Wooster will present honorary degrees to three outstanding authors in the fields of women’s studies, peace studies and environmental studies at the 140th commencement ceremony Monday, May 10, at 10 a.m.
Each year, the Committee on Honorary Degrees, comprised of faculty, administrative staff and two students, collect nominees from faculty members.† Nominees are then presented for consideration to the entire faculty.† The agreed-upon nominees are then placed into a pool of standing candidates and selected yearly in the spring.
This year, Wooster will bestow three honorary doctoral degrees onto outstanding female† authors.† Dr. Ellen Lewin, Hideko Tamura Snider and Terry Tempest Williams will receive their distinctions and share remarks with the Class of 2010 at this year’s commencment ceremony.
Dr. Ellen Lewin graduated with an A.B. in Linguistics from the University of Chicago and received an A.M. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Stanford University. Lewin currently serves as a Professor in the Departments of Women’s Studies and Anthropology at the University of Iowa.† Lewin last visited Wooster’s campus in 2007 and presented a lecture in conjunction with the Women’s Studies Curricular Review.† Lewin’s lecture, entitled “Queering Queer Studies: How Real Life Complicates Congenial Academic and Political Fictions,” sparked a discussion culminating in the decision to change Wooster’s Women’s Studies program to Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies.† Lewin will be honored on May 10 with an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree.
Hideko Tamura Snider is a ’56 College of Wooster graduate.† Snider was 10 years of age when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on her hometown of Hiroshima.† A survivor of the bomb that killed most of her family, Snider has worked with a number of peace and reconciliation organizations.† Snider received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Chicago and maintained a private psychotherapy practice.† She has written and spoken widely about her experience at Hiroshima, and published her memoirs, entitled “One Sunny Day: A Child’s Memories of Hiroshima.”† Snider has maintained connections with Wooster since her graduation, serving as a guest lecturer for the 1997 celebration of International Women’s Day and a participant in 1999’s Clergy Academy of Religion. Snider served as Theologian in Residence in 2000 and spoke as a part of the Lay Academy of Religion.† Snider’s most recent visit to the College took place in 2008 as a guest speaker on Resilience for the Worthy Questions program.† Snider will be honored on May 10 with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree.
Terry Tempest Williams received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Utah in 1979, and continued her education at the institution by receiving a Masters degree in Environmental Education in 1984 and an honorary Doctorate of Humanities in 2003.† Williams has written widely on the environment and has lobbied for stronger environmental policies.† As a Rachel Carson Honor Roll inductee, Williams has testified before Congress on the link between environmental hazards and cancer, and was named the Annie Clark Tanner Fellow in Environmental Humanities at the Univeristy of Utah in 2004.† Williams spoke as part of the Wooster Forum series in 2003 and served as Theologian in Residence at the College in 2006.† According to the Committee on Honorary Degrees, presenting Williams with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree “honors her for encouraging generations to work together locally and globally towards building a more sustainable future.”
The College of Wooster’s 140th commencement ceremony will take place on Monday, May 10, at 10 a.m. in the Oak Grove.