24

I am a Professor at a college in the US where we wear regalia to the student graduations. I have a PhD, but am about to complete another doctoral degree from a different university, neither of which are where I teach. Do I have to choose one gown to wear to graduation or is there a specific way to represent both degrees? I have yet to find any guidance on this!

Robert Columbia
  • 5,080
  • 2
  • 27
  • 59
Croft
  • 249
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 8
    Does the university you teach provide gowns for its staff members, possibly with different designs based on their academic positions within the faculty? – nick012000 Sep 03 '22 at 15:12
  • 3
    https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17232/is-doing-two-phds-a-good-path – Anonymous Physicist Sep 03 '22 at 16:14
  • 25
    Do as you please. Who cares, so long as you do not misrepresent yourself? – Anton Sep 04 '22 at 12:20
  • Not being from an anglo-saxon country, it makes me feel slightly sick that these antiquated displays of power are still a thing in the 21st century. – Sixtyfive Sep 05 '22 at 10:54
  • 1
    Why not wear both of them? – Jeremy Rickard Sep 05 '22 at 13:10
  • 1
    Which degree is most relevant to what you actually teach? – chepner Sep 05 '22 at 14:39
  • First world problems :-) – Brauer Suzuki Sep 05 '22 at 14:55
  • 7
    @Sixtyfive Not to diminish your personal reaction, but I wouldn't describe academic dress as being much of a 'display of power'. Having university officials on a stage or platform and giving them large salaries or fancy titles is surely much more of a display of power. Most Western academic dress is a evolution of mediaeval European religious dress rather than from the robes of kings or lords. And there is academic dress in many non-Anglo-Saxon countries, from Portugal to Thailand (where graduation ceremonies are very serious royal occasions). – dbmag9 Sep 05 '22 at 16:01
  • 1
    @dbmag9 Yes! I have a colleague whose doctorate is from a Thai university. His academic regalia are much more suited to the hot climate here in Georgia, USA, than my own European-derived regalia. – Bob Brown Sep 05 '22 at 16:07
  • According to the U.S. Department of Education, a research doctorate requiring a dissertation and defense, namely the Ph.D. and a few equivalent degrees, is the highest-ranking doctorate. So, if your second degree is not a research doctorate, you should wear your Ph.D. regalia. (Not an answer because the second degree is not stated.) – Bob Brown Sep 05 '22 at 16:27
  • 6
    You have got to wear two gowns. If you have four Ph.D. degrees, then you must wear four gowns. – stackoverblown Sep 05 '22 at 16:28
  • 5
    Cut both gowns vertically and then sew the left side of degree 1 to the right side of degree 2. – Adam Chalcraft Sep 05 '22 at 20:40
  • "Two doctorate degrees" - I would say wear whatever you feel like (this is a joke, to be clear) – Layne B Sep 06 '22 at 01:50
  • Presumable with two doctoral degrees you have the nous to figure that out. – copper.hat Sep 06 '22 at 15:19
  • I'd go for the cooler looking of the two. Some older schools (McGill, in Canada, for example) have gown styles that predate the standard issue at most schools. There regalia is definitely cooler looking (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dress_of_McGill_University) – Flydog57 Sep 06 '22 at 16:58
  • 1
    @AdamChalcraft In the US, it should be the right side of degree 1 to the left side of degree 2 so that it can be read left-to-right chronologically. (Your right, so that it's on the viewer's left...) – user3067860 Sep 06 '22 at 20:25

3 Answers3

45

As no one who matters will actually know which degrees you hold and what gown goes with which, the choice of gown will be yours! If you own both, choose the one that is the most distinctive, colourful, or photogenic.

That is what your graduands and their families would want for their photographs.

(If you only own one, then the choice has already been made for you.)

Community
  • 1
Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩
  • 17,680
  • 6
  • 57
  • 76
  • 1
    Unless any of the colors involved clash with what the students will be wearing, but this is also just a photogenic-consideration and of low priority – Hobbamok Sep 05 '22 at 11:07
  • Or, if you really want to bear the expense of two sets of regalia, you could alternate which you wear. (Don't try to wear two hoods. It's generally improper in the United States and tacky everywhere.) – Bob Brown Sep 05 '22 at 16:15
21

Yes, you can wear whichever you choose, but the intercollegate rules laid down in the late 19th century suggested (but did not require) that you should wear the regalia of your most recent terminal degree.

On the other hand, I suppose you should probably wait until you earn your second degree before wearing it as part of your current faculty function. If you choose otherwise, as a degree-in-progess individual, your tassel would be worn on the right since you have not graduated yet.

I imagine you'd want to wear the gown of your degree granting institution at your own commencement as a student, and I'd check with your professors before doing otherwise.

The most important point is that you should not attempt to blend both styles into a uniform resembling a clown costume. For example, if you have earned hoods of two different colors, you should pick one color and its associated regalia and not attempt to include the other.

http://intercollegiate-registry.org/revised-intercollegiate-code/

Ragaroni
  • 311
  • 1
  • 5
6

@Ragaroni's answer seems good for the US. Here in England-and-Wales, there are no intercollegiate rules and it would be a question for the internal regulations of the university hosting the graduation ceremony.

Daniel Hatton
  • 8,519
  • 2
  • 19
  • 38
  • 2
    This is absolutely correct, but it's worth adding that 'internal regulations of the university' would, broadly speaking, translate to 'at Oxford and Cambridge follow the detailed rules which require that university's academic dress; everywhere else you can choose which doctoral gown to wear if you're entitled to both'. – dbmag9 Sep 04 '22 at 21:18
  • 4
    Oxbridge doesn't really think that your university exists if you degree wasn't from Oxbridge. – D Duck Sep 04 '22 at 21:31
  • @dbmag9 Cambridge regs have allowed graduates of other universities to wear their academic dress from those universities for about the last 20 years. – Daniel Hatton Sep 04 '22 at 22:22
  • @DanielHatton I believe that's only the case for scarlet days, which wouldn't apply to the majority of graduation ceremonies. – dbmag9 Sep 05 '22 at 06:20
  • @DDuck More charitably, it's just a different conception of what a degree is – originally a degree is a level of membership in an organisation ('a master in the faculty of arts of the university of X', say). So a Newcastle MA and an Edinburgh MA are related like being a Major in the British Army and in the US Army – both worthy of respect but not identical, and being in one institution doesn't imply that you are in the command structure of the other. – dbmag9 Sep 05 '22 at 06:26
  • 2
    @dbmag9 You're right https://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/pdfs/2021/ordinance02.pdf#page=187. – Daniel Hatton Sep 05 '22 at 08:10
  • 2
    @dbmag9 normal undergraduate graduations are on scarlet days (days of general admission to degrees) – Tristan Sep 05 '22 at 10:15
  • @Tristan Ah, interesting, thanks! – dbmag9 Sep 05 '22 at 10:18
  • 3
    @Tristan and dbmag Yes, there's a difference between "the majority of graduation ceremonies" (which are not on scarlet days) and "the ceremonies at which the majority of people graduate" (which are on scarlet days). – Daniel Hatton Sep 05 '22 at 10:48