. Issa Boulos studied piano, ‘ud and voice at an early age and later pursued music composition with Gustavo Leone, Athanasios Zervas, and William Russo at Columbia College Chicago and with Robert Lombardo and Ilya Levinson at Roosevelt University.

This ACS-approved event, co-sponsored by the Center for Arabic and Islamic Studies, the Department of Spanish, and Falvey Library, is free and open to the public.

Please join us on Thursday, April 13 at 4 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Speakers’ Corner for a Scholarship@Villanova talk featuring Alessandra Seggi, PhD, Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology and Criminology. Dr. Seggi will present a talk titled “Youth and Suicide in American Cinema: All the Silence We Don’t Talk About.“

A large project, which culminated in the publication of Youth and Suicide in American Cinema: Context, Causes, and Consequences (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), examined the portrayal of youth and suicide in American films (N=187) from 1900 to 2019, with particular attention to the context, causes and consequences of suicide. It also teased out insidious yet fascinating social dynamics around suicidality involving both the suicidal individual and their friends and family. The analysis concluded that the portrayal of youth and suicide in film is controversial, or at least unbalanced, inconsistent, limited, and at times simplistic. Other times it can be stifling in its brutal honesty, yet rich and thought-provoking. Hence, rather than obliterate or block certain content from reaching audiences, or suggest certain reactions to audiences, young audiences need to think for themselves and question the media.

A proactive approach for audiences to interpret film messages can help youth—a media literacy strategy to embrace as active social players, while watching these films. This is a tool for empowering audiences, and helping them watch and analyze films as engaged citizens, and ultimately “for strengthening young people’s participation in civic and political life” (Hobbs, 2011, p. 421–422). Indeed, only when audiences are able to tease apart the varied, nuanced, transient, complex media messages, are they able to negotiate meaning for themselves, act as engaged social players, and perhaps begin to comprehend suicidality, and “heal the hearts or settle the minds of those left behind in its dreadful wake” (Jamison, 1999, p. 18).

Importantly, silence, by intruding into several interactions, dramatically alters them. Yet, it rarely gets talked about. So, for example, the physical and emotional consequences of suicidality on the suicidal individual are almost never tackled in film. The consequences of suicidality on the bereaved are even more infrequent object of conversation. There are yet other ways for silence to complicate relationships and affect someone’s suicidality. Silence hides complicity, when not voicing our concerns when we have some, or not speaking up in front of injustice, or not seeking help when in a crisis. It also demonstrates how we become complicit in perpetuating injustice, how we might aggravate our condition, or how we might perpetuate a life in suicidal mode, as well as perpetuating the path of least resistance. Only a few films, notably Captain Fantastic, Permanent Record, and Surviving Family, offer a vivid depiction of the desolation that friends and family experience after a suicide. Beyond the Lights shows how being embedded in a web of social relationships can offer the suicidal individual mixed messages—on the one hand, suicidality is not to be talked about; on the other, asking for and receiving help are essential steps in one’s recovery. A few other exceptional films from different eras and with varying styles, such as A Girl Like Her, Something Wild and Full Metal Jacket, showcase how silence exacerbates the consequences of trauma.

This ACS-approved event, co-sponsored by Falvey Library, the Department of Sociology and Criminology and the Department of Communication, is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

References:

Hobbs, R. (2011). The state of media literacy: A response to Potter. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 55(3), 419–430.

Jamison, K. R. (1999). Night falls fast: Understanding suicide. Vintage Books.

By Kallie Stahl

Attention faculty and Villanova seniors: Falvey Scholar Award nominations are now being accepted. The Falvey Scholar Awards are given each spring semester to individual or group projects of seniors who have completed exemplary (and publicly presentable) scholarship or research during their undergraduate careers at Villanova. The awards traditionally have an emphasis on work that has required substantial use of scholarly literature of the sort provided and supported by the library.

Villanova faculty:

• Faculty can nominate students until Sunday, March 26 at 11:59 p.m. by using the link provided on following page: http://library.villanova.edu/about/projects/falveyscholars/
• Once nominated, students will be asked to apply in order to be considered for the award by using a link on the same page. Faculty mentors who plan to nominate should encourage students to apply.
• Please consider nominating a student who exemplifies the awards criteria.

