You 2.0: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Gilbert
Photograph courtesy of Tiffany Gilbert

It is wonderful to be here on this occasion with so many friends and colleagues. My husband, daughter, and I are thrilled to be back at Mr. Jefferson’s University, to be “home” again. Congratulations to you and your families on your remarkable achievements.

I last sat in this room on the occasion of the May 2006 SWAG graduation ceremony. I was one year removed from my own commencement on the Lawn. It was an unspeakably beautiful day and, like today, there was a positive charge in the air. After nearly thirty years in school, I had finally received my Ph.D. in English, and, like you now, I was overwhelmed with excitement, amazement (that it all worked out), ambivalence, and uncertainty. For I knew two things: One, after spending as many years in school as it takes to qualify for retirement, I needed a real job; two, loan deferments would end in six months. June would be an interesting month.

It was serendipity, then, that led me to a job announcement for a lectureship in the SWAG program. Studying literature in Bryan Hall, I rarely visited Minor Hall, much less came into substantive contact with members of SWAG’s core faculty. However, I knew Farzaneh Milani, SWAG’s former director, by reputation. But also by “sighting.” If you know Farzaneh, she casts an impressive shadow on Grounds. A “Farzaneh sighting” was not only a treat, but also proof that one could simultaneously pursue a challenging career, have a family, and possess tremendous personal style. So, with the deadline fast approaching, I submitted an application. A few days later I was called in for an interview, during which I met Ann Lane and Ellen Fuller for a Q&A session, then with Farzaneh for an hour’s conversation. From the start, I had a sense that something clicked. This feeling was confirmed when, after escorting me to the Dean’s office in Cabell Hall, Farzaneh gave me a hug. What was that?! To paraphrase Tom Hanks in the women’s baseball film, A League of Their Own, “There’s no hugging on job interviews!” I knew then I had the position.

I view my year with SWAG as one of the most significant of my professional life. In what other discipline, including my own, could I encounter such diversity and multiplicity of ideas, cultures, and experiences in the classroom? Where I was accustomed to teaching mostly American students for whom English was their first language, in one SWAG class alone I taught young women who represented this country’s North, South, and Midwest, as well as international locales like Morocco, India, China, Korea, the Philippines, and the Caribbean. In this and the other classes I taught, I was struck not only by SWAG majors’ commitment to their individual academic goals, but also by their active commitment to the mission of the program itself—“to understand better the changing roles and behavior of men and women in the contemporary world and to encompass the wholeness of life.”  

If you are graduating today, chances are you completed the gender transgression assignment in SWAG 210. For those of you unfamiliar with that assignment, the objective is to engage in legal behaviors that contradict or violate expectations associated with your gender, to challenge stereotypical assumptions of masculinity and femininity. As I see it, declaring a SWAG major is in itself a boldly transgressive, principled act. It announces your intentions not to maintain the status quo, to rewrite traditions that would otherwise marginalize women and other minorities, and to lift up those who have been pressed down by poverty and prejudice. Your degree signals a call for change, and issues a challenge to us all: to be more human and humane. Is it any wonder those close and not so close to you questioned your decision to major in women and gender studies? As with many other things that force us to reexamine what we thought we knew, a SWAG degree puts everyone on notice.  

The nature of commencement speeches is to focus on what’s next. That’s fine, and very important. Certainly, you’ve probably been asked ad infinitum, “What are you going do after graduation?” Today, however, I’d like you to consider this variation; “Who’s next?” This is not an original question, and yet it sometimes becomes secondary to more urgent ones such as, “How are you going to afford rent?,” “What are you going to eat?,”  and “Who’s going to pay for that cell phone bill?” Who you will become, as we know, is influenced by many factors—our families, friends, our personal politics. Like other concentrations, SWAG has provided you with multiple skill sets that are valuable in the global marketplace. But this degree distinguishes itself from many others in that it has also equipped you with a blueprint on how to live a full, ethical, purposeful life, rich with possibility and adventure. Significantly—and this is something that cannot be quantified in grade point averages—it supplies you with the audacity to become whoever you choose to be in spite of the pernicious stereotypes and narrow-mindedness that still plague our world.

I’d like to call your attention to this room again. It’s a fairly generic space, like other conference rooms on Grounds—impersonal and innocuous. Perhaps a sorority induction ceremony took place here or even a teleconference on climate change. This room, more so than the Lawn, is uniquely situated in the trajectory of your life. It bridges the life you led and discovered at the University, and the unknown one you are about to pursue. The special demands of the degree you will receive momentarily encourage you to transform the worlds in which you live, work, and love. Remember also that you too are transforming and evolving—not just your address or resume. By way of explanation, allow me to share a few personal details. So, as I acknowledged earlier, I last visited this room exactly one year after my own graduation. I was no longer a student at the University but a member of its faculty. I was no longer a “singleton,” like Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones, but married. And, as I was about to learn, an expectant mother. No longer was I just my parents’ daughter and a student, but, dare I say it, an adult. How scary is that? Two weeks shy of my 36th birthday, and I am still amazed by the fact of my own adulthood. 

It is fitting that my daughter Gisele, now almost 16 months old, is here today to mark this occasion with us. For standing between my generation and hers is yours—a generation blessed with many privileges and advantages. And with these privileges and advantages come certain responsibilities as graduates of the University of Virginia and as global citizens. Your challenge, like mine, is to make the world work. To transform the pomp and ritual of today into action and promise for tomorrow. It’s pretty difficult to lose sight of these obligations at a place like this university and in a program like SWAG, where the expectations of history and possibilities for the future converge, and where the shadows of democracy follow you even as you stand on line for a latte at Alderman Library.

I will not close these remarks by indulging in any platitudes or clichés like “Seize the day,” “May the force be with you,” “Long live and prosper,” or a line from Dr. Seuss’ Oh, The Places You’ll Go. They are all true, but much too ordinary for this occasion. I will say this, however, because this is absolutely paramount and will keep you in good stead. As tomorrow stretches into tomorrow, and the days following this one increase and lengthen, remember those you love and who love you in return. Much has gone into reaching this point in your lives, more than money could pay, so honor them every day in your words and in your work. Remember U.Va. and SWAG, not just for homecomings and Foxfields, as you represent them in the wider world. And, finally, honor yourself today and the one you are becoming.