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Main Image for Honorary Degrees

Honorary Degrees

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, Commencement 2022. Photo by Samuel Stuart Hollenshead
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Honorary Degree Recipients

Bard College President Leon Botstein and the Board of Trustees are pleased to announce the 2023 honorary degree recipients.
George Ball ’73

George Ball ’73

Doctor of Humane Letters
Alumni/ae Honorary Degree

During the late 1960s, ’70s, and early ’80s, George Ball ’73 apprenticed with the legendary genius plant- and seed-grower, breeder, and explorer Claude Hope in Costa Rica. Ball spent his later career at Pan American Seed in Illinois, California, and the United Kingdom, during which time he developed innovative plants and seeds, including the first pink hypoestes, “Think Pink,” and the first large-flowered anemone, “Mona Lisa.” In 1991, Ball purchased iconic garden seed giant W. Atlee Burpee & Company. He has donated tons of vegetable seed to Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and the Middle East. Ball, winner of an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Horticulture Society of New York and a President’s Medal of Appreciation from the American Horticultural Society, is chairman of Burpee.
 

Caitlin Bernard

Caitlin Bernard

Doctor of Humane Letters

Dr. Caitlin Bernard is an obstetrician-gynecologist and complex family planning specialist, and is assistant professor at Indiana University School of Medicine. She grew up and has spent most of her life in upstate New York. After her ob-gyn residency in Syracuse, Bernard moved to Kenya to focus on global health work. She later returned to the United States to complete her complex family planning fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis and then chose to move to Indiana to continue her global health work, at Indiana University, and to expand access to abortion care in one of the most restrictive states in the nation. Her clinical, research, and advocacy work focuses on expanding access to comprehensive reproductive health care—including contraception, safe abortion, miscarriage care, and pregnancy care—as part of a reproductive justice framework.

John Carlos

John Carlos

Doctor of Humane Letters

John Carlos was a track star at San José State University, where he also helped cofound the antiracism organization Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) in October 1967. When Carlos and Tommie Smith, another OPHR cofounder, won bronze and gold medals, respectively, in the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Olympic Games, they stepped onto the podium without shoes to draw attention to Black poverty. Carlos wore beads around his neck in memory of lynching victims, and his jacket was unzipped (a breach of Olympic protocol) to represent blue-collar workers. As the anthem played, each held up a black-gloved fist—Smith his right to represent Black power, Carlos his left to represent Black unity. They were kicked off the team and sent home, where they faced threats and hostility. Carlos went on to play professional football in the US and Canada, worked for the US Olympic Committee, and was a counselor and track coach at Palm Springs High School in California. At great personal cost, he stood up—and continues to stand—for what is right.

Sandra Cisneros
Photo credit: Keith Dannemiller

Sandra Cisneros

Doctor of Humane Letters

Sandra Cisneros is a poet, short-story writer, novelist, and essayist whose work explores the lives of the working class. Her novel The House on Mango Street has sold more than seven million copies, been translated into more than 25 languages, and is required reading in schools and universities across the nation. Her numerous awards include a MacArthur Fellowship, PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, National Medal of Arts, and Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. A new collection of poetry, Woman Without Shame, Cisneros’s first in 28 years, was published by Knopf in 2022. Cisneros earned her BA from Loyola University of Chicago and her MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She has worked as a teacher and counselor to high-school dropouts, taught creative writing at every level except first grade and preschool, been a college recruiter, arts administrator, and visiting writer at a number of universities, including the University of California, Berkeley, and University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Cisneros is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico.

Robin D. G. Kelley

Robin D. G. Kelley

Doctor of Humane Letters

Robin D. G. Kelley is a distinguished professor of history and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in United States History at UCLA. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and Freedom Scholar Award. His books include Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original (Free Press) Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (UNC Press); Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon Press); Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class (Free Press); Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Beacon Press); Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times (Harvard University Press); and, with Dana Frank and Howard Zinn, Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor’s Last Century (Beacon Press). In addition, Black Bodies Swinging: An American Postmortem and The Education of Ms. Grace Halsell: An Intimate History of the American Century are forthcoming from Metropolitan Books.

Barbara Liskov

Barbara Liskov

Doctor of Science

Barbara Liskov is an institute professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research interests include distributed and parallel systems, programming methodology, and programming languages. Liskov is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, National Inventors Hall of Fame, and Massachusetts Academy of Sciences. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and a charter fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. She received the ACM A. M. Turing Award in 2009, IEEE John von Neumann Medal in 2004, IEEE Pioneer Award in 2018, lifetime achievement award from the Society of Women Engineers in 1996, ACM SIGPLAN Programming Languages Achievement Award in 2008, ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Award in 2012, and was named a Stanford Engineering Hero in 2019.

