2025 Commencement Speakers
Skidmore College will bestow honorary degrees upon renowned poetjournalist and social entrepreneur Aaron P. Dworkin and prolific advocate and curator of the arts Adam D. Weinberg during our 114th Commencement Exercises. Associate Professor of Political Science Ronald P. Seyb has been selected by the Class of 2025 to serve as this year's faculty Commencement speaker.
Aaron P. Dworkin is a 2005 MacArthur Fellow, distinguished advocate for the arts, best-selling author,
poetjournalist, Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, and leading social entrepreneur. The
longest-serving member of the National Council on the Arts, he has advised five presidential
administrations and is the founder of the globally recognized Sphinx Organization,
with a mission of transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. He
is also founder of the Institute for Poetjournalism and originated the term “poetjournalism.”
Dworkin is currently a professor of arts leadership and entrepreneurship at the University
of Michigan and hosts the nationally broadcast show “Arts Engines.” He is the author
of poetry collections, “The Poetjournalist” and “They Said I Wasn’t Really Black,”
as well as two memoirs, a children’s book, a science-fiction novel, and “The Entrepreneurial
Artist: Lessons from Highly Successful Creatives.” He is the creator of the Emmy Award-winning
film “An American Prophecy” and the digital art project “Fractured History.”
Adam D. Weinberg is director emeritus and an honorary trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he served for 20 years as the Whitney’s Alice Pratt Brown Director. During his tenure, the Museum presented some 300 exhibitions and created award-winning educational programs — as well as experienced exponential growth of its permanent collection, dramatically expanded its programs, and increased its attendance threefold. The Whitney’s new 220,000-square-foot building in New York’s Meatpacking District was one of several major capital projects realized under his direction.
Throughout his career, he has curated exhibitions on dozens of 20th- and 21st-century artists, authored numerous catalogues, and lectured internationally, and he is recognized for the scores of interviews he has conducted with artists. His honors include the Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Insignia of the Order of Arts and Letters from the government of France, and a Presidential Fellowship at the American Academy of Berlin, among many others.
Ronald P. Seyb, associate professor of political science, has been teaching political science and government at Skidmore College for the past 35 years. He has served as director of Skidmore’s Bridge Experience and was associate dean of the faculty for student academic affairs from 2017 to 2020. Seyb has published articles in Journalism History, American Journalism, Media History Monographs, Presidential Studies Quarterly, The Journal of Policy History, and California Politics and Policy, and he makes frequent local and regional media appearances to provide his expert perspective on current political events. Seyb received the Ralph A. Ciancio Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2005 and was Skidmore’s Jon Ramsey Honors Forum Lecturer in 2012.