Geoffrey Rice

{{Short description|New Zealand historian (born 1946)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=June 2017}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Geoffrey Rice

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|ONZM|size=100%}}

| image = Geoffrey Rice ONZM (cropped).jpg

| alt =

| caption = Rice in 2021

| birth_name = Geoffrey Wayne Rice

| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1946}}

| birth_place = Taumarunui, New Zealand

| spouse = Edwina Palmer

| title = Emeritus Professor

| discipline = History

| sub_discipline = Biography and urban history

| workplaces = University of Canterbury

| alma_mater = University of Canterbury

| education =

| thesis_title = An aspect of European diplomacy in the mid-eighteenth century: the diplomatic career of the fourth Earl of Rochford at Turin, Madrid, and Paris, 1749–1768

| thesis_url = https://ipac.canterbury.ac.nz/ipac20/ipac.jsp?index=BIB&term=357771

| thesis_year = 1973

| doctoral_students =

| known_for = Study of Christchurch history and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

| awards =

}}

Geoffrey Wayne Rice {{post-nominals|country=NZL|ONZM}} (born 1946) is a New Zealand historian. He is an emeritus professor{{cite press release |author= |date=2018 |title=University of Canterbury Professores Emeriti |url=https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/council-documents/Emeritus-professor-list.pdf |location=Christchurch, New Zealand |publisher=University of Canterbury |access-date=17 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181117105011/https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/council-documents/Emeritus-professor-list.pdf |archive-date=17 November 2018 |url-status=dead }} of history at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch. He joined the staff in 1973, and served as head of the School of History from 2006 to 2011, before retiring in 2012.

Rice graduated MA in 1970 and was subsequently the first person to be awarded a history PhD by the University of Canterbury in 1974.{{Cite web |url=http://www.hums.canterbury.ac.nz/hist/people/rice.shtml |title=School of Humanities Staff Profile – Geoffrey Rice – University of Canterbury |access-date=30 January 2013 |archive-date=1 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201230151/http://www.hums.canterbury.ac.nz/hist/people/rice.shtml |url-status=dead }} He served as the foundation secretary of the New Zealand Historical Association from 1978 to 1981, and was secretary of the Canterbury Historical Association from 1982 to 2007. He has been secretary of the Canterbury History Foundation since 2012.{{cite web |url=https://chf.org.nz/about/ |title=CHF – About – 2016–2017 Executive |author= |date= 8 May 2018|website=Canterbury History Foundation |access-date=17 November 2018 |quote=}} Rice has also been a member of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society, London. He was general editor for the 2nd edition of the Oxford History of New Zealand.Rice, G., (1993). The Oxford History of New Zealand. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-558257-4}} Since 1986 he has organised and judged the J. M. Sherrard Award in New Zealand Local and Regional History.{{cite web |url=http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/JM-Sherrard-Award.pdf |title=The J. M. Sherrard Awards in New Zealand Regional and Local History |author= |website=University of Canterbury |publisher=Canterbury Historical Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180205093931/http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/media/documents/JM-Sherrard-Award.pdf |access-date=25 April 2018 |archive-date=5 February 2018 |url-status=dead }}