Orville Schell

Orville Schell

Doctor of Humane Letters
 

Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on US-China Relations at Asia Society and a former professor and dean at University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. He was born in New York City, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in Far Eastern history, studied Chinese at Stanford University, was an exchange student at National Taiwan University, and did PhD work in Chinese history at UC Berkeley. Schell has worked for the Ford Foundation in Indonesia, covered the war in Indochina as a journalist, and traveled widely in China since the mid-’70s. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Smith Richardson Foundation grant, and is the recipient of an Overseas Press Club award, a Mencken award, and a Harvard-Stanford Shorenstein Journalism Award. Schell currently serves as a fellow at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University and a senior fellow at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. His most recent book is My Old Home: A Novel of Exile (Pantheon, 2021).

Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith

Doctor of Fine Arts

Playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith has been credited with the creation of a new form of theater. Her plays, which focus on contemporary issues from multiple points of view, are composed of excerpts from hundreds of interviews. Plays and films based on those interviews include Fires in the Mirror, Twilight: Los Angeles, Let Me Down Easy, and Notes from the Field. Her work as an actress on television includes Inventing Anna, The West Wing, Nurse Jackie, and Black-ish. Mainstream movies include Philadelphia, The American President, Rachel Getting Married, and Billy Crystal’s Here Today. President Obama awarded Smith the National Humanities Medal, and she has received a MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie awards, a Drama Desk award, a George Polk Career Award in Journalism, and the Dean’s Medal from Stanford University School of Medicine. A professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Smith was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and has been nominated for two Tony Awards.

Honorary Degrees Archive

  • 2022

    2022


    Commencement Speaker
    Deb Haaland
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    Alaa Al Aswany
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Jennifer Tour Chayes
    Doctor of Science

    Jerome Kohn
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Joseph M. McShane, S.J.
    Doctor of Divinity

    Eric Motley
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Zeena Parkins ’79
    Doctor of Fine Arts

    Marcus Roberts
    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
  • 2021

    2021


    Commencement Speaker    
    Patrick Gaspard    
    Doctor of Humane Letters    

    Honorary Degrees    
    Miriam Roskin Berger ’56    
    Doctor of Fine Arts     
        
    William A. Darity Jr.    
    Doctor of Humane Letters    
        
    Michael E. Mann    
    Doctor of Science    
        
    Audra McDonald    
    Doctor of Fine Arts    
        
    Siddhartha Mukherjee    
    Doctor of Science    
        
    Rev. Vivian D. Nixon    
    Doctor of Humane Letters    
        
    Elif Shafak    
    Doctor of Humane Letters    
  • 2020

    2020


    Commencement Speaker
    David Byrne
    Doctor of Fine Arts

    Honorary Degrees
    Laurie Anderson
    Doctor of Fine Arts

    Steven Chu
    Doctor of Science

    Gao Xiaosong
    Doctor of Fine Arts

    Thelma Golden
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Linda E. Johnson
    Doctor of Humane Letters



    Ellen Condliffe Lagemann
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    George D. Rose ’63

    Doctor of Science
  • 2019

    2019


    Commencement Speaker
    LaToya Cantrell
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    V. Kofi Agawu

    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Philip J. Deloria
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Rt. Rev. Herbert J. Donovan Jr.
    Doctor of Divinity

    Margaret Heafield Hamilton
    Doctor of Science

    Steven Holl
    Doctor of Fine Arts

    Carolee Schneemann ’59 (posthumously)
    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
  • 2018

    2018


    Commencement Speaker
    Megan J. Smith    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Carl Davis ’58

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Catharine B. Hill
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Martin E. Jay    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Glenn Ligon
    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
    Billy Steinberg ’72
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 2017

    2017


    Commencement Speaker
    John Lewis    

    Doctor of Civil Law

    Honorary Degrees
    Mary Beard    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Erik D. Demaine    
    Doctor of Science

    Cindy R. Jebb    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Brice Marden    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Karen Saxe ’82    
    Doctor of Science

    Charles P. Stevenson Jr.    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2016

    2016


    Commencement Speaker
    Randall Kennedy    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Jennifer A. Doudna    
    Doctor of Science

