Noam Chomsky to receive honorary degree

Twelve distinguished individuals will be handed honorary degrees from the University of St Andrews at this year’s graduation commencement (that’s right, they are just giving degrees to them – it’s […]

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Twelve distinguished individuals will be handed honorary degrees from the University of St Andrews at this year’s graduation commencement (that’s right, they are just giving degrees to them – it’s kind of like they did Social Anthropology). Amongst this year’s recipients are public intellectual Noam Chomsky and South African AIDS activist and Constitutional Court judge, Justice Edwin Cameron.

The summer graduations will take place from 19-22 June and are set to include eight ceremonies over the four-day period.

The Stand spoke to Professor Chomsky who commented, “I’m very much looking forward to the occasion.  I’ve known about the distinguished history and achievements of St Andrews for many years, and am delighted to have the opportunity to visit and to have a chance to meet students and faculty.”

Don’t forget to look out for The Stand‘s interview (Chatting with Chomsky) later next week.

Honorary graduates include:

Date and time

Title

Name of recipient

Stand Bio

Tuesday AM

Professor

Noam Chomsky

Institute Professor and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguists and Philosophy at MIT.

Tuesday AM

Dame

Antonia S Byatt

English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner. Named by The Times one of the 50 greatest British authors since 1945.

Tuesday PM

Professor

Stanley Hoffmann

Political scientist, professor at Harvard and author of Duties beyond Borders: On the Limits and Possibilities of Ethical International Politics.

Wednesday AM

Professor Dr

Michele Parrinello

Italian physicist and Professor of Computational Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.

Wednesday PM

Professor

Paul Muldoon

Irish Poet, former Oxford Professor of Poetry, Howard G. B. Clark Professor at Princeton, Poetry Editor at The New Yorker and President of the UK Poetry Society.

Thursday AM

Mr

Jesse Ausubel

Environmental scientist, organised the first UN World Climate Conference and founding chair of the Encyclopaedia of Life.

Thursday AM

Professor

Elaine Showalter

Literary critic, pioneer in gynocritics and other feminist literary critiques.

Thursday PM

Ms

Alison Kennedy

Scottish Writer and stand-up comedian.

Thursday PM

Justice

Edwin Cameron

Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and famed AIDS activist.

Friday AM

Professor

John Meurig Thomas

British Chemist famed for his work in materials science.

Friday PM

Dame

Marjorie Scardino

CEO of Pearson PLC and former CEO of the Economist Group.

Friday PM

Dr

Simon Singh

British scientist, author and TV presenter.