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Taylor Swift to Receive Honorary Doctorate from NYU, Will Speak at Commencement Ceremony

Call her doctor: New York University has announced it will be awarding Taylor Swift with an honorary degree on May 18th. She will also address NYU’s graduating class during their commencement ceremony at Yankee Stadium that morning.

Swift will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, as part of the morning ceremony of a doubleheader commencement event NYU is holding this year. In the evening, the classes of 2020 and 2021 will have a combined ceremony belatedly celebrating their pandemic-era graduations, during which disability rights activist Judith Heumann will serve as the speaker.

“I cannot overstate how thrilled I am to be coming together in person with graduates, parents, faculty, and honorees for NYU’s commencement,” said NYU President Andrew Hamilton in a statement. “Since 2019, we have been deprived of commencement’s festive, communal joy, and its absence has been keenly felt. Few groups of graduates are more deserving of a celebration than these classes: their pursuit of their studies disrupted, isolated by a daunting pandemic, these classes — 2022, 2021, and 2020 — have distinguished themselves with their grit, grace, and forbearance. We reconvene at Yankee Stadium with a renewed sense of appreciation for the act of celebrating together in person, a recognition of our graduates’ enormous achievements, and a respect for their character and perseverance.”

MIT President Emerita and Professor of Neuroscience Susan Hockfield and Chancellor of the City University of New York Félix V. Matos Rodríguez will also receive honorary doctorates during the morning ceremony, with Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie G. Bunch III and Harvard professor, author, and journalist Jill Lepore being presented with honorary doctorates in the evening.

As Variety notes, this isn’t the first time Swift has been associated with NYU. Earlier this year, the Clive Davis Institute held its first-ever course about the evolution of her career, but she was not involved with the curriculum.

Earlier this year, Swift reunited with Ed Sheeran on “The Joker and the Queen (Remix)” and was falsely discredited by Damon Albarn for not writing her own songs. She was also named this year’s Record Store Day Ambassador.