At this year’s approaching commencement, University seniors will not be the only ones receiving kudos for their work. Writer Jamaica Kincaid, photographer Phillip Trager ’56, and Williams College President Morton Schapiro will be the recipients of three Honorary Doctorate Degrees, an award given annually to three or four recipients at commencement ceremonies. This year’s honorees will follow in the footsteps of such notable recipients as Martin Luther King Jr., Bishop Desmond Tutu, Clint Eastwood, Bill Cosby, Pelé and Bill Belichick ’75.

“The degree is honorific,” commented Vice President Peter Patton. “Our goal as an institution is to honor people that we think represent what Wesleyan represents. We choose these people to put in front of your graduating students as an example of what to strive for.”

According to Patton, the senior class and University community are solicited for nominations. Then, after much discussion between the cabinet and board of trustees, the recipients are chosen based on both eligibility and availability, as some nominees do turn down the offer.

Jamaica Kincaid is a Caribbean-born novelist especially known for her work as a staff writer for “The New Yorker.” She is currently a visiting professor at Harvard University, giving lectures on African and African American Studies as well as English and American Literature and Language. In 2001, Kincaid was selected to be the annual speaker for the Annie Sonnenblick lecture series at the University.

“She is an outstanding writer with public outreach,” Patton said of Kincaid.

Philip Trager is a renowned photographer, most notably known for his photographs of dance and architecture. His work is featured in the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Paris’s Bibliothèque.

“He has been very generous to Wesleyan with his own work,” Patton said.

Not only is Morton Schapiro the President of Williams College, a school with which Wesleyan has a competitive relationship, but he is also an internationally recognized authority on the economics of education. Wesleyan, with an endowment of $710,774, well below Williams’s $1.89 billion endowment, has a particularly strong interest in Schapiro’s field. The University’s main connection to Schapiro is through Michael McPherson, a University trustee and the former President of Macalester College.

According to Patton, this year’s honorees fit well into the Degree’s commitment to knowledge and diversity.

“We try to have a list of individuals that has not just one facet of society,” Patton said. “We want individuals with different backgrounds […] and [we want] to span the gamut of professions.”