WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.150 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.150 --> 00:00:01.770 align:middle line:84% Jim told me it was bad to go last. 00:00:01.770 --> 00:00:03.540 align:middle line:84% But he didn't have to follow Ms. Kathy. 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:10.410 align:middle line:84% So-- my name's Liz Magill, and when 00:00:10.410 --> 00:00:13.170 align:middle line:84% I was born in Fargo, North Dakota in 1965, 00:00:13.170 --> 00:00:16.110 align:middle line:84% my parents gave me a different, but beautiful name, 00:00:16.110 --> 00:00:19.050 align:middle line:90% Mary Elizabeth Magill. 00:00:19.050 --> 00:00:22.410 align:middle line:84% I was known as little Mary until I was about seven, 00:00:22.410 --> 00:00:25.290 align:middle line:84% when I started to try to change my name. 00:00:25.290 --> 00:00:30.780 align:middle line:84% I was known as Little Mary because my mother, big Mary, 00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:32.913 align:middle line:90% was Mary Magill. 00:00:32.913 --> 00:00:34.830 align:middle line:84% This is the story she told me about my attempt 00:00:34.830 --> 00:00:38.010 align:middle line:90% to change my name to Liz. 00:00:38.010 --> 00:00:41.190 align:middle line:84% Apparently, in second grade, in Mrs. Grips class, 00:00:41.190 --> 00:00:42.780 align:middle line:84% when I was learning cursive writing, 00:00:42.780 --> 00:00:46.410 align:middle line:84% I just started to write Liz on my papers. 00:00:46.410 --> 00:00:48.810 align:middle line:84% I dropped the M, I dropped the Elizabeth, 00:00:48.810 --> 00:00:53.323 align:middle line:84% and I just went with three letters, L-I-Z. 00:00:53.323 --> 00:00:54.740 align:middle line:84% When my own children were learning 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:58.355 align:middle line:84% to write in cursive, gripping their pencils 00:00:58.355 --> 00:01:00.730 align:middle line:84% with their little hands, I thought about that little Mary 00:01:00.730 --> 00:01:02.230 align:middle line:84% and what was going through her head. 00:01:02.230 --> 00:01:04.790 align:middle line:90% 00:01:04.790 --> 00:01:06.913 align:middle line:90% Why did I pick Liz? 00:01:06.913 --> 00:01:08.330 align:middle line:84% Other than the fact that it's just 00:01:08.330 --> 00:01:12.540 align:middle line:84% three letters, which is a lot shorter than Mary Elizabeth. 00:01:12.540 --> 00:01:16.940 align:middle line:84% What did my mother think when her namesake, Mary, decided 00:01:16.940 --> 00:01:19.890 align:middle line:84% to call herself something different? 00:01:19.890 --> 00:01:23.920 align:middle line:84% I was obviously declaring some kind of independence, 00:01:23.920 --> 00:01:25.330 align:middle line:90% but independence from what? 00:01:25.330 --> 00:01:27.132 align:middle line:90% Separation from what? 00:01:27.132 --> 00:01:28.340 align:middle line:90% I'm going to talk about that. 00:01:28.340 --> 00:01:29.882 align:middle line:84% But first, I want to tell you that it 00:01:29.882 --> 00:01:31.810 align:middle line:90% took about six years to stick. 00:01:31.810 --> 00:01:34.600 align:middle line:84% It wasn't until I was in eighth grade 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:37.960 align:middle line:84% that the adults in my life conceded that my name was Liz. 00:01:37.960 --> 00:01:40.960 align:middle line:90% 00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:44.260 align:middle line:84% One reason was that I was the fourth of six Magill children 00:01:44.260 --> 00:01:46.600 align:middle line:84% to go to Nativity Catholic Elementary School that 00:01:46.600 --> 00:01:48.340 align:middle line:90% was six blocks from our house. 00:01:48.340 --> 00:01:50.830 align:middle line:84% Mrs. Grip, my second grade teacher, 00:01:50.830 --> 00:01:53.410 align:middle line:90% had taught Meg, Frank, and Dan. 00:01:53.410 --> 00:01:59.410 align:middle line:84% And she fully expected to teach little Mary, Rob, and JR. 00:01:59.410 --> 00:02:02.440 align:middle line:84% My family was regulars at the school, of course, 00:02:02.440 --> 00:02:04.480 align:middle line:84% and regulars at the attached Catholic church, 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:08.199 align:middle line:84% where we went-- the eight of us-- went every Sunday. 