Today I Met Professor Greg Ryan by Cecilia
The guest lecture this week was Professor Greg Ryan, who teaches the history of sports here at Lincoln University. Even though it is not in his current teaching realm, he gave us a lecture on the history of the Māori and New Zealand, as he has been doing for our study abroad program for years. Professor Ryan walked into the classroom with a brightly colored Hawaiian shirt. At that moment I knew he was going to be a very interesting person. When he began his slideshow, the first piece of information we learned about him was his love for his two cats, Zinc and Coco (made me miss my cat Sunny), along with his love for beer and brewing. Professor Ryan has a book all about brewing beer in New Zealand called Continuous Ferment.
Professor Ryan grew up in a sport dominant family where a majority of his family played rugby at high level. Professor Ryan couldn’t participate in sports due to being visually impaired, but this didn’t stop his love for sports. He attended the University of Canterbury for his undergraduate, masters, and doctorate degree. He wrote his masters thesis on rugby and his PhD dissertation on cricket. He told me he has stayed in Canterbury his whole life and never plans on leaving. Even though Professor Ryan didn’t play many sports growing up, the culture and interestingly enough the love fans have for their teams and their country influenced him to spend his life immersed in sports history. Unfortunately, one interesting fact I learned about him was his love for the Eagles (GO BILLS!) due to his very enthusiastic reaction to the Eagles sign we had gifted him.
Professor Greg Ryan and I
Professor Ryan delivered a lecture on the history of the Māori and New Zealand. He focused on the Māori and their relationship with the British after they had arrived in New Zealand in 1769. As someone who is intrigued by learning the history and culture of the place I am visiting, this lecture was interesting to me. Especially about the Treaty of Waitangi which was established to bring peace between the Māori and the British, but key points of the treaty were lost in the translation from Māori to English. The two populations essentially signed different versions of this treaty. I also thought it was interesting how New Zealand is tied to Britain and was known as the Britain of the South. But as Professor Ryan says, New Zealand is culturally superior (I 100% agree). After learning more about Professor Greg Ryan and the history of the Māori and New Zealand, I am even more grateful to be visiting a beautiful country filled with so much culture.
A lecture slide about the New Zealand Moa’s beating the England Lion’s in Rugby
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