Mary Elizabeth (Betsy) Perry (1937–2025)

Mary Elizabeth (Betsy) Perry, historian of Spain with a focus on women and gender, and adjunct professor emerita at Occidental College, died on June 30, 2025.

Photo courtesy Katie Perry

Betsy Colburn was born in Turlock, California, and grew up in Washington in a family of educators. A gifted student, she attended Washington State University, where her maternal grandfather, Harry Lickey, was a professor of chemical engineering. Betsy majored in general studies and graduated as valedictorian in 1959. In 1960, she returned to California to attend Stanford University, where she completed a master’s degree in history and met her future husband, law student Ralph Perry.

After their marriage in 1961, Betsy spent a decade at home raising their two children, Katie and Dan. Then Betsy returned to graduate school, attending the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), to earn a doctorate in history. Her primary area of research was early modern Spain, and she took particular interest in uncovering and interpreting the histories of women, the poor, and other marginalized peoples. In 1975–76, she received a Fulbright scholarship to do research in Seville, Spain, for her doctoral thesis.

This project became her first book, Crime and Society in Early Modern Seville (Univ. Press of New England, 1980), later published in Spanish in a beautiful full-color edition. Her other monographs are Gender and Disorder in Early Modern Seville (Princeton Univ. Press, 1990), which was also translated into Spanish, and The Handless Maiden: Moriscos and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Spain (Princeton Univ. Press, 2005). In addition, she edited two essay collections with Anne J. Cruz, Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World (Univ. of California Press, 1991) and Culture and Control in Counter-Reformation Spain (Univ. of Minnesota Press, 1992). With Nupur Chaudhuri and Sherry J. Katz, Betsy also co-edited Contesting Archives: Finding Women in the Sources (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2010), a wide-ranging volume that looked at women in the archive from the 16th century to the present. The collection’s contributors, including Betsy, uncovered and analyzed women whose voices and texts were often “obscured or lost altogether” by reading official records “against the grain” and “weaving together many layers of information to reveal complexities.” One scholar recently reflected on the “inspiration” Betsy provided in developing methods of writing about “non-elite women who are so often absent from the written records.” Another colleague commented on the lasting impact of Betsy’s scholarship: “Her own distinguished work, among the first to study Morisca women, continues to set standards for us all.” In her final book project, she edited a posthumous collection of essays by Robert I. Burns (one of her UCLA advisors) titled Warrior Neighbours: Crusader Valencia in Its International Context (Brepols, 2013). For her scholarship, Betsy won three prizes from the Western Association of Women Historians (WAWH): the Frances Richardson Keller-Sierra Prize in 1982 and 1991 for her first two monographs, and the Barbara “Penny” Kanner Award in 2011 for Contesting Archives.

Betsy taught history at several institutions in the Los Angeles area, including UCLA, the University of Southern California, and Occidental College. For decades, she was a research associate with the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and an active member of WAWH, which she served as president in 1989–91. In 1992–96, Betsy served on the AHA Council and Professional Division.

In addition to her pathbreaking scholarship, Betsy will be remembered as a gifted teacher, mentor, and colleague. She was unfailingly kind and supportive to all, but in particular to graduate students and early career scholars, generously offering her time and feedback on their work and helping to integrate them into professional organizations and other communities of scholars. Because of her passion for and skill at mentoring new scholars, WAWH established the Mary Elizabeth (Betsy) Perry Graduate Student Poster Prize in her honor; it was first awarded in 2015.

Betsy enjoyed daily walks with her dogs, extensive travel, and music. She played active roles in her church, founding a feminist study group and engaging in efforts to bring together people of all faiths in the service of cross-cultural understanding and social justice. Betsy is survived by her husband of 64 years, Ralph; her children, Katie and Dan; six grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and several nieces and nephews.