Just the facts:
For hundreds of Mary Baldwin University students, it comes down to this
What:Mary Baldwin University’s 165th Commencement
When:10 a.m. Sunday, May 20
Where:Barbara Kares Page Terrace, on the main campus in Staunton, Virginia
Rain location: 10:30 a.m. at Expoland, Fishersville, Virginia
Keynote speaker:Dr. Carole Levin(see profile below), University of Nebraska Willa Cather professor of history and a fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, has expanded feminist thought by looking at women — royal and otherwise — during the Renaissance and in Shakespeare’s plays. Levin will speak about the importance of love and work and propose an answer to the age-old question: “What does a woman really want?”
Graduates:(numbers are not final until May 18, 2007)
- Residential College for Women (includes PEG and VWIL): 147
- Program for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG): 12
- Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership (VWIL): 19
- Baldwin Online and Adult Programs (Baldwin Online and Adult Programs): 113
- Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT): 42
- Master of Letters in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance (Mlitt): 20
- Master of Fine Arts in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance (MFA): 13
TOTAL: 335
Commencement Award Winnerswill be announced at Commencement and released to the media immediately following the ceremony.
- Martha Stackhouse Grafton Award(highest grade point average)
- Algernon Sydney Sullivan – Student Award
- Algernon Sydney Sullivan – Non-Student Award
- Baldwin Online and Adult Programs Outstanding Student
- Master of Arts in Teaching Student of the Year
- MLitt/MFA Ariel Award
- Margarett Kable Russell Award 2007–08
More information online
- Commencement schedule: go.marybaldwin.edu/commencement/schedule.asp
- Commencement regalia: go.marybaldwin.edu/commencement/regalia.asp
- Mary Baldwin News: go.marybaldwin.edu/news
- PEG: go.marybaldwin.edu/peg/index.asp
- VWIL: go.marybaldwin.edu/vwil/index.asp
- Baldwin Online and Adult Programs: go.marybaldwin.edu/adp/index.asp
- MAT: go.marybaldwin.edu/mat/index.asp
- M.Litt. and MFA: go.marybaldwin.edu/shakespeare/index.asp
- Honor Societies: go.marybaldwin.edu/academic/societies.asp
Commencement Speaker Carole Levin Embraced Renaissance Dreams
The students who will take their places on Mary Baldwin’s Page Terrace May 20 have been dreaming for a long time about their graduation day. Carole Levin, the scholar who will address them as the Commencement keynote speaker, has spent much time pondering dreams, too. As professor of history at University of Nebraska, Levin is intrigued by the meaning and use of dreams in 16th- and 17th-century England, and the topic is the focus of her recent research as a year-long fellow at the prestigious Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
Books she has authored, such as The Reign of Elizabeth I and The Heart and Stomach of a King: Elizabeth I and the Politics of Sex and Power, and articles “The Taming of the Queen: Foxe’s Katherine and Shakespeare’s Kate,” among many others, reveal her broader interest in advancing feminist thought. Levin earned her undergraduate degree at Southern Illinois University, and her master’s degree and PhD in history from Tufts University. Her specializations in late Medieval and Early Modern England and Europe and in women’s history led her to be named in 2002 Willa Cather Professor of History at University of Nebraska, where she has worked since 1998.
Levin has an unmistakable passion for teaching and the bridges it creates between her scholarship. “Questions that students have asked me have opened up new avenues for class lectures and discussions; they have also led to research and public talks,” she said. “My specialization in women’s studies specific to the Medieval and Early Modern periods has sparked an enduring interest for students and faculty from a variety of disciplines.”
Levin, also an avid Shakespeare theorist, has published numerous articles on that topic and counts the editing of several books in her career credits. Her expertise has garnered interviews on National Public Radio and two televised segments on CNN. Levin has been a visiting scholar at Middle Tennessee State University, a fellow at the Newberry Library, a distinguished professor at University of North Carolina in Asheville. Her work at University of Virginia as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship brought her on her closest visit to Mary Baldwin University.
Come to Page Terrace at 10 a.m. May 20 to hear this dynamic player in the feminist arena speak about the importance of love and work and an answer to the age-old question “What does a woman really want?”
Commencement Awards
The following awards will be presented at Commencement, most of which are a surprise to the recipient until they are announced at the ceremony:
- Algernon Sydney Sullivan Student Award,recognizing unselfish service, noble character, and spiritual qualities — and the accompanying Mary Keith Fitzroy Award.
- Algernon Sydney Sullivan Non-Student Award,recognizing unselfish service, noble character, and spiritual qualities.
- Martha Stackhouse Grafton Award,given to the graduate with the highest cumulative grade point average.
- Margarett Kable Russell Scholar 2007–08.The award honors Russell, Class of 1902, who was appointed in 1933 as the first woman and the first alumna on the college’s Board of Trustees. The Russell Scholar program began in 1952, and many students have combined intellectual investigation and service with their projects and research.
- Baldwin Online and Adult Programs Outstanding Student
- Master of Arts in Teaching Student of the Year
- Ariel Award.Given in 2006 for the first time to an MLitt or an MFA student whose generous hard work has made an outstanding contribution to the ideals and goals of college’s graduate program in Shakespeare studies and who exhibits the power of collaboration between student and teacher.