SOUTH HADLEY — Mount Holyoke College has announced that lawyer and activist Anita Hill will address the Class of 2020 at the college’s in-person commencement ceremony at a date to be determined.
Hill, who is recognized as a leading advocate for women’s rights and civil rights, came under a national spotlight in 1991 when she testified that she had been sexually harassed by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, then her former boss at the U.S. Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Hill was the first African American tenured by the University of Oklahoma, College of Law in 1989, and is now a professor of policy, law, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, as well as chairwoman of the Hollywood Commission to Eliminate Sexual Harassment and Advance Equality in the Workplace.
In recent years, Hill has addressed the #MeToo movement; spoken on increased awareness of Title IX policies, which protect against gender discrimination in schools; and worked for legal and policy reforms to empower women and girls in schools and the workplace. She is also a published author.
Along with Hill, three other notable speakers will address the Class of 2020 at the ceremony, the college announced: Transgender activist and writer Janet Mock, Simmons College President Helen Drinan, and former Mount Holyoke President Lynn Pasquerella.
The four speakers are all “vanguards who challenge restrictive social norms around gender,” the college said in an announcement Monday.
“Collectively their work has brought to the forefront issues that have blighted the advancement and growth of women and people across the gender-diversity spectrum,” the announcement read. “They have shattered barriers to access and led influential movements towards greater equity, inclusion and justice.”
The speakers will all be granted honorary doctorate degrees from the college.
Mount Holyoke has yet to set a date for the in-person commencement ceremony but said that it will be held “at a future date when it is safe to gather in public.”
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.