Villanova seniors:

• Villanova seniors, if you’d like to be considered for the Falvey Scholar award urge your faculty mentor to nominate you by forwarding them the nomination link provided on following page: http://library.villanova.edu/about/projects/falveyscholars/
• Students MUST be nominated by a faculty mentor before applying in order to be considered for the award.
• The deadline for faculty nominations is Sunday, March 26 at 11:59 p.m. The deadline for student applications is Sunday, April 2 at 11:59 p.m.

The Falvey Scholar award is an annual program established by Falvey Memorial Library and the Center for Research and Fellowships to recognize outstanding undergraduate research. Winners will be recognized at an awards ceremony on Friday, April 28, at 10 a.m., that will include presentations by the award recipients on the content and findings of the research involved in the writing of the thesis or creation of the project report.

Digital copies of the winning papers are maintained in Falvey’s Digital Library. If you have questions, please contact: libraryevents@villanova.edu

Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.

Please join us on Wednesday, March 29, from 12-1:30 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Speakers’ Corner for a workshop titled, “A Womanist Path to Ending White Christian America” featuring Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart. 

The recent murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, and Patrick Lyoya, and others are only the latest episodes in a brutal history of racial violence in this country — racial violence that is the consequence of a white supremacist system. A troubling part of that reality is that white supremacy is grounded in Christian history, texts, ideas, and institutions. Is Christian faith possible apart from anti-Blackness? In this session, we will explore this question as we contemplate the meaning of the end of “White Christian America.” We will study the liberative possibilities found in womanist theology, a discourse developed by Black women.
 
This session will be facilitated by Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart. Reverend Naomi is an ordained minister, justice advocate, public administrator, and adjunct professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University.
 
This ACS-approved event, co-sponsored by Falvey Library, Center for Peace and Justice Education, and Theology and Religious Studies, is free and open to the public. A light lunch will be served.

Villanova faculty, staff, students and friends are cordially invited to join us on Monday, March 20, from 4-5:30 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Speakers’ Corner for a presentation by Robin Adams, DPhil, titled “Shadow of a Taxman: Who Funded the Irish Revolution (1919-21)?”

Adams will discuss his recently published book Shadow of a Taxman (Oxford, 2022) which “investigates how the unrecognized Irish Republic’s money was solicited, collected, transmitted, and safeguarded, as well as who the financial backers were and what might have influenced their decision to contribute.”

Dr. Robin Adams is a Leverhulme Research Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast. He graduated from Oxford University with a DPhil in economic and social history in 2019. His doctoral research, on the funding of the Irish Revolution, won the Economic History Society’s Thirsk-Feinstein prize for best dissertation in economic or social history and the Economic History Association’s Gerschenkron prize for best dissertation in economic history focusing outside North America. His first monograph, Shadow of a Taxman: Who Funded the Irish Revolution? was published by Oxford University Press in 2022. The same year, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

This event, co-sponsored by the Center for Irish Studies and Falvey Library, is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Dig Deeper to Learn more about the Irish History and Culture:

• The Irish Revolution: A Global History Mannion, Patrick (Editor), McGarry, Fearghal (Editor)
• Women and the Irisih Revolution: Feminism, Activism, Violence  Connolly, Linda, 1971- (Editor)
• Atlas of the Irish Revolution  Crowley, John, 1966- (Editor), Ó Drisceoil, Donal (Editor), Murphy, Michael, 1966 February 3- (Editor), Borgonovo, John (Editor), Hogan, Nick (Editor), Roche, Charles (Cartographer, Researcher), O’Keeffe, Hélène (Researcher)
• Browse the McGarrity Collection, which consists of around 3,000 monographs focusing on Irish history, literature, folklore, description and travel, music, and Irish – American history.
• Explore the Irish Studies Research Guide to find a robust assortment of related resources like books, book chapters, academic journals, newspapers and magazines, primary sources, encyclopedias, handbooks, companions, and biographical information. The guide also has helpful tools for citation management.
• Contact Jutta Seibert, Director of Research Services and Scholarly Engagement,  subject librarian for Irish Studies, for research consultations, instruction, curricular support, and purchase requests related to Irish Studies.

