Taylor Swift to deliver speech at NYU graduation, receive honorary degree
Taylor Swift attends the 2019 MTV Video Music Video Awards held at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. (Photo by Efren Landaos/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
NEW YORK - Pop sensation Taylor Swift will be among the honorees and speakers at New York University's commencement exercises which will include several graduating classes.
The ‘double header’ at Yankee Stadium on May 18 will honor graduates from the classes of 2020 and 2021 --who did not have in-person graduation services due to the pandemic-- along with the class of 2022.
Eleven-time Grammy winner Swift, who has a home in TriBeCa, will receive a Doctor of Fine Arts. The degree will be her first.
"Ms. Swift is one of the most prolific and celebrated artists of her generation. She is the only female artist in history to win the music industry’s highest honor, the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, three times," said NYU in a statement announcing her participation in graduation ceremonies.
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Swift will be joined by leading disability rights activist Judith Heumann who will address the graduates at the 2020/2021 combined ceremony. Honorary degree recipients will also include Lonnie Bunch III, Susan Hockfield, Jill Lepore, and Félix Matos Rodríguez.
"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," said NYU President Andrew Hamilton. "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."