Aay Delivers for Meijer Lecture

October 4, 2006 == MEDIA ADVISORY

Considering that West Michigan has the largest Dutch population enclave in the U.S., with nearly a quarter million people of Dutch ancestry, perhaps it should not have been a surprise that a sizeable crowd showed up for the inaugural lecture of the first Frederik Meijer Chair in Dutch Language and Culture at Calvin.

Yet even the first holder of that chair, Calvin professor of geography and environmental studies Henk Aay, admitted he was shocked, pleasantly so, when he strode to the podium in the Prince Conference Center, on a Tuesday evening in late September, to deliver his talk, titled "Positioning a Heritage," and looked out at an audience of over 400 people.

Yet, while a little taken aback at the size of the crowd, Aay gave those in attendance a memorable address as he wove together a series of seemingly disparate elements into an entertaining and educational 45-minute overview of the Netherlands, Calvin's heritage, its future, the role of the new Meijer Chair and much more.

Aay, a native Dutch speaker, who began at Calvin in 1983, will serve an initial three-year term as the Meijer Chair. And in his first public lecture he set a beautiful tone for what might lie ahead.

Aay's scholarly interests have several focal points: the history and philosophy of geography as well as cultural and historical geography. His talk touched on many of his interests. But he began with an interesting example, close to the heart of the man for whom the Meijer Chair is named.

"Hendrik Meijer, Fred's father," said Aay, "did Dutch ethnicity a big favor when in 1933, just before he opened his first grocery store in Greenville, Michigan, he changed the Anglicized spelling of Meyer with a y back to the Dutch ij."

Aay continued: "As a visual cue that distinctive ligature in the Meijer name has served the Meijer stores well. It also serves as a visible and widespread contemporary ethnic identification throughout the region. The ij ligature is the most distinctive quality of written Dutch and whenever one encounters it on the page or in the landscape, it points to Dutch culture."

The donation from Meijer will go toward two tracks at Calvin. Part of the funds will support and ensure the continuation of Dutch language instruction at Calvin. The other track will underwrite efforts to promote understanding of past and present-day Netherlands.

The Meijer Chair, says Aay, empowers the college to address its heritage in ways that both recognize the past and looks to the future. Aay says those efforts will include speakers, workshops, seminars and other efforts to help the Calvin campus, West Michigan and Calvin’s broader constituency understand the Netherlands of today and of the past.

For the full story see http://www.calvin.edu/news/releases/2006-07/aay-lecture.htm

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Received on Tue Oct 3 15:55:46 2006