    William Chester Jordan    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Geraldine Laybourne    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Elisabeth A. Semel ’72    
    Doctor of Laws

    Robert B. Silvers    
    Doctor of Letters
  • 2015

    2015


    Commencement Speaker
    Sherrilyn Ifill    

    Doctor of Laws

    Arthur Aviles ’87    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Cornelia Bargmann    
    Doctor of Science

    Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan    
    Doctor of Divinity 

    Anthony Grafton    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Kiki Smith    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 2014

    2014


    Commencement Speaker
    Nancy Pelosi 
       
    Doctor of Laws

    Honorary Degrees
    José Antonio Abreu    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Anne D. Bogart ’74    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Jacob Neusner    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Jacqueline Novogratz    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Diane Ravitch    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Henry Rosovsky    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Darren Walker    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2013

    2013


    Commencement Speaker
    Gabrielle Giffords    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Brian S. Fischer    

    Doctor of Laws

    Jo Handelsman    
    Doctor of Science

    Jonathan Tunick ’58    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Dennis M. Walcott    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Alice Waters    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2012

    2012


    Commencement Speaker
    Cory A. Booker    

    Doctor of Laws

    Honorary Degrees
    Aryeh Neier  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Lynn Nottage    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Jens Reich    
    Doctor of Science

    Lynda Resnick    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
  • 2011

    2011


    Commencement Speaker
    The Right Reverend Mark S. Sisk    


    Honorary Degrees
    David Botstein    

    Doctor of Science

    Christopher Edley Jr.    
    Doctor of Laws

    Sari Nusseibeh    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Richard M. Sherman ’49    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Robert B. Sherman ’49    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Jennifer Tipton    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Nina Totenberg    
    Doctor of Humane Letters  
  • 2010

    2010


    Commencement Speaker
    Margaret Atwood    

    Doctor of Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    Alan S. Blinder  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Norman C. Francis    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Brandon H. Grove Jr. ’50    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
    Alumni/ae Honorary Degree

    Henry G. Jarecki    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Lisa Randall    
    Doctor of Science
     
  • 2009

    2009


    Commencement Speaker
    David Paterson
    Doctor of Laws

    Honorary Degrees
    Geoffrey Canada
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Emerson String Quartet
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Susan Gottesman
    Doctor of Science

    Harold Holzer
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Judith S. Kaye
    Doctor of Laws

    Jeffrey D. Sachs
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Stef Wertheimer
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Garry Wills
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2008

    2008


    Commencement Speaker
    Charles B. Rangel

    Doctor of Laws

    Honorary Degrees
    Merce Cunningham  
     
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Margaret H. Marshall    
    Doctor of Laws

    Eric S. Maskin    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Ajai Singh “Sonny” Mehta    
    Doctor of Letters

    Marjorie Perloff    
    Doctor of Letters
  • 2007

    2007


    Commencement Speaker
    Michael R. Bloomberg    

    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Honorary Degrees
    László Z. Bitó ’60    

    Doctor of Science
    Alumni/ae Honorary Degree

    Gerhard Casper    
    Doctor of Laws

    Barbara J. Fields    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    William E. Milliken    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Azar Nafisi    
    Doctor of Letters
     
  • 2006

    2006


    Commencement Speaker
    Bryan A. Stevenson    

    Doctor of Laws

    Honorary Degrees
    Frances D. Fergusson    

    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Nancy Folbre    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Lukas Foss    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    David Gelernter    
    Doctor of Science

    Mark Morris    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 2005

    2005


    Commencement Speaker
    Helen Vendler    

    Doctor of Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    William J. Baumol  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Paul Nurse    
    Doctor of Science

    David Remnick    
    Doctor of Letters

    Ruth J. Simmons    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2004

    2004


    Commencement Speaker
    Robert Redford  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Kwame Anthony Appiah    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Elizabeth Helen Blackburn    
    Doctor of Science

    John T. Cacioppo    
    Doctor of Science

    Richard J. Goldstone    
    Doctor of Laws

    James J. Heckman    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Tony Kushner    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Donald Richie    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    David E. Schwab II ’52    
    Doctor of Civil Law 
    Alumni/ae Honorary Degree

    Yasuhisa Toyota    
    Doctor of Science
  • 2003

    2003


    Commencement Speaker
    Lani Guinier  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    George A. Akerlof    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Kay Redfield Jamison    
    Doctor of Science

    Leon Levy (posthumously)    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Paul Moore Jr.    
    Doctor of Civil Law 

