Hanna Holborn Gray, former dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and former president of the University of Chicago, delivered the inaugural Gray Boyce Memorial Lecture to a small audience in Harris Hall Thursday evening.
The new annual lecture series honors the achievements of Gray Boyce, who served as chairman of the Department of History from 1948 to 1966. Boyce was known for his engaged style of teaching in which he encouraged his students to “visualize history,” though he almost never employed visual aids, instead relying on his keen oratorical skills.
After Boyce passed away in 1981, one of his former students, Weinberg alumnus Dave Beach (WCAS ‘61), initially thought of starting a memorial lecture series, though he didn’t move forward with the idea until after a conversation with one of Boyce’s colleagues, Richard Leopold, fifteen years ago.
“This lectureship has been on my mind for over 40 years,” said Beach. “This is a very emotional day for me.”
After four decades of planning, when finally asked by the History department about the first speaker, Beach knew exactly who he planned to invite.
“Was that ever an easy question to answer,” said Beach, who selected President Emerita of the University of Chicago Hanna Holborn Gray. Gray was the first female president of a major research university when she was appointed in 1978.
Before giving her lecture, Gray recalled meeting Boyce while teaching in Boyce's department at Northwestern.
“One year I gave a course,” said Gray, “and toward the end of the quarter he invited me to lunch.”
However, Gray was surprised to find that Boyce had also invited the chairperson of the Department of Home Economics to serve as her “chaperone.”
“Otherwise people will talk,” Boyce told her.
Luckily, the incident did not tarnish Gray’s appreciation for Boyce’s work, and Gray’s lecture, titled “The Renaissance and Modernity,” complemented Boyce’s focus on medieval history.
The lecture detailed the changing views of historians on the Renaissance, describing them as “going from Google Maps to iPhone 5” and concluding that the Renaissance is best viewed as “an influential cultural movement, and not a period of time.”
Gray ended her lecture by taking questions from the audience. When asked to give an explanation for the falling interest in the humanities, Gray’s response was one that the tireless Boyce would undoubtedly agree with.
“The humanities have never been comfortable.”