Honorary Degree, Doctor of Fine Arts

Deborah Willis

Esteemed Scholar, you earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Philadelphia College of Art, a master’s degree from the City University of New York, a master of fine arts degree from Pratt Institute, and a doctorate from George Mason University. You served as the Lehman Brady Visiting Joint Chair Professor at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Currently, you are University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. You are also director of NYU’s Center for Black Visual Culture/Institute for African American Affairs.

Renowned Photographic Historian, you have authored a long list of books and articles that have been foundational to the study of African American photography. You have curated photographic exhibitions and served as a consultant to museums, archives, and educational centers, including the New York Public Library and the Smithsonian Institution. Your work has been instrumental to helping us see history through African American eyes.

You have been honored for your transformative work with a MacArthur Fellowship “genius grant” and a Guggenheim Fellowship. You received the Alphonse Fletcher Jr. Fellowship as well as the Richard D. Cohen Fellowship in African and African American Art at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. The U.K.’s Royal Photographic Society recognized you with its Outstanding Service Award, and, just last month, the Association of International Photography Art Dealers honored you with its visionary award.

Talented Photographer, your artwork has been exhibited at galleries and museums across the country, including at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Rutgers University, the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, and the Harvey G. Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture.

Through your prolific life’s work, you have helped us to better understand both photographic history and American history. Therefore, under the authority of the Board of Trustees of the University of Delaware, I have the honor of conferring on you, Deborah Willis, the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts. In testimony thereof, I am pleased to present to you this diploma.

Terri L. Kelly
May 23, 2026