Acclaimed Writer, Environmentalist Terry Tempest Williams to Deliver 2024 Commencement Address

Terry Tempest Williams, celebrated author, naturalist, and social justice advocate, will give the 2024 Middlebury College Commencement address on Sunday, May 26. 

Author of some of America’s most celebrated environmental literary classics, Williams was among the first writers to challenge readers to think about environmental issues as social justice issues. Her 1991 memoir, Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, brought her international recognition and was followed by award-winning books on issues ranging from ecology and wilderness preservation, to women’s health, to our relationship to culture and nature.

“It’s an honor to host Terry Tempest Williams, a visionary writer who has played an essential role in our understanding of environmental justice,” Middlebury president Laurie Patton said. “Her ideas resonate deeply with our students and inspire many of Middlebury’s long-term sustainability goals.”

Born in Corona, California, Williams grew up in Salt Lake City, within sight of the Great Salt Lake that influenced much of her writing. She graduated from the University of Utah in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in English and in 1984 with a Master of Science degree in environmental education. She published her first book soon after while working as a teacher in Montezuma Creek, Utah, in the Navajo Nation.

Williams would write 20 books over the next four decades, including such seminal works as An Unspoken Hunger: Stories from the Field; Desert Quartet; Leap; Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert; The Open Space of Democracy; and Finding Beauty in a Broken World.

“Terry Tempest Williams is a longtime hero of mine,” said Jack Byrne, dean of Environmental Affairs and Sustainability, and director of Franklin Environmental Center. “I have the greatest admiration and emotional resonance for her writing and how she sees the world. I know our graduating students will find great solace and inspiration from her as they continue their journeys beyond Middlebury.”

Williams, currently a writer in residence at Harvard Divinity School, has been described as a “citizen writer” for her ethical stance on critical societal issues. She continues to write for the New Yorker, the New York Times, Orion magazine, and the Progressive, as well as for international anthologies as a leading voice for ecological consciousness and social change. 

Williams’s career extends well beyond her writing. She has testified before the U.S. Congress on women’s health issues, and on committing acts of civil disobedience against nuclear testing in the Nevada desert and against the Iraq War. She was featured in Stephen Ives’s PBS documentary series The West in 1996 and in Ken Burns’s PBS series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea in 2009. She has also been a guest at the White House. 

In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society—the highest honor it gives to American citizens. She received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association; the Wallace Stegner Award from the Center for the American West; the David R. Brower Conservation Award for activism; the Sierra Club’s John Muir Award honoring a distinguished record of leadership in American conservation; and a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction.

Williams previously served as the Annie Clark Tanner Scholar in Environmental Humanities at the University of Utah and as a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College, where she also taught.

Williams will receive an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the Middlebury Commencement ceremony.

Middlebury will also award honorary degrees to the following individuals at Commencement:

Joe Castiglione (Doctor of Humane Letters) is in his 42nd season on Red Sox radio (1983–2024), the longest tenure of any radio broadcaster in Boston sports history. Prior to Boston, Castiglione called television games for Cleveland in 1979 and 1982, and for Milwaukee in 1981. The Hamden, Connecticut, native has also announced television games for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers and has called college basketball games for NESN for six years. During the offseason, Joe taught classes in broadcast journalism at Northeastern University for 29 years (1985–2013), Franklin Pierce University for 15 years (1996–2010), and Emerson College in 1996. Since 1990, he has also served as a Jimmy Fund staff member in fundraising. Joe is the author of Broadcast Rites and Sites: I Saw It on the Radio with the Boston Red Sox (2004), and Can You Believe It? 30 Years Inside Red Sox Baseball (2012). Castiglione was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2014, and in 2022, the Fenway Park home radio booth was officially named the “Joe Castiglione Booth.” He was named the 2024 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. He has a bachelor’s degree from Colgate and master’s degree from Syracuse. Joe and his wife, Jan, have three children and six grandchildren. They reside in Marshfield, Massachusetts.

Michael R. Katz (Doctor of Humane Letters) was born in New York City, where he attended the Horace Mann School before enrolling at Williams College as its first ever Russian major. He attended Oxford University on a Keasbey Scholarship, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1972. He taught at Williams College, the University of Texas at Austin, and Middlebury College, where he also served as dean of Language Schools and Schools Abroad. Michael has written two monographs, one on Russian literary ballads, and the other on dreams in Russian fiction. He has also translated over 20 Russian novels into English, including works by Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy. He retired from full-time teaching in 2010 but continues to teach occasional J-term courses at Middlebury and summers at the Bread Loaf School of English. Michael is married, has a sister, daughter, and granddaughter, and lives in Cornwall, Vermont. 

Linda Cliatt-Wayman (Doctor of Education) is a renowned education leader with an unwavering belief in the potential of all children. She uses her decades of experience to move educational leaders from knowledge to practice in ways that are transformative for children through on-site leadership development series, convenings, and keynote addresses. She grew up in poverty in North Philadelphia, where she experienced firsthand the injustice perpetrated against poor students in their education. Cliatt-Wayman vowed to dedicate her life to helping as many children as possible to escape poverty through education. Her powerful leadership and success of her students caused people to take notice. Her acclaimed 2015 TED Talk has been viewed over two million times. She has been featured by Diane Sawyer on ABC World News Tonight and Nightline. Her book, Lead Fearlessly, Love Hard (2017), is beloved by educators. In 2016, she was named a Top 50 Finalist for the Global Teacher Prize out of over 8,000 nominees from around the world. Above all, Cliatt-Wayman said she is driven by her love for children. She ended her morning announcements to her students each day by saying, “If no one told you they loved you today, remember I do and always will.”

Emily Welty (Doctor of Humanities) is an academic, activist, and artist living and working in New York City. She is chair of Peace and Justice Studies at Pace University, where she teaches classes focusing on nonviolence, humanitarianism, reconciliation, transitional justice, and the role of the arts in peacebuilding. Her research focuses on the religious dimensions of peacebuilding with an emphasis on humanitarianism and nuclear disarmament as well as nonviolent social movements. Emily is part of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize–winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) where she works on faith-based engagement in nuclear disarmament. She is the coauthor and editor of Peace and Justice Studies: Critical Pedagogy (2019); Unity in Diversity: Interfaith Dialogue in the Middle East (2007); and Occupying Political Science (2018). She has been awarded a Jefferson Bronze Medal for Public Service, a Humanitarian of the Year Award from the city of Independence, Missouri, and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Graceland University. Emily is also a playwright and has had work produced by the Civilians, the Acting Studio at Chelsea Rep, the Bechdel Project, the New Perspectives Theatre Company, EsteroGenius, and the Einhorn School of Performing Arts. 

Matthew Breay Bolton (Doctor of Humanities), professor of political science at Pace University, was part of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) team awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. His field research highlights the concerns of coastal communities affected by nuclear weapons development and testing, including in the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, French Polynesia, Fiji, and the Cook Islands, as well as New York City. Earlier work investigated the politics of landmine and cluster munition clearance in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambodia, Laos, South Sudan, and Vietnam. In 2023, Matthew was appointed by New York City Council speaker Adrienne Adams to the city’s Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Advisory Committee. He has published six books, including Political Minefields (2020) and Imagining Disarmament (2019). His emerging research considers politics in a more-than-human world, from the role of islands in international relations to bear-human conflict in the Adirondack mountains. He has a PhD and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and is currently enrolled in a master’s program at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.