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:11.500 align:middle line:84% We went to Christmas concerts, Easter vigils, 00:02:11.500 --> 00:02:15.170 align:middle line:90% we carried gifts up at Mass. 00:02:15.170 --> 00:02:16.670 align:middle line:84% In fact, everyone in that community 00:02:16.670 --> 00:02:20.098 align:middle line:84% know me as little Mary since I was born. 00:02:20.098 --> 00:02:21.890 align:middle line:84% They knew me before I was born because they 00:02:21.890 --> 00:02:25.040 align:middle line:84% saw my mother pregnant with her fourth child 00:02:25.040 --> 00:02:29.000 align:middle line:84% and waited with anticipation to hear of my birth. 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:32.270 align:middle line:84% This Catholic community, both the social part of it 00:02:32.270 --> 00:02:36.050 align:middle line:84% and the religious part of it, was the most important thread 00:02:36.050 --> 00:02:38.490 align:middle line:90% of the fabric of my childhood. 00:02:38.490 --> 00:02:41.060 align:middle line:84% So, of course, it took a long time for it to stick. 00:02:41.060 --> 00:02:45.560 align:middle line:84% Mrs. Grip, Mr. Lynch, Mr. C, Father Macaulay, Father Dave, 00:02:45.560 --> 00:02:47.180 align:middle line:90% Sister Mary, Sister Anne-- 00:02:47.180 --> 00:02:48.950 align:middle line:84% they'd known me since I was born. 00:02:48.950 --> 00:02:52.540 align:middle line:84% It was hard for them to switch to Liz. 00:02:52.540 --> 00:02:54.307 align:middle line:84% I think another reason was-- and this 00:02:54.307 --> 00:02:55.890 align:middle line:84% is what they would have thought-- what 00:02:55.890 --> 00:02:58.860 align:middle line:90% a lovely name, Mary. 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:03.660 align:middle line:84% Named for my mother, who was a warm, generous, fun 00:03:03.660 --> 00:03:08.310 align:middle line:84% woman, who would be 94 next month, if she were still alive. 00:03:08.310 --> 00:03:11.870 align:middle line:84% She was a woman who brought light to every room she was in. 00:03:11.870 --> 00:03:15.780 align:middle line:84% And Mary-- and isn't this a blessing-- 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:18.870 align:middle line:84% named after the mother of God, the human mother of God's 00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:21.300 align:middle line:90% only Son, Jesus Christ. 00:03:21.300 --> 00:03:25.830 align:middle line:84% The mother of God, the Virgin Mary, the blessed Virgin Mary, 00:03:25.830 --> 00:03:28.480 align:middle line:90% the greatest saint. 00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:31.720 align:middle line:84% So by changing my name to Liz, I was rebelling or declaring 00:03:31.720 --> 00:03:33.640 align:middle line:84% some independence, but independence from what? 00:03:33.640 --> 00:03:37.180 align:middle line:84% I had literally nothing to rebel against. 00:03:37.180 --> 00:03:42.140 align:middle line:84% I had what can only be called a charmed and magical childhood. 00:03:42.140 --> 00:03:44.590 align:middle line:84% My parents had an extraordinary marriage. 00:03:44.590 --> 00:03:47.050 align:middle line:84% They spent all of their time showing 00:03:47.050 --> 00:03:49.030 align:middle line:84% their love for us and their admiration 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:50.260 align:middle line:90% for us, the six of us. 00:03:50.260 --> 00:03:53.020 align:middle line:84% I have nothing but happy memories of that childhood. 00:03:53.020 --> 00:03:54.760 align:middle line:84% They gave me the greatest gift I think 00:03:54.760 --> 00:03:58.090 align:middle line:84% parents can give, a feeling in me that they loved me, 00:03:58.090 --> 00:04:02.040 align:middle line:84% and they believed in me, and they had confidence in me. 00:04:02.040 --> 00:04:04.890 align:middle line:84% But somehow, second grade little Mary 00:04:04.890 --> 00:04:07.470 align:middle line:84% thought she wanted to be a little different. 00:04:07.470 --> 00:04:09.810 align:middle line:84% Maybe I thought I was supposed to replicate the lives 00:04:09.810 --> 00:04:12.180 align:middle line:90% that my parents had created. 00:04:12.180 --> 00:04:15.090 align:middle line:84% My parents were eminently practical people. 00:04:15.090 --> 00:04:18.660 align:middle line:84% They were Republicans, and they were Catholic. 00:04:18.660 --> 00:04:20.880 align:middle line:84% And they always put a smile to the outside world. 00:04:20.880 --> 00:04:24.800 align:middle line:84% "Put a nice face on it," my mother used to always say. 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:27.970 align:middle line:84% And that's not who I would become. 