Stage is set for fall convocation

The University of Victoria will celebrate the successful completion of studies for 1,300 graduating students when it holds fall convocation ceremonies on Nov. 10 and 12 at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. each day in the University Centre Farquhar Auditorium.

Michelle (Tonkin) Parker will be among the members of the graduating class. On the way to completing her biochemistry PhD, she attended the 2014 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on Physiology and Medicine in Germany. “Getting to know the personalities behind some of the most significant contributions to modern science was unforgettable,” Parker says.

Hannalora Leavitt lost most of her sight after a brain tumour at age 10. Her creative nonfiction master’s thesis, In Plain Sight, blends her experiences and society’s attitudes toward the blind. “The blindness I’ve figured out how to live with,” she says, “but the attitudes about it are where I always stumble: how did I instinctively know to be ashamed of it? How did I, even as a young kid, know blind people lived in the margins?”

Honorary degrees will be conferred upon Dr. Irving Rootman, who led the first Canadian National Health Promotion Survey, and to journalist/author Stephanie Nolen, largely for her work in bringing attention to Africa’s HIV/AIDS crisis. The honorary degree recipients were announced earlier.

Due to personal circumstances, the presentation of an honorary degree to Ruby Dunstan, the first female chief of the Lytton First Nation and a leader of the fight to protect the Stein Valley, has been postponed.

At the afternoon convocation ceremony on Nov. 12, the university will pay tribute to Chancellor Murray Farmer, BA ’68, who completes his term at the end of the year.

The ceremonies will be webcast live at uvic.ca/convocation.

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