    Yoko Ono    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Simon Schama    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2002

    2002


    Commencement Speaker
    Shirley M. Tilghman    

    Doctor of Science

    Honorary Degrees
    Natalie Zemon Davis 
       
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Frank O. Gehry    
    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
    Andrew M. Greeley    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Aung San Suu Kyi    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Harold O. Levy    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    David Levering Lewis
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2001

    2001


    Commencement Speaker
    Harold E. Varmus    

    Doctor of Science

    Honorary Degrees
    Gordon J. Davis    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Lee Friedlander    
    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
    Adrienne Germain    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    John Guare    
    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
    Joseph E. Stiglitz    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Margot Stern Strom    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 2000

    2000


    Commencement Speaker
    Arnold J. Levine  
     
    Doctor of Science

    Honorary Degrees
    Stan Brakhage    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Nicholas deB. Katzenbach    
    Doctor of Laws

    Maya Lin    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Billy Taylor    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Ludmila A. Verbitskaya    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Janet L. Yellen    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1999

    1999


    Commencement Speaker
    Martha C. Nussbaum    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Anthony J. Alvarado    

    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Chuck Close    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Ornette Coleman    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Ellen V. Futter    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    David S. Landes    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Harvey Lichtenstein    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1998

    1998


    Commencement Speaker
    Wei Jingsheng  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degree
    Robert L. Bernstein  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Kenneth Burns    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Wynton Marsalis    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Deborah Sussman ’52    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
    Alumni/ae Honorary Degree

    Nancy S. Wexler    
    Doctor of Science

    Edward Witten    
    Doctor of Science
  • 1997

    1997


    Commencement Speaker
    Amartya Sen  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Honorary Degrees 
    Edward S. Grandin III ’37    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    David D. Ho    
    Doctor of Science

    Jamaica Kincaid    
    Doctor of Letters

    Deborah W. Meier    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    James Rosenquist    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 1996

    1996


    Commencement Speaker
    Salman Rushdie    

    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Honorary Degrees 
    Wendy Doniger    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    James Ivory    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Ruth Prawer Jhabvala    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Bill T. Jones    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Ellsworth Kelly    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Ismail Merchant    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 1995

    1995


    Commencement Speaker
    Henry Louis Gates Jr.    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Arnold J. Davis ’44  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Judith Jamison    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Mary Claire King    
    Doctor of Science

    Claes Oldenburg    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    James Tobin    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1994

    1994


    Commencement Speaker
    Yo-Yo Ma    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Honorary Degrees
    Hamilton Fish Jr.    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Doris Lessing    
    Doctor of Letters

    Kurt L. Schmoke    
    Doctor of Laws

    Emily Townsend Vermeule    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1993

    1993


    Commencement Speaker
    Anthony S. Fauci    

    Doctor of Science

    Honorary Degrees
    Harry Belafonte    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Rudolf Firkušný    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Robert Venturi    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 1991

    1991


    Commencement Speaker
    Faye Wattleton 
       
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Honorary Degrees
    Malcolm Bilson ’57    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 
    Alumni/ae Honorary Degree

    John Heliker    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.    
    Doctor of Laws

    Eugene M. Lang    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Cynthia Ozick    
    Doctor of Letters

    James Dewey Watson    
    Doctor of Science
  • 1992

    1992


    Commencement Speaker
    William Julius Wilson    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Jean Erdman    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    John C. Honey ’39    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
    Alumni/ae Honorary Degree

    Sonny Rollins    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Oliver Sacks    
    Doctor of Science

    Martin Scorsese    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 1990

    1990


    Commencement Speaker
    Chevy Chase ’68    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Honorary Degrees
    David Baltimore    

    Doctor of Science

    Anne d’Harnoncourt    
    Doctor of Humane Letters

    Nam June Paik
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 1989

    1989


    Commencement Speaker
    William T. Coleman Jr.  
     
