Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Alan Shaw Taylor will be the University of Maine at Farmington’s 2016 commencement speaker.
The ceremony will be held at 10:30 a.m. on May 14 behind the Olsen Student Center.
Taylor, a historian and Colby College graduate, will also be given an honorary degree at the ceremony. He is the fourth person to win two Pulitzer Prizes for American history since the establishment of the award in 1917, according to a news release from UMF. An expert on Colonial America, the Revolution and the Early American Republic, Taylor is known for finding new stories in history and looking at them in ways that other historians might not, the release said.
Kathryn A. Foster, UMF president said in the release that Taylor is notable for his extensive knowledge, scholarly research and unique talent to make history come alive again. It is an honor to have him addressing our graduates on this important day.”
He was born in Portland and graduated from Bonny Eagle High School in Standish. He lives in Virginia and holds the Thomas Jefferson Foundation chair in the Corcoran History Department at the University of Virginia.
His first book, in 1990, “Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760-1820,” focused on Maine’s early settlement. Six years later, he won the Pulitzer Prize in American History for “William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic.” It was also awarded the Bancroft and Beveridge prizes.
In 2014, he won a second Pulitzer Prize for “The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832,” a book about runaway slaves who helped the British military. It also won the Merle Curti Prize for Social History and was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Emily Rumble, of York, will give the student address. Rumble is a George Mitchell Scholar and honors student graduating cum laude with a major in secondary education.
Foster and Joseph McGinn, provost and vice president for academic affairs, will confer degrees to this year’s graduates. Marjorie Medd, member of the UMS Board of Trustees, will deliver greetings to the graduates from the University of Maine System.
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