Bennington College Commencement
You are cordially invited to Bennington College’s eighty-eighth Commencement ceremony.
Please save the date for June 2-3, 2023 as we celebrate the Class of 2023.
Commencement details to follow in the new year. Please check back then!
Commencement History
Past Coverage
- 2022 Commencement Eve and Commencement Day coverage with Jericho Brown.
- 2021 Commencement Eve coverage with Darren Walker and Commencement Day coverage
Photos from: The photobooth | Dinner | Conferring of Degrees - 2020 Commencement Eve coverage with Nigel Poor ’86 and Commencement Day coverage
- 2019 coverage with Mountain Man
- 2018 coverage with Liz Lerman
- 2017 coverage with Cornell William Brooks
- 2016 coverage with Jane Chu
- 2015 coverage with Gloria Steinem
- 2014 coverage with Johnnetta Cole
Past Commencement Speakers
- 2022 | Jericho Brown
- 2021 | Darren Walker
- 2020 | Nigel Poor ’86
- 2019 | Mountain Man (Molly Erin Sarlé ’12, Amelia Meath ’10, and Alexandra Sauser-Monnig ’09)
- 2018 | Liz Lerman
- 2017 | Cornell William Brooks
- 2016 | Jane Chu
- 2015 | Gloria Steinem
- 2014 | Dr. Johnnetta Cole
- 2013 | Elizabeth Coleman
- 2012 | Peter Dinklage ’91
- 2011 | Tim Daly ’79
- 2010 | Melissa Rosenberg ’86
- 2009 | Hendrick Hertzberg
- 2008 | Rebecca Tinsley
- 2007 | Mac Maharaj
- 2006 | Glen Van Brummelen
- 2005 | Jonathan Lethem ’86
- 2004 | Shirin Ebadi
- 2003 | Edith Velmans
- 2002 | Meredith Monk
- 2001 | Rick Moody
- 2000 | Gay McDougall ’69
- 1999 | Peter Hedges
- 1998 | Linda Wertheimer
- 1997 | Jane Alexander
- 1996 | Mark Gearan
- 1995 | Irene Borger ’71
- 1994 | Harvey Lichtenstein ’53
- 1993 | Kay Crawford Murray ’56
- 1992 | Harvey Fierstein
- 1991 | Harvey Gantt
- 1990 | Joan Tower ’61
- 1989 | Ellen McCulloch-Lovell ’69
- 1988 | Elizabeth Frank ’67
- 1987 | Barbara Lazear Ascher ’68
- 1986 | Tillie Olsen
- 1985 | Elizabeth Swados ’73
- 1984 | Howard Nemerov
- 1983 | Frederick Wiseman
- 1982 | Joseph S. Murphy
- 1981 | Bernard Malamud
- 1980 | Elizabeth Swados ’73
- 1979 | Vivian Gornick
- 1978 | Mitchell Markowitz ’75
- 1977 | Elizabeth Holtzman
- 1976 | Joseph S. Iseman
- 1975 | Carol Channing ’42
- 1974 | Thomas Brockway
- 1973 | Senior readings and performance
- 1972 | Jimmy Garrison
- 1971 | Anaïs Nin
- 1970 | Kurt Vonnegut
- 1969 | Denise Levertov
- 1968 | Thomas P.F. Hoving
- 1967 | Russell Baker
- 1966 | Howard Nemerov
- 1965 | Gene Baro
- 1964 | William Sloane Coffin, Jr.
- 1963 | David Riesman
- 1962 | Kenneth Burke
- 1961 | Henri Peyre
- 1960 | Francis Fergusson
- 1959 | George Boas
- 1958 | Jacques Barzun
- 1957 | Alvin Eurich
- 1956 | Howard M. Jones
- 1955 | W. Averell Harriman P ’40
- 1954 | Franklin Ford
- 1953 | Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
- 1952 | Harry Allen Overstreet
- 1951 | Mary Josephine Shelly
- 1950 | Reinhold Niebuhr
- 1949 | Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey
- 1948 | Erich Fromm
- 1947 | Lewis Webster Jones
- 1946 | Reinhold Niebuhr
- 1945 | Justice Frank Murphy
- 1944 | Alexander Meiklejohn
- 1943 | Robert D. Leigh
- 1942 | William Batt
- 1941 | Robert Lynd
- 1940 | Henry Wallace
- 1939 | Dorothy Canfield Fischer
- 1938 | Frederick Lewis Allen
- 1937 | W.H. Kilpatrick
- 1936 | No commencement speaker