By Grace Mandato Living and arts editor
On Sept. 13, Natalie Zemon Davis visited Susquehanna to speak to students and faculty for the 2016-2017 Common Reading lecture.
Davis read an excerpt titled “Wonderments” from her book “A Passion for History: Conversations with Denis Crouzet,” which was published in this year’s Common Reading anthology, “Perspectives on Passion.”
Davis, an esteemed historian, began her lecture with a brief history lesson. She offered different interpretations of passion from the past. Davis said ancient philosophers perceived passion as endurance, and she spoke of Greek and Roman philosophers including Aristotle, Cicero and Epicurus.
Davis also spoke of her own education and how she started her journey as a historian. Her interest began in high school in the 1940s where she first studied European and American history. She had not been exposed to it before and found that learning about the past enthralled her.
Davis continued to study history at the college level and was interested in primary documents. “In touching [primary documents], we are reminded that a living person or persons had created them years ago,” Davis said. She urged the students in the audience to use real texts for their work and research.
The lecture concluded with Davis talking about some of the work she has done and the passion within it. Davis mentioned specifically the struggle of figuring out how people in the past felt if they were illiterate.
“For what people actually felt in the past depends on what they wrote,” Davis said. She delved deep into research to uncover the feelings, and passion, of these people.
After the lecture, people in the audience were given an opportunity to ask Davis questions.
“The way in which Natalie Zemon Davis spoke on the individual history of men and women allowed the rest of the audience to feel the emotions of a woman married at twelve, understand societal judgments and step into a slice of history we would not have otherwise been able to find ourselves in without her contributions,” said senior Jenna Kapes, an intern for the Common Reading program.
In his introduction of Davis, senior Christopher Dailey discussed her career, which has spanned over 60 years. He said it was not just the quality of her work that brought her to Susquehanna, but also her passion. “We all have some passion that drives us,” Dailey said. He added that people should listen to Davis because her “thoughts and ideas will have as much input on [their] lives as [they] allow them to.”
Catherine Zobal Dent, associate professor of creative writing and the director of the Common Reading program, discussed the process of choosing Davis’ work.
She said the excerpt selected was originally suggested by Katherine Furlong, director of the Blough-Weis Library, and was agreed upon by the Common Reading interns and faculty and staff advisory board to be placed in the anthology.
“Davis’ words speak to a young person’s experience of growing passionate about an academic field, as well as how one sustains a passion over many decades,” Dent said.
Susquehanna will host more events related to the Common Reading theme. There will be a lecture on passion in “Hamlet” by Dr. Mary Floyd-Wilson on Sept. 29 in Stretansky Concert Hall and a performance of “Hamlet” by the National Players on Oct. 5 in Degenstein Theater.