Rice is best known for his detailed studies of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its effect on New ZealandRice, G. (2005). [http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/black_november.shtml Black November: The 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203030430/http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/black_november.shtml |date=3 February 2013 }}, Canterbury University Press. {{ISBN|1-877257-35-4}}{{Cite news |url= https://www.noted.co.nz/health/1918-flu-centenary-how-to-survive-a-pandemic/ |title=1918 flu centenary: How to survive a pandemic |access-date=19 June 2019 |archive-date=9 July 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190709072615/https://www.noted.co.nz/health/1918-flu-centenary-how-to-survive-a-pandemic/ |url-status=dead}} and Japan.Rice, G. W., Palmer, E. (1993) Pandemic Influenza in Japan, 1918–19: Mortality, Patterns and Official Responses, Journal of Japanese Studies, v. 19, n. 2, pp 389–420 His wife, Edwina Palmer, is a Japanologist and some of their work on Japan is published jointly.{{cite web |title=Asian Futures, Asian Traditions |url=https://www.amazon.com/Futures-Traditions-Edited-University-Canterbury/dp/1901903168 |publisher=Amazon |access-date=2 September 2024 |quote=Her work together with husband Geoffrey Rice on the history of the 1918 influenza pandemic in Japan is appraised as the most thorough in the subject to date.}} Rice is known for his studies of the local history of Christchurch. His book Black November (1988; second edition 2005) was the first country-level study of the 1918 influenza pandemic based on individual death records. This book assisted the New Zealand Ministry of Health in preparing its current Influenza Pandemic Plan,{{cite book |last=Ministry of Health |date=2017 |title=New Zealand Influenza Pandemic Plan: a framework for action |edition=2nd |author-link=Ministry of Health (New Zealand) |location=Wellington |url=https://www.health.govt.nz/publication/new-zealand-influenza-pandemic-plan-framework-action |access-date=25 April 2018 |isbn=978-1-98-850285-4}} and Rice has been invited to give educational presentations on the flu to Ministry of Health staff.{{cite AV media |people=Geoffrey Rice |date=7 May 2018 |title=1918 Influenza Presentation |medium=Videotape |language=English |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qTFoc3UJj4 |access-date=17 November 2018 |location=Wellington, New Zealand |publisher=Ministry of Health (New Zealand)}} Data from his research has been used in several recent epidemiological studies.{{cite journal |last1=Nishiura |first1=H. |last2=Wilson |first2=N. |date=2009 |title=Transmission dynamics of the 1918 influenza pandemic in New Zealand: analyses of national and city data |url=https://www.nzma.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/17793/Vol-122-No-1296-05-June-2009.pdf |journal=NZ Medical Journal |volume=122 |issue=1296 |pages=81–85 |pmid=19652687 |issn=1175-8716 |access-date=25 April 2018 }}{{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=Nick |last2=Oliver |first2=Jane |last3=Rice |first3=Geoff |last4=Summers |first4=Jennifer A. |last5=Baker |first5=Michael G. |last6=Waller |first6=Michael |last7=Shanks |first7=G. Dennis |date=15 September 2014 |title=Age-Specific Mortality During the 1918–19 Influenza Pandemic and Possible Relationship to the 1889–92 Influenza Pandemic |url=https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/210/6/993/2908558 |journal=Journal of Infectious Diseases |volume=210 |issue=6 |pages=993–995 |doi=10.1093/infdis/jiu191 |pmid=24676203 |access-date=25 April 2018 |doi-access=free }} A condensed and updated version of Black November was published in 2017 as Black Flu 1918: the story of New Zealand’s worst public health disaster.{{cite book |last=Rice |first=G. W. |date=2017 |title=Black Flu 1918: the story of New Zealand's worst public health disaster |publisher=Canterbury University Press |url=http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/engage/cup/catalogue/books/black-flu-1918-the-story-of-new-zealands-worst-public-health-disaster.html |access-date=25 April 2018 |isbn=978-1-927145-95-1}}

Rice is also known for his books on Christchurch's history and that of its neighbouring port, Lyttelton. Rice has also written books and articles on the Fourth Earl of Rochford{{cite ODNB |last1=Rice |first1=Geoffrey W. |date=23 September 2004 |title=Nassau van Zuylestein, William Henry van, fourth earl of Rochford (1717–1781), diplomatist and politician |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30312 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30312 |isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 |access-date=27 April 2018 }}{{cite book |last=Rice |first=Geoffrey W.|date=2010 |title=Life of the Fourth Earl of Rochford (1717-1781): Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Dutch Courtier, Diplomat and Statesman |location=Lewiston, New York |url=http://mellenpress.com/book/Life-of-the-Fourth-Earl-of-Rochford-1717-1781-Eighteenth-Century-Anglo-Dutch-Courtier-Diplomat-and-Statesman/8147/ |access-date=25 April 2018 |isbn=978-0-7734-1300-9}}

and Heaton Rhodes, as well as some of the Christchurch heritage lost during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and its aftershocks.Rice, G., (2011). [http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/all_fall_down.shtml All Fall Down] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130203030401/http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/all_fall_down.shtml |date=3 February 2013 }}. Canterbury University Press. {{ISBN|978-1-927145-10-4}} His precinct history of Victoria Square, a public space in Christchurch, was published in 2014.{{cite news |last1=Crean |first1=Mike |title=Victoria Square once a Wild West scene |url= http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/63669037/Victoria-Square-once-a-Wild-West-scene |accessdate=30 November 2014 |work=The Press |date=29 November 2014 |page=C10}}

In November 2019 Rice unveiled the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Memorial Plaque at Pukeahu Park alongside the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern.{{cite press release |author= |title=Pukeahu National War Memorial Park: 1918 Influenza Pandemic Memorial Plaque |url=https://mch.govt.nz/significant-sites/1918-influenza-pandemic-memorial-plaque |publisher=Government of New Zealand |agency=Ministry for Culture and Heritage |date=6 November 2019 |access-date=31 December 2020}}

In the 2021 New Year Honours, Rice was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to historical research and tertiary education.{{cite web |url=https://dpmc.govt.nz/publications/new-year-honours-list-2021 |title=New Year honours list 2021 |date=31 December 2020 |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |access-date=31 December 2020}}