Rex Nettleford to receive honorary doctorates
PROFESSOR Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor emeritus at the University of the West Indies (UWI), has once again been invited to receive honorary doctoral degrees from two overseas universities for his contribution to “the advancement of knowledge in the academy, including work in the arts and cultural development”.
The North Carolina State University will award him a Doctorate of Fine Arts on December 20, 2006 in Raleigh, NC, while the University of the French West Indies and Guiana (UAG) will “in agreement with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs” award him a Doctor of Letters in January 2007 on its Guadeloupe campus.
Professor Nettleford already has the French Order of Arts and Letters, and is now being acknowledged for “the privileged relations he maintained for many years between the UWI and UAG in Guadeloupe and Martinique”.
Others from Latin America and the Caribbean receiving honorary doctorates from the UAG on this occasion are Dr Gonzales Delago from the University of Havana, Dr Radhames Meha from the Pontofica Universidad Catolica of Santo Domingo and Dr Jose Chaves de Cunha from the Federal University of Para in Brazil.
In a letter to Professor Nettleford, the chancellor of the North Carolina State University said that “the degree recognises the university’s appreciation of your distinguished career achievements and your many contributions to the field of the arts”.
Other recipients receiving doctorates (of Science or of Humane Letters) are the chairman of American Red Cross, a professor emeritus of the University of Chicago and a prominent businessman and manufacturer from South Carolina.
Nettleford’s long career at the UWI, the Oxford Rhodes Trust Fellowship, awarded in his name, his work with the Jamaican NDTC, as well as his Special Envoy (ambassador) status in his native Jamaica have been cited in the North Carolina University releases announcing the December 20 commencement exercise.
Meanwhile, he holds several such doctorates from major universities on both sides of the Atlantic, including the universities of Toronto, Queens, Ontario, St Johns, and City University of New York, University of Sheffield, and Oxford University.
