Boston Public Library
Other Programs and Events
Associates of the Boston Public Library

Special Political Series

Meghan O'Sullivan

Monday, June 15, 2009, 7:00 PM
Reception 6:30 PM
Abbey Room, Boston Public Library

Lecturer in Public Policy, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Adjunct Lecturer, Harvard Kennedy School

Experience

Meghan L. O'Sullivan, PhD. is a Lecturer in Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center. Prior to joining the Belfer Center, O'Sullivan was an IOP Fellow in the fall of 2007. O'Sullivan was Special Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan, a position she maintained from October 2005 to September 2007. O'Sullivan was stationed in Baghdad, Iraq for the summer of 2007 at the request of the President, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and the Commanding General.

Prior to this appointment, O'Sullivan was with the National Security Council staff as Senior Director for Iraq and Afghanistan since July 2004. Before joining the NSC, O'Sullivan was political advisor to the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Deputy Director for Governance in Baghdad, Iraq from April 2003 to June 2004. There, she worked on national political issues, such as the creation of the Transitional Administrative Law and the formation of the Iraqi Interim Government.

From November 2001 to March 2003, O'Sullivan worked at the Office of Policy Planning at the Department of State, where she was the chief advisor to the presidential envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process and helped advance efforts to promote reform in the Muslim world.

From 1998-2001, O'Sullivan was a Fellow at the Brookings Institution. During that time, she was also an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and published several books and articles on American foreign policy, including Shrewd Sanctions: Statecraft and State Sponsors of Terrorism (Brookings, 2003).

February 11, 2009
(rescheduled from January 28, 2009)

A conversation about the current economy with Thomas Patterson and Richard Parker. Richard Parker is Lecturer in Public Policy and Senior Fellow of the Shorenstein Center. An economist by training, he is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Oxford University. He has worked as an economist for the UNDP, as cofounder of Mother Jones Magazine, and as head of his own consulting firm, serving congressional clients, including Senators Kennedy, Glenn, Cranston, and McGovern, among others. Parker has held Marshall, Rockefeller, Danforth, Goldsmith, and Bank of America Fellowships. His books include: The Myth of the Middle Class, a study of U.S. income distribution; Mixed Signals: The Future of Global Television News; and the intellectual biography, John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics. His articles have appeared in numerous academic anthologies and journals and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New Republic, Nation, Harper's, Le Monde, Atlantic Monthly, and International Economy, among others.

Richard is a great storyteller, especially about Galbraith and his deep belief in Keynesian economics (big deficit spending especially when times are tough) and an extremely accessible scholar and speaker. The audience will be greatly entertained and enlightened.

Boston Public Library
McKim Building
Abbey Room, Second Floor
6:30 PM Reception
7:00 – 8:00 PM Conversation

November 18, 2008

The Associates will present the first of three political conversations on Tuesday, November 18, 2008. Speaking with moderator Tom Patterson will be Roger B. Porter, an American professor currently serving as the IBM Professor of Business and Government at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He received a B.A. in 1970 from Brigham Young University and subsequently earned a B.Phil. from Oxford University while a Rhodes Scholar. He went on to receive a M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Porter served as director of White House Office of Policy Development during the Reagan Administration and Executive Secretary of the President's Economic Policy Board during the Ford Administration.

Thomas E. Patterson is Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press. His most recent book, The Vanishing Voter, looks at the causes and consequences of declining electoral participation. His book on the media’s political role, Out of Order, received the American Political Science Associations Graber Award as the best book of the decade in political communication.

The Annual Meeting
and 100-Year Retroactive Book Award
November 5, 2008

This year, this highly popular event focused on children’s books.  Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery was presented by Patricia MacLachlan, best-selling author of books for young readers, including Sarah Plain and Tall; Gregory Maguire, author of novels for adults and children, including Wicked, championed The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame; and Dorothy Dale: A Girl of To-Day was defended by Katherine Hall Page, writer of over a dozen award-winning mysteries.

Anita Silvey, author, editor, speaker and champion of children’s and young adult book publishing moderated.

This event was extremely lively and we are pleased to announce that Wind in the Willows was voted the retro-active Book Award winner for 1908. All presentations were amusing, clever, well-crafted and scholarly - and the runners-up actually tied – but Kenneth Grahame’s classic took the prize.

Anita Silvey	Patricia MacLachlan	Gregory Maguire	Katherine Hall Page

 

Acquisitions Committee

The Associates' Acquisitions Committee is charged with soliciting donations to the BPL of manuscripts, documents, collections and objects of historic, artistic and literary significance. This year, thanks to the Committee's ongoing efforts, renowned nature writer Sue Hubbell agreed to give her personal papers to the Library. Included in these are the research notes used by Ms. Hubbell to write five award winning books--Waiting for Aphrodite: a Journey into the Time Before Bones,  A Book of Bees, A Country Year, Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs, Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes, and  At the Edge of the Sea -- as well as rough drafts, galley proofs, readers' copies and correspondence relating to her publications. Born and raised in Kalamazoo , Michigan , Ms. Hubbell lived for many years in the Ozarks of Southern Missouri, where she worked successively as a bookstore manager, university librarian, and a commercial beekeeper. She now lives and works in Maine.  

"The Boston Public Library is honored that a writer as distinguished as Sue Hubbell has chosen us to be the repository of her life's work," said Library President Bernard Margolis. "Her papers will unquestionably be an inspiration to others who hope to write about the physical world around them, and a wonderful key to better understanding the sensibilities of a gifted and original writer."  Last year, the Acquisitions Committee brokered the donation of an irreplaceable private collection of negatives belonging to mid-20th century Boston photographer Leon Abdalian to the Library. Abdalian's personal trove of thousands of glass and photographic negatives and prints meticulously documents the evolution of the City of Boston  from the mid-1920s through the 1950s. The collection was donated by Abdalian grandsons Gary Wayne and Alan Clough.

Specializing in architectural work, Abdalian was best known for his detailed views of historic buildings and public parks. Other photographs chronicle family and public events in Boston 's Armenian community, which he joined as a child refugee in the early 1900s. Library President Bernard Margolis stated that he believed the collection, in "impeccable condition," would be "of significant interest to many of the Library's users, especially students of architectural and social history."

Individuals and institutions interested in making contributions of collections, papers, objects, art, etc., should contact Betsy Hall in the Associates office, 617.536.3886 or Associates@bpl.org.

Associates of the Boston Public Library
700 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
Phone: 617-536-3886
Fax: 617-536-3813
e-mail: associates@bpl.org