The 2026 William L. Davis, S.J. Lecture presents:
We Share Our Futures with You: Native Nations and Neighbors, the First 250 Years
Date: April 24, 2026
Time: TBD
Location: TBD
In 1776, American colonists declared their aspirations for a new nation, one built on rights and governed by citizens. Native people had resided in homelands across North America for millennia by that time. As nations, they had governed by consensus and lived in reciprocity. As neighbors, they witnessed American growth and growing pains, American success and loss. They watched a new nation expand, clarify, crystallize. What did Americans see when they looked at Native neighbors? What did they recognize? Did they see their own reflections? Delivered by Dr. Laurie Arnold, this year’s William L. Davis, SJ lecture explores the meaning of shared histories and shared futures, and invites us to recognize our bonds as neighbors in these shared homelands.
Dr. Arnold’s lecture launches the Gonzaga History Department’s recognition of the U.S. Semiquincentennial (America 250), which will continue with additional lectures and discussions in Fall 2026. The Department also is excited to present Dr. Arnold’s lecture as the keynote address for the Pacific Northwest Phi Alpha Theta History Conference, which Gonzaga University hosts April 24-25, 2026.
Dr. Laurie Arnold
Laurie Arnold is an enrolled citizen of the Sinixt Band of the Colville Confederated Tribes. She is the inaugural Director of Native American Studies and Professor of History at Gonzaga University. She has previously held positions at the D'Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies at the Newberry Library in Chicago and she was the founding director of Native American Initiatives at the University of Notre Dame.
Her book, Bartering with the Bones of Their Dead: The Colville Confederated Tribes and Termination, was published by the University of Washington Press. Her current research considers how Native American playwrights employ drama to create narratives of Native lives and histories. Her publications have appeared in The American Historical Review, The Public Historian, the Western Historical Quarterly, Montana: The Magazine of Western History, in blogs including Harvard’s Social Impact Review and History@Work, published by the National Council on Public History, in Indian Country Today News, and TIME Magazine. She also contributed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s “Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection” exhibit.
For more information, contact Dr. Ray Rast, History Department Chair at rast@gonzaga.edu or (509) 313-6697.
History of the William L. Davis, S.J., Lecture Series
In the summer of 1971, Gonzaga University’s History Department received a substantial gift from Edgar and Zita Berners of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The gift provides funds for an annual lecture memorializing the career of Fr. William Lyle Davis, S.J., who died earlier that year. Fr. Davis had taught history at Gonzaga since 1931 and was Zita Berners's brother. Fr. Anthony P. Via, S.J., a close friend and former student of Fr. Davis, became the first to manage the lecture, in part because the Zita and Edgar wanted in that role someone who had a personal connection with Fr. "Pop" Davis.
For the first seven years, a formal dinner with upwards of sixty distinguished guests began the evening, and Gonzaga University Press published the first three lectures. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., a Harvard historian and the winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, inaugurated the series. Several former Gonzaga graduates have also served as Davis Lecturers, including Richard S. Kirkendall, historian and former student of Fr. Davis, Professor Nancy Unger of Santa Clara University, Professor Robert M. Carriker of the University of Louisiana, and Professor Stefan Bradley of Amherst College.
The William L. Davis, S.J. Lecture has for over 50 years featured scholars who have traveled from Europe, Canada, and across the US to present their research. Their research has provided open discussions about a variety of topics that have enriched our campus and exchanged ideas with Gonzaga students, staff, and faculty, and the greater Spokane community. Recent lecture topics include the Vietnam War, US immigration policies, Washington WWI veterans, race, freedom, and the law, Civil Rights activism, children during the Civil War, the Afghanistan War, and our shared national narrative.
The Davis Lecture is often held during the spring semester. Check this page or the Gonzaga University Calendar for upcoming events.
For more information on the Davis Lecture, please contact Dr. Ray Rast, History Department Chair rast@gonzaga.edu or (509) 313-6697.