Fall 2023 Convocation
Honorary doctorates are an integral part of each convocation ceremony as recipients are awarded for their substantial contributions to the Waterloo community, to their profession or to society at large.
An honorary degree (honoris causa) is the highest honour conferred by the University. Through the conferring of honorary degrees, the University of Waterloo seeks to recognize outstanding achievement, whether academic or through service to society.
Alison Phipps received the Doctor of Letters, honoris causa at Fall Convocation, October 21, 2023.
Watch the Convocation Ceremony here
Presentation of the honorary doctorate to Prof. Phipps and her address to Convocation begin at 44:14.
About Alison Phipps
Alison Phipps is the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow. Professor Phipps visited the University of Waterloo to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Letters at the Fall 2023 Convocation. To learn more about Professor Phipps and her activist/scholarly work, see the following:
From left to right: James Skidmore (Chair of Germanic and Slavic Studies), Alison Phipps, Sheila Ager (Dean of Arts), Don Barton (Chancellor), Jim Rush (Vice President, Academic and Provost), Peter Meehan (President and Vice Chancellor, St. Jerome's University), Bill Chesney (Honorary Member of the University), Myeengun Henry (Elder and Indigenous Knowledge Keeper)
Hospitality: Refugee Integration through Languages, Spirituality, and Arts
On October 23, 2023, the Waterloo Centre for German Studies and the Faculty of Arts organized a special lecture by Alison Phipps in the CIGI Auditorium at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Alison Phipps takes an anthropological approach to the work of memory and reconciliation in communities where conflict and trauma have left, passed through, arrived and also survived. Her lecture focused on theological and spiritual dimensions of integration and hospitality work.