Dear Emory Community,

The Honorary Degrees Committee invites all students, staff, faculty, alumni, and trustees to submit nominations for distinguished candidates for an honorary degree from Emory University.  Nominations to be considered for honorary degree conferral at Commencement 2019 and beyond must be submitted by October 20, 2017.  

Below are suggested criteria to keep in mind, but please think creatively and broadly as you consider candidates and note that these criteria are not restrictive.

Criteria:  In general, honorary degree nominees have achieved the highest distinction in their fields, while also demonstrating a transformational impact; their lives and careers should exemplify a commitment to work consistent with Emory's values. In considering whether a nomination reflects Emory's mission and values, you may think about some important themes that reflect the University's priorities and/or strategic direction. Particularly relevant themes might include "exploring the human spirit," "improving the human condition," "engaging society," "fostering sustainability," "new frontiers in science and medicine," "transformational art," and "creative philanthropy."   

Nomination Process:

1. Submit online at: emory.edu/honorarydegrees 
2. Email a nomination letter and supporting documents to honorarydegrees@emory.edu.
3. Mail nomination letter and supporting documents to Honorary Degree Nominations, Emory University, Office of the Vice President and Secretary of the University, Administration Building 407, Mail Stop #1000/001/1AN, Atlanta, GA  30322.

All honorary degree nomination letters should address the following:

• What are the nominee's achievements that would merit this honor, considering the above criteria?
• Would an honorary degree from Emory University have any special significance for this nominee?
• Would the award have any special significance or meaning for graduating students?

Except in extraordinary circumstances, persons who have spent the greatest part of their careers as members of the Emory faculty or administration or those currently serving in US elective office are not considered. The committee will, however, receive with interest nominations of persons otherwise associated with Emory such as alumni, distinguished visiting faculty, etc. The committee encourages the nomination of individuals from diverse demographic backgrounds.

Nominations are kept active (i.e., considered each year) for a period of five years. To review past honorary degree recipients and related information, visit the website: emory.edu/honorarydegrees 

Sincerely, 

Allison Dykes                                                                Joseph Crespino

Vice President and Secretary of the University            Honorary Degrees Committee Chair

REPORT TO THE EMERITUS COLLEGE AND BIANCHI AWARD

 HEARING THE TREES, an exhibition by Katherine Mitchell

Funded in part by the generous support of the Bianchi Award and the Emeritus College of Emory University.

I am most appreciative of the funding I received through the Bianchi Award and the Emory University Emeritus College. This support has been of great help as I prepared for my exhibition at the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts of Appalachian State University in Boone, N. C.

Throughout my career as an artist, I have moved back and forth between my interests in architectural form and the natural world. This will be my first body of work focused on my interest in and concern for trees.

Originally the title of my exhibition was White Oak, in honor of a particular tree that inspired this work. As my focus expanded, the title became Hearing the Trees. My beloved white oak became a symbol for me of all trees, and for all of the endangered planet. I was striving to unite my aesthetic concerns as an artist with my concern for the environment, which had begun years earlier, when between the ages of twenty-four and thirty-eight I had lived in the midst of forty-four acres of deep woods. This had been a life-changing experience for me, and I continue to love trees and value experiences in nature.

Because the Emeritus College might never have funded a visual artist in this way, I will try to give you some insight into my process, which involved a total immersion in this subject.

In addition to numerous hikes in woods, I have visited several of Atlanta's old growth forests that were last spring inducted into the National Old Growth Forest Network. These magnificent survivors are more than 200 years old. In addition to my personal experiences of trees, I needed more information about my new subject. I began with The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt's New World by Andrea Wulf. Von Humboldt first documented the dangers and causes of deforestation in the early 1800's and recognized deforestation's role in changing the climate.

I attended a lecture on Urban Forests at the Carter Center, and then read the book Urban Forests:A Natural History of Trees and People in the American Cityscape by Jill Jonnes. My reading of this well-researched book was followed by Thoreau and the Language of Trees by Richard Higgins. I also read Thoreau's Walden and Civil Disobedience.

During all this time, I was working hard in my studio. My reading continued with Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees, and David George Haskell's The Forest Unseen: A Year's Watch in Nature. While all this doesn't make me a tree expert, I do feel enriched by these readings that move between science, history, and poetry. On the more expanded environmental topic, I attended the Carter Center lecture by Paul Hawken, and so far have read portions of his book Drawdown.

For this exhibition, I have produced twenty-seven works on watercolor paper, all of which are framed using archival materials. A few of the titles are White Oak Night, Cold Moon, Lichen, 2 Views, Rain After Fire, and Ghost Trees. The average size of these works unframed is 30" x 22". Some are larger, and a few are smaller.  

All these works are on good European watercolor paper and make use of a variety of materials built up in layers--pattern on pattern, system over system. Among the buried layers are my words from related journals and occasionally quotations from various writers, including Henry David Thoreau and Gregory Bateson, as well as a variety of poets.

The truly unique and most experimental piece in my oeuvre is an installation entitled Hearing the Trees. It is composed of twenty-four metal (tin) plates, each being 14" x 9 1/2". As installed on the wall, they will occupy a space approximately 62" high x 67" wide. Each plate is a piece of roofing (not ceiling) tile dating from the 1800's. They had originally been painted forest green. They are somewhat faded with age, rusted in places, and blackened in others. Each one had been stamped with a shape in bas relief which to me is like a very simple shrine. There are a few holes in some of them, and all have an edge running top to bottom along the left side that had original nail holes, which will be used to attach them to the wall. I think of them as being like pages of a book. They are extraordinarily beautiful--each like an abstract painting. I have left many of them just as they are. To others I am attaching actual very small oak trees. One little tree still has its acorn attached. Other of the plates have images such as a leaf or an acorn. A few of the plates have texts, which I wrote on a translucent Asian paper and adhered to the plate. These include quotations from the works of Thoreau, Robinson Jeffers, and W. S. Graham, and a few words of my own. I am unable to photograph the entire installation properly until it is attached to the wall. I'll plan to make this image available to the Emeritus College once it is in place.

The exhibition will be transported to the Turchin Center on October 6. The opening reception will be on November 3, 2017, and the exhibition will continue there until February 3, 2018. On November 1, I will give a talk on this work at the Turchin Center.

Katherine submitted a portfolio of photographs documenting 15 of the 27 works on paper; those may be seen in the EUEC office.

--Katherine Mitchell