FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Cindy Deppe, media relations, 641-269-4834

May 6, 2008

GRINNELL COLLEGE TO AWARD FOUR HONORARY DEGREES

GRINNELL, IA - Grinnell College will award four honorary degrees at its May 19 commencement to professionals in the fields of medicine, journalism, philosophy and gender politics, and entrepreneurship. Grinnell alumni John Canady and James Lowry, Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu, and commencement speaker Judith Butler will receive honorary degrees from Grinnell College President Russell K. Osgood for contributions to their professions.

Rekha Basu is a columnist for The Des Moines Register who writes about human rights, civil liberties, and diversity as one of the most senior South Asian journalists in the U.S. A member of the Register staff since 1991, Basu has won a number of journalism awards for work published by the Associated Press, The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, USA Today, and The Nation.

Judith Butler, who is Maxine Elliott Professor of Rhetoric and Comparative Literature at University of California, Berkeley, is a prolific writer and author on feminism, gender and sexual politics, and cultural and literary theory. In 2004, she published a collection of writings on war’s impact on language and thought titled "Precarious Life: Powers of Violence and Mourning." She was recently selected to membership in the prestigious American Philosophical Society.

John Canady, a 1980 Grinnell College graduate, is director of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Cleft Lip/Palate Program. As a physician, his specialties are craniofacial surgery, cosmetic surgery, and head and neck plastic surgery. For 13 years, Dr. Canady has performed free surgeries for underprivileged children and young adults in developing countries, including "Operation Smile" trips to the Philippines to provide charity surgery, and trips to El Salvador.

James Lowry, a 1961 Grinnell graduate and college trustee, is a management consultant and entrepreneur with extensive experience in diversity recruitment initiatives for some of the country’s leading employers. Lowry has owned his own consulting company, and in 2000, joined prominent Boston Consulting Group as president of its Chicago operation, where he was involved with the North American Black Diversity Initiative to develop management professionals on college campuses. Lowry is also an adjunct faculty member of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

At the May 19 commencement ceremony, Osgood will confer bachelor arts degrees in 25 major fields of study on 380 members of the Grinnell College class of 2008. The commencement ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. on Central Campus; if inclement weather, the ceremony will be in Darby Gymnasium. Founded in 1846, Grinnell is a nationally recognized, private, four year, liberal arts college which enrolls 1,600 students from all 50 states and from as many international countries. For further information about Grinnell College commencement, go to http://www.grinnell.edu/offices/ce/commencement/2008/

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