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Taylor Swift receiving honorary doctorate from New York University

She will address the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022 at the Yankee Stadium ceremony

By Will Richards

Taylor Swift posing for the camera in a black-and-white press photo
Taylor Swift. (Photo: Beth Garrabrant)

Taylor Swift is set to receive an honorary doctorate from New York University (NYU) this year, becoming a Doctor of Fine Arts.

On May 18, Swift will also address students from the 2020, 2021 and 2022 classes at a COVID-delayed graduation ceremony at Yankee Stadium.

NYU President Andrew Hamilton discussed the forthcoming ceremony in a statement, saying: “I cannot overstate how thrilled I am to be coming together in person with graduates, parents, faculty, and honourees for NYU’s Commencement,”

“Since 2019, we have been deprived of Commencement’s festive, communal joy, and its absence has been keenly felt. Few groups of graduates are more deserving of a celebration than these classes: their pursuit of their studies disrupted, isolated by a daunting pandemic, these classes — 2022, 2021 and 2020 — have distinguished themselves with their grit, grace, and forbearance.

“We reconvene at Yankee Stadium with a renewed sense of appreciation for the act of celebrating together in person, a recognition of our graduates’ enormous achievements, and a respect for their character and perseverance.”

Elsewhere, Swift has confirmed that she has recorded a brand new song called ‘Carolina’, which will feature in the upcoming big screen adaptation of Delia Owens’ 2018 novel Where The Crawdads Sing.

A snippet of the track also featured in the latest trailer for the film, which debuted last week (March 22) and stars Normal People‘s Daisy Edgar Jones.

Swift shared the trailer on Instagram and said that she was a fan of the novel. She has written the new track alone and enlisted frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner to produce it.

Where The Crawdads Sing is a book I got absolutely lost in when I read it years ago,” Swift said. “As soon as I heard there was a film in the works starring the incredible Daisy Edgar Jones and produced by the brilliant Reese Witherspoon, I knew I wanted to be a part of it from the musical side.