Geoffrey Rice

rdf:langString Geoffrey Rice

rdf:langString Geoffrey Rice

rdf:langString Geoffrey Rice

rdf:langString Taumarunui, New Zealand

rdf:langString Biography and urban history

rdf:langString 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

rdf:langString Geoffrey Wayne Rice

rdf:langString Rice in 2021

rdf:langString Study of Christchurch history and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

rdf:langString Emeritus Professor

rdf:langString Geoffrey Wayne Rice ONZM (born 1946) is a New Zealand historian. He is an emeritus professor 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. 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. 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. Since 1986 he has organised and judged the J. M. Sherrard Award in New Zealand Local and Regional History. Rice is best known for his detailed studies of the 1918 influenza pandemic and its effect on New Zealand and Japan, as well as 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, and Rice has been invited to give educational presentations on the flu to Ministry of Health staff. Data from his research has been used in several recent epidemiological studies. 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. 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 and Heaton Rhodes, as well as some of the Christchurch heritage lost during the 2011 Christchurch earthquake and its aftershocks. His precinct history of Victoria Square, a public space in Christchurch, was published in 2014. In November 2019 Rice unveiled the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Memorial Plaque at Pukeahu Park alongside the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. 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.