00:04:27.970 --> 00:04:30.790 align:middle line:84% For one, from the moment I entered college, 00:04:30.790 --> 00:04:34.270 align:middle line:84% the heroes of my college life were professors, 00:04:34.270 --> 00:04:40.050 align:middle line:84% as my dad affectionately called them eggheads. 00:04:40.050 --> 00:04:42.960 align:middle line:84% Three historians-- one a historian of slavery in the new 00:04:42.960 --> 00:04:45.780 align:middle line:84% world, one a historian of women's history, 00:04:45.780 --> 00:04:49.230 align:middle line:84% and the other a historian of the Western United States-- 00:04:49.230 --> 00:04:51.810 align:middle line:84% changed what I wanted to do with my life. 00:04:51.810 --> 00:04:55.020 align:middle line:84% They mined our past, they looked in archives, they 00:04:55.020 --> 00:04:57.540 align:middle line:84% found and determined and understood 00:04:57.540 --> 00:04:59.890 align:middle line:90% hard-to-read records. 00:04:59.890 --> 00:05:02.440 align:middle line:84% They brought to bear knowledge that we didn't have. 00:05:02.440 --> 00:05:05.380 align:middle line:84% And they reshaped our understanding of our past. 00:05:05.380 --> 00:05:07.210 align:middle line:90% I loved every aspect of that. 00:05:07.210 --> 00:05:09.160 align:middle line:84% I still remember the physical thrill 00:05:09.160 --> 00:05:12.460 align:middle line:84% I felt when I sat in the rare book library, 00:05:12.460 --> 00:05:16.780 align:middle line:84% finding and holding novels that were read between 1800 00:05:16.780 --> 00:05:21.070 align:middle line:84% and about 1812, widely read about women who dressed as men 00:05:21.070 --> 00:05:24.170 align:middle line:84% and had enormously fun adventures. 00:05:24.170 --> 00:05:26.460 align:middle line:84% Not only the thrill of that archival work, 00:05:26.460 --> 00:05:29.120 align:middle line:84% but the idea that each generation of historians 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:34.190 align:middle line:84% would reinterpret our past, seemed to me to be liberating. 00:05:34.190 --> 00:05:36.800 align:middle line:84% Endless possibilities of how we understood 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:39.770 align:middle line:84% who we were and, I thought, who we were today, 00:05:39.770 --> 00:05:42.680 align:middle line:84% and who we could be in the future. 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:44.930 align:middle line:84% The second thing that was very different from the Mary 00:05:44.930 --> 00:05:46.930 align:middle line:84% Elizabeth Magill I thought it was supposed to be 00:05:46.930 --> 00:05:48.545 align:middle line:90% is that I, from an early age-- 00:05:48.545 --> 00:05:49.670 align:middle line:90% I don't know exactly when-- 00:05:49.670 --> 00:05:52.087 align:middle line:84% didn't agree with my parents, and particularly my father's 00:05:52.087 --> 00:05:53.630 align:middle line:90% politics. 00:05:53.630 --> 00:05:56.300 align:middle line:84% I went from a completely insufferable teenager, 00:05:56.300 --> 00:05:59.990 align:middle line:84% explaining to my very experienced and wise father, 00:05:59.990 --> 00:06:03.440 align:middle line:84% that he knew nothing about the world, 00:06:03.440 --> 00:06:08.030 align:middle line:84% to a much more nuanced and mature child, who 00:06:08.030 --> 00:06:11.570 align:middle line:84% understood and respected my father and his goodwill. 00:06:11.570 --> 00:06:13.740 align:middle line:84% We actually agreed on the facts about the world. 00:06:13.740 --> 00:06:17.350 align:middle line:84% We just didn't agree about what to do about it. 00:06:17.350 --> 00:06:22.150 align:middle line:84% And then the third thing was that faith, that key fabric, 00:06:22.150 --> 00:06:24.820 align:middle line:84% that key thread in the fabric of my childhood life. 00:06:24.820 --> 00:06:27.430 align:middle line:84% I struggled mightily with canonical teachings 00:06:27.430 --> 00:06:29.830 align:middle line:84% of the church, with the role of women 00:06:29.830 --> 00:06:32.950 align:middle line:84% and gay people in the church, and with the role that, 00:06:32.950 --> 00:06:35.530 align:middle line:84% what seemed to me to be, shame played 00:06:35.530 --> 00:06:38.740 align:middle line:84% in that religion about basic facts of the human condition-- 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:41.680 align:middle line:84% sexuality, foibles, mental health. 