Commencement

Family and friends of the College of the Atlantic Class of 2023 are invited to join us on campus for our 50th commencement ceremony! The event takes place under a big tent on the college’s North Lawn beginning at 2 p.m. A reception will follow.

Please visit our maps & directions page for information on getting here. Graduation ceremony parking will be available via the north and south entrances. On our accommodations page, you’ll find information on lodging, dining, and local activities. 

Family members and graduates are invited to a special reception with COA President Darron Collins ’92 on Friday, June 9, at 5 p.m., in The Turrets. Please join your student for an opportunity to share a drink and some light refreshments with Darron and members of our faculty and staff.

Please visit this page after the ceremony for a recording of our 50th Commencement Ceremony and links to photos from the day. 

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Julietta SinghProfessor, nonfiction writer, and decolonial feminist scholar Julietta Singh is our 2023 keynote speaker. Singh’s work engages the enduring global effects of colonization through attention to ecology, inheritance, race, gender, and sexuality. She works and teaches across the fields of postcolonial and decolonial studies, queer studies, the ecological humanities, experimental feminisms, and creative nonfictions. Her work has been published in journals such as South Atlantic Quarterly, Women & Performance, Social Text, Cultural Critique, and Studies in Gender and Sexuality. Singh is the Stephanie Bennett-Smith Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Richmond and has been a visiting fellow at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Sexuality and Gender, Arizona State University’s Center for Imagination in the Borderlands, and Princeton University’s Humanities Center.

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Donald Soctomah, rear.Honorary Master of Philosophy degree recipient Donald Soctomah is a Native American Passamaquoddy historian, author, teacher, filmmaker, lecturer, storyteller, and community leader. He works with both the US and Canadian governments on the protection of culturally significant sites, artifacts, and knowledge, and serves as the tribal historic preservation officer for the Passamaquoddy tribal communities in Maine and New Brunswick. He is the Passamaquoddy Tribal Representative to the Maine Legislature, served 10 years in the Passamaquoddy Forestry Department, and was recently appointed by US President Joseph Biden to serve on the Roosevelt Campobello International Park Commission. Soctomah holds a Guardians of Culture and Lifeways International Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums and was honored with the Constance Carlson Award from the Maine Humanities Council. He is the co-author of three award-winning children’s books and is a frequent consultant to the Smithsonian Institution, US Library of Congress, Maine State Museum, and Maine Historical Society.