Pomp & Circumstance

Today I got “hooded”. The entire ceremony was about two hours—though it felt like longer. This is one of the rituals accompanying advanced degree awarding in Academia. The entire graduation ceremony is based on medieval practices, so it has robes, gowns, hats (mitres?), and other vestments, like hoods (see image).

For a PhD degree, the hood is traditionally dark blue (#1 in the image). The robe is usually black with different colored “piping” (the stripes down the middle) and chevrons (hash marks on the sleeves). Although many schools are going with other-than-black colors for robes (mine was maroon).

In Academia, the regalia can get quite outlandish! Each robe has different piping and chevrons…every (undergraduate) discipline also has its associated color (for example, education = light blue, natural sciences = gold). And each school can be as creative as they want. Oxford (UK) has some particularly interesting garb…their “tam” (hat) alone is a sight to behold! (just google “oxford academic regalia”)

The experience was good, overall. It was fun to walk across a stage for everyone to see and shake the President of the University’s hand—all festooned in attire royalty or paid clergy might wear for public ceremonies. But it also seemed archaic in some sense, being “displayed” as a trophy of the university, a commodity to be flaunted before a throng of potential buyers.

But such is the World of Academia…full of pomp and circumstance…all for a piece of paper that grants you “privileges” and “rights” and “honors”. How elitist.

And now I’m one of them. Sheesh.

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