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:44.330 align:middle line:90% 00:06:44.330 --> 00:06:47.030 align:middle line:84% So maybe that's why I shed the Mary. 00:06:47.030 --> 00:06:50.960 align:middle line:84% But today, as you might have noticed on the program, 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:53.570 align:middle line:90% I've got the M in there. 00:06:53.570 --> 00:06:54.570 align:middle line:90% M. Elizabeth Magill. 00:06:54.570 --> 00:06:57.280 align:middle line:90% 00:06:57.280 --> 00:06:59.560 align:middle line:84% You could ask my husband, I'm extremely 00:06:59.560 --> 00:07:00.790 align:middle line:90% irritating on the subject. 00:07:00.790 --> 00:07:04.570 align:middle line:84% I've used Mary Elizabeth Magill, I've used M. Elizabeth Magill, 00:07:04.570 --> 00:07:09.220 align:middle line:84% I've used M. Liz Magill, I've used Elizabeth, I've used Liz, 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:13.130 align:middle line:90% on every form you can imagine. 00:07:13.130 --> 00:07:15.190 align:middle line:90% So why am I keeping the M? 00:07:15.190 --> 00:07:20.320 align:middle line:84% It's partly to honor that past, to honor that family that I 00:07:20.320 --> 00:07:22.750 align:middle line:84% was given, that group of people embedded 00:07:22.750 --> 00:07:24.760 align:middle line:84% in a broader community, trying together 00:07:24.760 --> 00:07:27.110 align:middle line:84% to make their way through the world. 00:07:27.110 --> 00:07:31.500 align:middle line:84% It's also to honor the craziness of being from North Dakota. 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:34.640 align:middle line:84% In North Dakota, when it's 45 below, 00:07:34.640 --> 00:07:36.640 align:middle line:84% you have to leave the car running when you go in 00:07:36.640 --> 00:07:40.510 align:middle line:84% to get a gallon of milk, because otherwise your engine block 00:07:40.510 --> 00:07:43.290 align:middle line:90% will freeze. 00:07:43.290 --> 00:07:45.240 align:middle line:84% But the M is not just about my past, 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:46.810 align:middle line:90% it's also about who I am today. 00:07:46.810 --> 00:07:50.900 align:middle line:84% When I'm at my very best, I feel like there's 00:07:50.900 --> 00:07:52.720 align:middle line:90% some of my mother in me-- 00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:55.940 align:middle line:84% a deep interest in others, a desire 00:07:55.940 --> 00:08:01.620 align:middle line:84% to learn about them, a warmth and a joy in everyday living. 00:08:01.620 --> 00:08:04.500 align:middle line:84% When I'm at my best, I'm not talking 00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:07.770 align:middle line:90% like I am today about myself. 00:08:07.770 --> 00:08:11.340 align:middle line:84% I don't believe the universe revolves around me. 00:08:11.340 --> 00:08:14.550 align:middle line:84% And I got that from my childhood. 00:08:14.550 --> 00:08:18.660 align:middle line:84% When I'm at my best and happiest and I feel the most loved, 00:08:18.660 --> 00:08:21.530 align:middle line:90% I'm with my family. 00:08:21.530 --> 00:08:24.460 align:middle line:84% And although I am a very proud egghead, 00:08:24.460 --> 00:08:26.080 align:middle line:84% I have practical common sense that I 00:08:26.080 --> 00:08:28.930 align:middle line:90% know I got from my father. 00:08:28.930 --> 00:08:32.679 align:middle line:90% So it's nice to meet you. 00:08:32.679 --> 00:08:34.929 align:middle line:84% I'm the daughter of Mary and Frank. 00:08:34.929 --> 00:08:38.860 align:middle line:84% I'm the sister of Meg, Frank, Dan, Rob, and John. 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:40.360 align:middle line:90% I'm the husband-- the wife-- 00:08:40.360 --> 00:08:42.820 align:middle line:90% of Leon. 00:08:42.820 --> 00:08:45.280 align:middle line:84% I'm the mother of Alex and Claire. 00:08:45.280 --> 00:08:49.610 align:middle line:84% I'm the aunt of a baker's dozen, 13. 00:08:49.610 --> 00:08:52.760 align:middle line:90% I'm a friend, I hope, to many. 00:08:52.760 --> 00:08:54.590 align:middle line:90% I'm a colleague. 00:08:54.590 --> 00:08:56.700 align:middle line:90% I'm a boss. 00:08:56.700 --> 00:09:01.250 align:middle line:84% I'm an employee of President Ryan. 00:09:01.250 --> 00:09:02.830 align:middle line:90% I'm a provost. 00:09:02.830 --> 00:09:05.100 align:middle line:90% And I'm an egghead. 00:09:05.100 --> 00:09:08.640 align:middle line:84% I'm Mary Elizabeth Magill, but I go by Liz. 00:09:08.640 --> 00:09:11.090 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:09:11.090 --> 00:09:18.059 align:middle line:90%