Her majesty, the Grammy queen of music herself Taylor Swift or as you would now call her, Dr Tay, received an honorary doctorate degree in Fine Arts over the weekend from New York University where she gave a commencement speech for the class of 2022 graduation.
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| Taylor Swift giving her commencement speech at NYU |
This, however, was not well received by everyone. Like always, everyone has opinions.
I came across a couple of comments along the line,
"That was just handed to her"
"She already has the achievements, the doctorate wasn't necessary"
"How about it was handed to someone who really worked for it"
" So when are we starting to hand out billions to scholars to break through life after school"
Well, for starters, what is an honorary degree?
According to numerous websites and academic knowledge, an honorary degree is an award given by institutions to high achieving members of the community, whether alumni of the institution or the ones that have attained an equivalent level of education from different institutions or even ones that have not had formal education!
The essence of an honorary degree is to recognize the contribution one has added to the institution and the community at large, nationally and internationally.
An honorary degree is currently the highest academic award in the United States of America.
The awarding institution together with its Board of Trustees makes the decision on who gets the degree and in which field of study.
Well now that we know that the honorary is typically supposed to be handed out, are there requirements one must fulfil before they are handed the degree?
And the answer, my friend, is yes! You have to have exuded a certain level of achievements which should be extraordinary and long-lasting to get awarded an honorary degree, it is not about the money and the fame.
How honorary degree recipients are selected.
- Having contributed significantly to the cultural, social and scientific development of the state and the world for a relatively long period of time.
- Someone whose achievements emulate the university's values and serve as a guiding direction for the current students to follow.
- Having a reputation that goes far and beyond the walls of the institution awarding the degree.
- Having achievements that contribute to scholarly research, arts, public service, teaching and so on.
How has Taylor's music work and achievements contributed to society?
Looking back on her career over the last two decades, it is with admiration that we lived in the same lifetime with Taylor Swift! Too much? haha
But all her music is about empowerment and dealing with hard day-to-day situations, and people will tell you that at their worst, it's a song by Taylor that gave them the energy to keep holding on. And this is not only in her hometown but across the globe!
With over 300 awards in various fields, it's safe to say that her reputation proceeds her.
People will run to point out the fact that she didn't even attend college but will ignore the fact that she completed her high school while running around the world on tours at 16!
The amount of hard work, commitment and self-organisation skills she had at 16 many of our modern-day scholars lack.
We have seen her re-record her albums just because someone wanted to own her work, an initiative she started to speak up for musicians who were not profiting from their work and yet the managers and recording labels were amassing millions.
In 2014, she pulled down all her music from Spotify in protest to get the artists compensated well for their talent and work.
How does she relate with current honorary degree holders?
In case you didn't know, Kanye West himself is a proud owner of an honorary degree! A college dropout! He received his honorary from The School of the Art Institute, Chicago for his transformative, genre-defying work. We have all heard his music and l think you understood what genre-defying implies in this sense.
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| Kanye West receiving his honorary degree |
We can not begin to count the number of honorary degrees Barack Obama has because we shall sleep here, haha.
So, in my opinion, do l think Taylor Swift deserved the doctorate? The answer is pretty much obvious!
What comes to m mind when all these scholars are awarded these degrees and everyone is happy for them is that we have created a norm that musicians are not significant in our society.
That they are just rappers babbling uncoordinated words or crying over lost love. What we forget is that these people are self-organised, do damage control on their reputation daily, and are forced to adapt to any living and public situation.
But they are truly brilliant and their work is life-changing!
In all regard, congrats Dr Tay! (Yeah, l know she won't see it)
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