New Publications and Performances of BU Faculty Research and Creativity

Dr. Gerry Coulter (Sociology) and Dr. Calin Valsan (Williams School of Business) have recently published monographs in their respective fields of expertise.

Gerry Coulter’s From Achilles to Zarathustra: Jean Baudrillard on Theorists, Artists, Intellectuals and Others (Intertheory Press, 2016) provides an assessment of Baudrillard’s major and minor influences, of the numerous people who stimulated his thinking about a variety of his key concepts, as well as those that were kindred spirits or inspirational artists. This work illuminates some of the most significant, and often surprising, influences on Baudrillard’s thought.

Calin Valsan’s The Nature of the Corporation: A Tale of Economic Complexity presents a bold vision of the modern corporation, one that some might find unsettling, for it calls into question the real implications of human agency, and the very notion of economic efficiency. It is a tale of self-organizing complexity, morality, efficiency, property rights, knowledge, and freedom. One of the most intriguing questions that never gets properly answered by modern economics is this: if blink market forces are able to overcome human fallibility, why do we need to prescribe so many efficiency-maximizing norms? Dr. Calin Valsan debunks the myths that underlie the modern corporation.

Finally, several important performances of Dr. Andrew MacDonald’s compositions recently took place:

Les Chats de Baudelaire, op. 89, four poems by Charles Baudelaire; world premiere by Jeremy Huw Williams, baritone and Paula Fan, piano, Dixon Recital Hall, Tulane University, New Orleans – October 10, 2016.

The Jam At Jerry’s Rock, op.27a, world premiere of new version for baritone, piano and tape performed by Jeremy Huw Williams, baritone and Paula Fan, piano, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida – October 20, 2016.

The Orchid Garden: Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra, op. 85, version for saxophone and piano, Jeremy Brown, tenor saxophone, University of Calgary – October 29, 2016.