Well, I’ve decided to go through with the ritual. It seems a little past due now, since I have actually had my Ph.D. diploma on the wall for several months, but the opportunity to participate in this rite de passage occurs only once a year. I’m going to attend my graduation at Emory University on Monday. I have purchase my robe of odd material and four-square cap structure, and they will provide the hood, the ceremony, and the closure.

Tom Brokaw will deliver the keynote address. The ceremony, starting at 8 a.m., on Monday May 16 will be broadcast live at:
http://www.emory.edu/COMMENCEMENT.

8:00-9:15 a.m. Quadrangle
The 160th Commencement Exercises of Emory University

9:45 a.m.-12:00 Quadrangle
Emory College Diploma Ceremony (undergraduate) – Graduating seniors and their guests will remain on the Quadrangle following the completion of the University commencement exercises. Dean Robert A. Paul will preside over the presentation of diplomas

Unfortunately for me, Dean Paul is my dissertation director. He will be busy handing out diplomas to undergraduates while I am at the graduate ceremony. Dr. Walt Reed, Director of the Institute of Liberal Arts and a Professor of English, has kindly consented to do the honors of “hooding” me.

10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, Emerson Concert Hall
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Immediately following the Quadrangle Ceremony, PhD candidates, their advisers, master’s candidates, and all friends and family should proceed directly to the hooding and diploma ceremony. Graduates will enter with a formal processional. Bryan Noe, interim dean, will preside. A reception will be held in the Church School Building immediately following this ceremony; all guests and graduates are invited.

Nearby Agnes Scott College will have Hillary Clinton as the keynote speaker (and the recipient of their first honorary degree). Have I mentioned how much I would love to teach at Agnes Scott?