Skidmore College will bestow an honorary doctorate in the arts degree upon Alison Bechdel and an honorary doctorate of laws upon Dr. Robert S. D. Higgins during the college’s 107th commencement exercises to be held on Saturday, May 19, at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs.
Skidmore will honor Bechdel, an acclaimed author, cartoonist, MacArthur fellow and Tony Award winner who has been widely recognized for her outstanding contributions to the comic art form. Bechdel came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her New York Times best-selling memoir Fun Home, which was adapted for Broadway, and is now a highly successful award-winning musical appearing in New York City, London, and at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady.
Skidmore will recognize Higgins’s distinguished career in medicine as the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s surgeon-in-chief, the William Stewart Halsted Professor of Surgery and the director of the Department of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Higgins is a leading authority in the field of heart and lung transplantation and in coronary artery bypass surgery. His research and interests include exploring the mechanisms of cell injury in failing hearts, health economics and policy, competency-based residency training and racial disparities in post-transplant outcomes.
“We are pleased to welcome Ms. Alison Bechdel and Dr. Robert Higgins as speakers at Skidmore College’s 107th Commencement exercises this spring, and we are very proud to confer honorary degrees upon these two very deserving recipients,” said Philip A. Glotzbach, Skidmore College president. “Dr. Higgins and Ms. Bechdel are highly accomplished individuals who have demonstrated a strong commitment to excellence and have integrated the philosophy of creative thought into their professional endeavors throughout their very unique and exceptional careers.”
Christopher B. Mann, assistant professor of political science, has been selected as the 2018 Skidmore faculty commencement speaker.
Mann’s academic research focuses on aspects of elections, campaigns and voting, and has been published in the Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, Political Behavior and Public Opinion Quarterly, among other journals.
In addition to his work at Skidmore, Mann serves as Advisory Board member at the MIT Election Data and Science Laboratory. He has instructed students at the University of Miami in Florida and the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Prior to his career in academia, Mann spent more than a decade as a political consultant, campaign manager and executive director of nonprofit and political organizations. He received a doctorate in political science from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree in politics from Pomona College.
Skidmore College Board of Trustees Chair W. Scott McGraw and Class of 2018 President Rachael Thomeer will join President Glotzbach and Professor Mann in offering their congratulations to the 2018 graduating class.