Professor Geoffrey Rice
Qualifications
MA, PhD (Canterbury), FRHistS
Contact Details
Postal address
History Department
School of Humanities
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch
New Zealand
Research Interests
Geoff has published on European diplomacy in the eighteenth century and on social history of medicine in New Zealand. His research interests have shifted from eighteenth century to the social history of medicine and New Zealand social history and biography. He has published over forty articles and reviews in academic journals. His first monograph was Black November: the 1918 Influenza Epidemic in New Zealand (Allen and Unwin, 1988). He has also published several articles on aspects of the 1918 influenza in NZ. In collaboration with Dr Edwina Palmer, he published three articles about the 1918 pandemic in Japan: one in Journal of Japanese Studies, v.19 (1992) is currently the most substantial account available in English. He was Canterbury Convener of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography project 1986-99, and contributed sixteen essays across all five volumes. He was guest editor for the April 1988 issue of the New Zealand Journal of History and general editor for the revised and expanded second edition Oxford History of New Zealand (1992).
Recent Publications
All Fall Down: Christchurch's Lost Chimneys (Christchurch: Canterbury University Press, 2011)
124pp, paperback; ISBN 978-1-927145-10-4; NZ$29.95
The Life of the Fourth Earl of Rochford (1717-1781): Eighteenth-century Anglo-Dutch Courtier, Diplomat and Statesman (Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010)
ISBN10: 0-7734-1300-6 ISBN13: 978-0-7734-1300-9 2 vols 766 pages
US list price: $169.95 UK list price: GBP 99.95
Black November by Professor Geoffrey Rice was a finalist in the History section of the 2006 Montana NZ Book Awards. This is an enlarged, updated, and illustrated (200 illustrations) second edition of his 1988 book on the 1918 influenza epidemic in New Zealand.
Ambulances and First Aid: St John in Christchurch, 1885-1987 (1994)
Christchurch Changing: an illustrated history (1999)
Heaton Rhodes of Otahuna (2001)
The Annotated Biography of the Hon. Sir R. Heaton Rhodes (2001)
Christchurch in the Nineties: A Chronology (2002)
Lyttelton: Port and Town: an illustrated history (2004)
Rhodes on Cashmere: a history of the Rhodes Memorial Convalescent Home, Christchurch, 1886-2001 (2005)
Black November: The 1918 Influenza Pandemic in New Zealand, 2nd edition (2005)
Honours and Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London, 1991. Member, Royal Society of NZ. Foundation secretary of the NZ Historical Association 1978-81, and council member; Secretary, Canterbury Historical Association, since 1982. In 1996 taught the first Honours course in Public History to be offered at a New Zealand university, and has been a committee member of the Professional Historians' Association of New Zealand/Aotearoa. Has twice served as Chief Examiner for the Bursaries and Scholarships History examination, and has been organiser and judge of the JM Sherrard Award in NZ local and regional history since 1996. History category adviser, Montana Book Awards, 2003.
Background
Appointed Associate Professor in 1996. Joined the History Programme as a Lecturer in 1973 and graduated in 1974 with the first History PhD awarded by the University of Canterbury.
Born Taumarunui, North Island, in 1946. Started school at St George's Primary, Invercargill, then moved to Waltham School, Christchurch, where he was Dux in 1959. Linwood High School 1960-64 (Head Boy 1964). University of Canterbury BA 1965-67, MA 1968-69. John Connal Scholarship 1966, University Senior scholarship 1968. Sang in the University of Canterbury Madrigal Singers, 1965-70. Wrote his MA thesis under the supervision of J.J. Saunders on the sect of the Assassins in Crusader Syria (graduated First Class Honours 1970). Awarded UGC Postgraduate Scholarship, but decided to change fields to eighteenth century British foreign policy for PhD thesis. Spent 1971 in the UK, first at Queen's University, Belfast, with Professor Michael Roberts, then in London working at the British Museum and Public Record Office under the supervision of Professor Ragnhild Hatton of the LSE. First academic article : 'British Consuls and Diplomats in the mid-eighteenth century : an Italian example,' English Historical Review, 92 (Oct.1977).