I am pleased to note that two distinguished A&S professors recently received honorary degrees. Gurney Norman, English professor, Kentucky Poet Laureate in 2009-2010, and director of UK’s Creative Writing Program, received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Berea College. With a career spanning over 30 years at UK, Norman is a respected authority on the literary culture of Appalachia. He is the author of several works, including Divine Right’s Trip and Kinfolks. Norman has also written and presented documentary films for KET and been involved with three short films based on his stories.

A frequent lecturer in Appalachia and senior writer-in-residence at Hindman Settlement School's annual Appalachian Writers Workshop, Norman was honored in 2002 by the Eastern Kentucky Leadership Conference and in 2007 with the Appalachian Studies Association Helen M. Lewis Community Service Award for his work in the region.

George Herring, Professor Emeritus, former history department chair, and Fulbright Scholar, also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from his alma mater, Roanoke College. Herring’s work focuses on U.S. foreign relations and the Vietnam War and connected him both with the A&S history department and the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce. He is the author of several books, including From Colony to Superpower: American Foreign Relations Since 1776 and America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975.

Herring was a visiting professor at the U.S. Military Academy in 1993 and at the University of Richmond in 2001. He was also awarded the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations’ Norman A. Graebner Prize for distinguished contributions to the field in 2002.

Congratulations to both of these outstanding individuals!