USC announces 2026 honorary degree recipients, baccalaureate speaker

USC President Beong-Soo Kim will award honorary degrees to a literary giant, a classical music phenomenon and a trailblazing geophysicist during USC’s 143rd commencement ceremony May 14 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

This year’s honorees are writer Joyce Carol Oates; Gustavo Dudamel, music and artistic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and Marcia McNutt, geophysicist and the 22nd president of the National Academy of Sciences.

Another luminary will address USC’s baccalaureate ceremony on May 13: Lisa Miller, a best-selling author, researcher and clinical psychologist known as a research scholar on spirituality in psychology.

JOYCE CAROL OATES
Doctor of Humane Letters

Joyce Carol Oates’ influential body of work spans novels, short fiction, essays, poetry, plays and memoir. She reimagined Marilyn Monroe’s inner life in Blonde and captured the unraveling of an American family in We Were the Mulvaneys, which became a bestseller after Oprah’s Book Club selected it. She won the National Book Award for her novel them.

Since 1963, 40 of Oates’ books have been included on The New York Times’ annual list of notable books. President Barack Obama presented her with the National Humanities Medal. At Princeton University, she continues to teach, write and influence the direction of contemporary literature. She’s known for lively engagement with readers on X, formerly Twitter, and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL
Doctor of Music

Gustavo Dudamel, this year’s commencement speaker, is woven into Los Angeles’ cultural fabric in ways few artists ever achieve. As Music & Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for nearly 17 years, he has conducted the orchestra — usually from memory, without a score — on some of the world’s most storied stages.

Later this year, he becomes Music & Artistic Director of the New York Philharmonic.

Dudamel places community at the center of his work; he’s a passionate advocate for music education and expanding the impact of classical music to new and larger audiences. He’s been the driving force behind YOLA, or Youth Orchestra Los Angeles. YOLA serves more than 1,500 children from underserved communities, providing free instruments, intensive music instruction and opportunities to perform.

“We have to give our children the chance to create and to have access to art,” Dudamel said, “because art is existential.”

MARCIA McNUTT
Doctor of Science

Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, has spent her career investigating the forces that shape the Earth and leading institutions that shape how society understands them. As a geophysicist, she studies the dynamics of the planet’s upper mantle and lithosphere and has led or co-led more than a dozen deep-sea expeditions.

Earlier in her career, McNutt served as director of the U.S. Geological Survey, the science arm of the Department of the Interior. During her tenure, she responded to several major disasters, including earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and Japan, as well as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. She has also served as editor-in-chief of the prestigious Science family of academic journals, helping elevate the work of researchers in countless fields while bolstering the world’s respect and appreciation for scientific truth.

LISA MILLER
Baccalaureate speaker

Lisa Miller is an American professor, New York Times best-selling author, researcher and clinical psychologist who has built an influential career studying how spirituality contributes to resilience, well-being and human flourishing. Miller is a tenured professor at Teachers College, Columbia University in the clinical psychology program and founder of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute. Miller’s research into spirituality in renewal from addiction, depression and struggle spans over 200 published articles and chapters, and has been extensively covered in the media, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

USC’s baccalaureate, traditionally held the day before the main commencement ceremony, is a nondenominational, interfaith celebration open to all students and their guests and provides an opportunity to bless graduates as they proceed with the next stage of their lives.