    Doctor of Laws

    Honorary Degrees
    Elizabeth Hardwick    

    Doctor of Letters

    Harold Lever    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Roy Lichtenstein    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Rev. Frederick Q. Shafer ’37    
    Doctor of Divinity 

    John H. Steinway ’39    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1988

    1988


    Commencement Speaker
    Carlos Fuentes    

    Doctor of Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    William T. Golden 
       
    Doctor of Science

    Meredith Monk    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Rev. Joseph Parsell ’26    
    Doctor of Divinity 

    John Harold Plumb    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Meyer Schapiro    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1987

    1987


    Commencement Speaker
    Joan Didion    

    Doctor of Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    Edward Albee    
    Doctor of Letters

    Bruno Bettelheim    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Elliott Carter    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Sidney Lumet    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Maurice Sendak    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Sidney Shelov ’37    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1986

    1986


    Commencement Speaker
    Stephen Jay Gould    

    Doctor of Science

    Honorary Degrees
    Benny Goodman    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Elizabeth Blodgett Hall    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Eric J. Hobsbawm    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Rev. Gordon Lee Kidd ’21    
    Doctor of Divinity 

    Hart Perry    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Lawrence R. Klein    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1985

    1985


    Commencement Speaker
    Ernest J. Gaines 
       
    Doctor of Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    Abraham Spector ’47    

    Doctor of Science

    Most Rev. John Maury Allin    
    Doctor of Divinity 

    Baruch S. Blumberg    
    Doctor of Science

    Donald Fagen ’69    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Franco Modigliani    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Daniel Patrick Moynihan    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Mary L. Pardue    
    Doctor of Science

    Philip Roth    
    Doctor of Letters

    Mary Lee Settle    
    Doctor of Letters

    Adolf Sturmthal    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1984

    1984


    Commencement Speaker
    William H. McNeill    

    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Honorary Degrees
    William B. Bryant    

    Doctor of Laws

    Tsung-Dao Lee    
    Doctor of Science

    William F. Rueger ’40    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Louise Talma    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    John Updike    
    Doctor of Letters
  • 1983

    1983


    Commencement Speaker
    Leszek Kolakowski 
       
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Alfred J. Ayer    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Margaret Drabble    
    Doctor of Letters

    Barbara McClintock    
    Doctor of Science

    Arnaldo Momigliano    
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Frank H. Westheimer    
    Doctor of Science
  • 1982

    1982


    Commencement Speaker
    Marian Wright Edelman  
     
    Doctor of Laws

    Honorary Degrees
    W. Arthur Lewis    

    Doctor of Laws

    Ved Mehta    
    Doctor of Letters

    Martin Peretz    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Carl Emil Schorske    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Virgil Thomson    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 1981

    1981


    Commencement Speaker
    Robert Brustein    

    Doctor of Fine Arts

    Honorary Degrees 
    Ilya Bolotowsky    

    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
    Louise Bourgeois    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Gregory Chudnovsky    
    Doctor of Science

    Blythe Danner ’65    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Philippe de Montebello    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    André Kertész    
    Doctor of Fine Arts
     
    Hilton Kramer    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Aaron Siskind    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Twyla Tharp    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 
  • 1980

    1980


    Commencement Speaker
    Barry Commoner    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Irma Brandeis    

    Doctor of Letters

    Max Frisch    
    Doctor of Letters

    Ada Louise Huxtable    
    Doctor of Letters

    David Rose    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Bethuel M. Webster    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
  • 1979

    1979


    Commencement Speaker
    Toni Morrison    

    Doctor of Letters

    Honorary Degrees
    Salo W. Baron  
     
    Doctor of Humane Letters
     
    Alexander Heard    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Wayne L. Horvitz ’42    
    Doctor of Laws

    Gerard Piel    
    Doctor of Science
  • 1978

    1978


    Commencement Speaker
    John G. Kemeny    

    Doctor of Science

    Honorary Degrees
    Ralph W. Ellison    

    Doctor of Letters

    Helen Hayes    
    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Rev. Leslie J. A. Lang ’30    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Soia Mentschikoff    
    Doctor of Laws
  • 1977

    1977


    Commencement Speaker
    Christopher Lasch 
       
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Alvin Ailey    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Elisabeth Kübler-Ross    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Barbara Wersba ’54    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Louis Zukofsky    
    Doctor of Letters
  • 1976

    1976


    Commencement Speaker
    Robert M. Coles    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Helen Frankenthaler    

    Doctor of Fine Arts 

    Ernest F. Henderson III    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Mary McCarthy    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Leonard B. Meyer ’40    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Felix G. Rohatyn    
    Doctor of Laws
  • 1975

    1975


    Commencement Speaker
    William James McGill    

    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Honorary Degrees
    Edward Hirsch Levi    

    Doctor of Laws

    David Howard Spodick ’47    
    Doctor of Science

    Ellen Stewart    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 

    Paul Whitcomb Williams    
    Doctor of Humane Letters 
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