Pitzer selects Nobel Peace Prize recipient

Nadia Murad as 2023 Commencement Speaker

Jacob Ragaza

Pitzer College has named 2018 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad as the 2023 commencement speaker. Murad is an Iraqi human rights activist committed to raising awareness around sexual violence and the Islamic State’s genocide against the Yazidi people, an indigenous Kurdish minority.

In 2014, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) attacked Murad’s hometown of Sinjar, Iraq, where she — along with thousands of other Yazidi women — were kidnapped, tortured and subjected to sexual violence. In 2015, she testified about her experiences to the U.N. Security Council, delivering the committee’s first brief on human trafficking. In 2016, The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime named Murad as the first goodwill ambassador for the dignity of survivors of human trafficking.

In 2018, Murad founded Nadia’s Initiative, an organization “dedicated to rebuilding communities in crisis and advocating globally for survivors of sexual violence.” The organization is currently focused on the redevelopment of Sinjar, which ISIS ravaged in their destruction of the Yazidi homeland.

According to Wendy Shattuck, Pitzer’s assistant vice president of communications, Student Senate senior class representative Annemarie Gerlach PZ ’23 worked with peers to create a list of potential speakers. The Commencement Committee then selected Murad from this list.

“[Nadia] is truly inspirational, and is a globally honored catalyst for life-long radical advocacy, resilience, healing, social justice in action,” Shattuck said to TSL via email. In a statement to Pitzer’s Office of Communications, Murad expressed excitement at the opportunity to speak to the graduates.

“It is important for me that younger generations understand the crimes and brutality being done to the vulnerable in other parts of the world,” Murad said.

Pitzer’s Commencement ceremony will take place on May 13, 2023.

“I feel like there [are] not as many African languages represented as there could be, mainly because there [are] not enough people who speak the language to [initiate African language tables], or they just don’t go to Oldenborg,” they said.

Cius and Louis are doubtful there would be a lot of interest in beginning the Haitian-Creole language among most students at the 5Cs. However, the pair are optimistic that the Haitian-Creole language table can be a space to share Haitian culture with the few other Haitian people on campus, rather than a place to teach the language.

“I don’t think [the new language table] will have too much of an impact [on the 5C community], mainly because I don’t think there are too many Haitian people here or people who want to learn the language in general,” Louis said. “But I do feel that for the few Haitian people who are here, there will be an impact among us, because we will have a little space [of] our own where we build our little community.”

Cius shared that she would like to see increased interest in promoting African languages at the 5Cs.

“I hope more people can … start [language tables] for languages that [are] not offered or taught at the 5Cs,” she said. “Having more African languages and Caribbean languages taught at the 5Cs by actual professors … would be really cool.”

Corrections

In Issue 15, a news article about Oldenborg applicants misattributed a quote to Anisa Ketlekha PO ’26 that was actually said by Aiko Kato PO ’26. A separate news article about the Pitzer Black Student Union misstated that the Pitzer BSU published their demands on Tuesday, Feb. 28, and Wednesday, Feb. 29. The correct dates are Tuesday, Feb. 28 and Wednesday, March 1. In a sports article about Linda Cohn, Cohn was misquoted about her marriage. All articles have been updated with the correct spellings and facts.

TSL regrets the errors.