Audio Recordings
Talks by Honorary Degree Recipients, Commencement Weekend 2016
Read about Amherst’s honorees in our news story, “CDC Ebola Coordinator, Smithsonian Museum Director and Best-Selling Author Among Six to Be Honored at Commencement.”
“Research and Response: Protecting the Public’s Health.”
Dr. Inger Damon ’84, director of the Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the 2014 CDC incident manager for the Ebola response in West Africa.
“America’s Role on a Changing International Landscape.”
Ambassador William Burns, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former U.S. deputy secretary of state.
“The Genocide and the Love Story: Fiction as Activism.”
Chris Bohjalian ’82 author of 18 books that have been translated into more than 30 languages and regularly appear on The New York Times best-seller list.
“At Home in the Universe.”
Dr. Sandra Faber, is an observational astronomer whose research has contributed greatly to modern understandings of cosmology and galaxy formation.
“Goodness in Education: On View, Voice and Visibility.”
Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, sociologist, educator and author studying the culture of schools, the ecology of education, and the relationship between human development and social change.
“The Future of Natural History Museums.”
Dr. Kirk Johnson ’82, scientist, author and museum curator and the Sant Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.