Anna Sui to receive Honorary Degree from New School

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Mar 31, 2017

Fashion designer Anna Sui is set to receive an honorary degree from The New School at the university's 81st commencement exercises on Friday, May 19. Activist Ai-jen Poo and explorer Barbara Hillary will join Sui in receiving honorary degrees from the university.

 
The Detroit-born designer moved to New York City to attend Parsons School of Design, the art school of The New School. Sui left the school after two years to work for Erica Elias at Charlie’s Girls, and she later launched her own collection in 1991. In the following year, she won the CFDA “Perry Ellis” Award, and in 2009, the CFDA honored her with the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.
 
Sui produces ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, cosmetics and fragrance collections. The New York City-based designer has opened over 50 boutiques in over 8 countries and also partnered with brands and companies such as Coach, Victoria’s Secret, Isetan, Fila, Target, Tumi, Samsung, Google and Mattel among others.

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Fellow honorary degree recipient Poo is an activist on behalf of domestic workers and the elderly. The 2014 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient co-founded the Domestic Workers Union and ensured that New York State passed the Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in 2010, a law ensuring workers’ rights to an eight-hour workday with overtime pay, guaranteed rest days, and mandated protection under the state’s human rights laws.
 
Third honorary degree recipient Hillary is the founder of nonprofit multi-racial publication The Peninsula, an explorer, cancer survivor and a New School graduate. At the age of 75, she became the first African-American woman to reach the North Pole.
 
The New School is a New York City university comprised of numerous schools that focus on disciplines such as social sciences, liberal arts, humanities, architecture, fine arts, design, music, drama, finance, psychology and public policy. The university's divisions include The New School for Social Research, College of Performing Arts, Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, The Schools of Public Engagement at The New School, and Parsons School of Design.

The 81st commencement exercises will take place at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens. The commencement marks the first-ever graduation ceremony  and first-ever non-tennis event  to be held at the stadium.