Call for Nominations: 2025 Honorary Degree Recipients
August 21, 2024
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
Each year, the Brandeis community gathers at Commencement to honor and celebrate our graduates and their many accomplishments. We also recognize other individuals who embody the Brandeis spirit through their leadership in areas including academia, business, politics, the arts, and public service, by granting honorary degrees, the university’s highest honor.
Last May, honorary degrees were awarded to acclaimed documentarian and filmmaker, Ken Burns; civil rights activist and author Roy DeBerry ’70, GSAS MA’78, PhD’79; former faculty member and Jewish communal leader, Rabbi David Ellenson z”l; international women’s rights advocate, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari; and acclaimed academic leader, Ruth J. Simmons.
In the past, Brandeis has bestowed honorary degrees upon a number of notable recipients, including David Ben-Gurion, Leonard Bernstein, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John F. Kennedy, Coretta Scott King, Deborah Lipstadt, Thurgood Marshall, Golda Meir, Steven Spielberg, Bryan Stevenson, Barbra Streisand, and Elie Wiesel. I encourage you to learn more about the history of this honor and view a list of all prior recipients.
I also would like to invite you to submit nominations as we consider potential candidates for our 2025 Commencement. While we cannot guarantee that a given nomination will result in that individual’s selection, we value your participation in this process. Please share your ideas with us by September 13, 2024.
We look forward to receiving your nominations.
Sincerely,
Ron Liebowitz