{"id":17791,"date":"2022-04-11T13:40:12","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T13:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=17791"},"modified":"2026-02-27T22:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:33:15","slug":"macalester-announces-honorary-degree-recipients-commencement-graduation-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2022\/04\/macalester-announces-honorary-degree-recipients-commencement-graduation-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Macalester Announces Honorary Degree Recipients, Commencement and Graduation Celebration Speakers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As part of Macalester\u2019s Commencement celebrations, the college will award honorary degrees to the following individuals:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Professor Mahmoud El-Kati, whose 33 years as a Macalester professor have had a deep and enduring impact on our community;\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bioethicist and international expert in health and science policy Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who will serve as the keynote speaker for the Class of 2022 Commencement ceremony; and\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bestselling author and Duke professor Dr. Kate Bowler \u201902, who will serve as the keynote speaker for the Class of 2020 and 2021 Graduation Celebration.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cWe are honored to celebrate these three professionals, each of whom has had a deep impact on their communities, and each of whom lives the values of Macalester College,\u201d said President Suzanne M. Rivera. \u201cWe look forward to welcoming them to campus this spring and sharing this distinction with them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Professor Mahmoud El-Kati taught history at Macalester from 1970\u20132003 inspiring generations of students with lessons and discussions that many recall, in detail, decades later. For many students, particularly for Black students, he served as a mentor who empowered and challenged them and guided their self-discovery. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Throughout his career, his teaching and scholarship have been woven together with his experiences as a community leader, activist, and commentator on the African American experience<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. His legacy is celebrated today in the Mahmoud El-Kati Distinguished Lectureship in American Studies, established in 2008 by <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stanley M. Berry \u201975, Bertram M. Days \u201974, and Ava B. Days. He<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> will receive an honorary degree at the Class of 2022 Commencement ceremony.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel is an oncologist and world leader in health policy and bioethics. He serves as the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s vice provost for global initiatives and is co-director of Penn\u2019s Health Transformation Institute. Emanuel is a special advisor to the director general of the World Health Organization, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was the founding chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health and held that position until August of 2011. From 2009 to 2011, he served as a special advisor on health policy to the director of the Office of Management and Budget and National Economic Council. In this role, he was instrumental in drafting the Affordable Care Act (ACA). He will receive an honorary degree at the Class of 2022 Commencement ceremony, and will serve as that ceremony&#8217;s keynote speaker.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 14, at 10 a.m. in the Macalester Stadium, and will include a bagpipe procession, remarks from a senior class speaker, and presentation of diplomas to members of the Class of 2022. Tickets are reserved for guests of graduates, as well as faculty and staff. Commencement details and a live broadcast of the event on the day of the ceremony can be found at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/commencement\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">macalester.edu\/commencement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dr. Kate Bowler, Macalester Class of 2002, is a <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> bestselling author, podcast host, and associate professor of the history of Christianity in North America at Duke University.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we\u2019re capable of change. A<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">fter being diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35, she penned three <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> bestsellers including <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I\u2019ve Loved).<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She will receive an honorary degree during the Graduation Celebration for the Classes of 2020 and 2021, and will serve as their keynote speaker.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Members of the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 were unable to experience a traditional Macalester Commencement ceremony due to event restrictions because of COVID-19. The ceremony honoring the members of the Class of 2020 and Class of 2021 will be held on Sunday, May 15, at 10 a.m. in the Macalester Stadium. Details can be found at <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/commencement\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/234\/2022\/05\/2020-2021-GraduationCeremony.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">macalester.edu\/commencement\/class-of-2020-and-class-of-2021-celebration\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Commencement will be held on Saturday, May 14, at 10 a.m. in the Macalester Stadium, and will include a bagpipe procession, remarks from a senior class speaker, and presentation of diplomas to members of the Class of 2022.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":677,"featured_media":17794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-newswire","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17791"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30749,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17791\/revisions\/30749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}