If you are interested in learning about different faiths and identities around the world, then you should come to the upcoming event, “The Interfaith Human Library: Where Books Talk and We All Learn About Life in a Multi-Faith World,” which will take place on Thursday, March 23 from 4-5:30 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Speaker Corner. At this event, attendees will have the opportunity to celebrate diverse backgrounds and religious traditions by meeting with speakers of various religious traditions and have an intriguing dialogue about faith and identity. 

Register here: https://bit.ly/3lBWFL1

If you are looking for an ACS-approved event you should register. This event is co-sponsored by Campus Ministry, the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, and Falvey Library. Curiosity is the only prerequisite for this unique conversation opportunity! 

This event is open to all Villanova students, faculty, and staff. Light refreshments will be served. You can click on the image or link above to pre-register!

Additional Resources:

Campus Ministry embraces all identities and faith backgrounds. Learn more here.

Don’t miss the Falvey Library’s Theology and Religious Studies Subject Guide.

In need of extra research support on a related topic? Be sure to make an appointment with Darren Poley, Associate Director for Research Services and Scholarly Engagement, who specializes in Theology and Religious Studies as well as Humanities and Classical Studies. He can help you get the resources you need!

Faculty, staff, students, and friends are invited to join us for the 2023 Literary Festival! Through this annual series, we’ve had the privilege of welcoming major poets and fiction writers on campus to give readings and meet with students.

The Literary Festival officially kicks off tonight with a reading by the Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Chair for Irish Studies, Mary O’Donoghue, an award-winning poet, fiction writer, editor, and translator. A reception will start at 6 p.m. in the Presidents’ Lounge in Connelly Center prior to the 7 p.m. reading! In addition, we are delighted that the new Ambassador of Ireland Geraldine Byrne Nason will personally congratulate our 2023 Heimbold Chair, Mary O’Donoghue, at 6:45 p.m.

See the full line-up of Literary Festival speakers, below.

Feb. 23: Mary O’Donoghue
The President’s Lounge, Connelly Center

March 16: Tsering Lama
Speakers’ Corner, Falvey Library

March 30: Donika Kelly
Speakers’ Corner, Falvey Library

April 18: Steph Cha,
Speakers’ Corner, Falvey Library

All events take place at 7 p.m. and are ACS-approved!

You can learn more about the 2023 Lit Fest speakers and enjoy recordings of past events here.

Interested in leading a research project and collaborating with a faculty member this summer? CRF encourages all Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors to apply for a VURF! Grantees work 35 hours a week, are paid a $3500 stipend, and receive up to $500 for supplies. On campus room and board may also be provided! The VURF application deadline is March 1, at 11:59 p.m.

Additional details can be found HERE.

You can connect with a CRF team member to chat more about the VURF HERE.

Next, Michele Gandy, GIS Laboratory Manager, Department of Geography and the Environment, will present a virtual workshop titled “Present Real-Time Analytics with ArcGIS Dashboards”  on Wednesday, Feb. 15.  REGISTER HERE.

A dashboard is a view of information and data that allows you to monitor events, make decisions, inform others, and see trends. ArcGIS Dashboards enables users to convey information by presenting location-based analytics using intuitive and interactive data visualizations on a single screen. Join Michele Gandy, GIS Lab Manager in the Department of Geography and the Environment to learn how to create these informative dashboards with your own data.

Finally, Erica Hayes, Digital Scholarship Librarian, will present a virtual workshop from 12–1 p.m. titled “Introduction to Data Visualization” on Thursday, Feb. 16 . REGISTER HERE.

In this introductory workshop to data visualization, participants will gain an understanding of the process for making good visualizations. Data visualization is a vital part of data analysis as we conduct our research, but accurate and readable charts are also important for conveying information to our colleagues, students, or other audiences. In this introductory workshop, participants will review best practices, online resources, and core design concepts for creating basic data visualizations. Participants will learn about various tools for choosing chart types whether you’re trying to visualize a relationship, comparison, hierarchy, or process.