Williamsburg resident Sarah Murphy earns Connecticut College degree

NEW LONDON, CT (06/02/2011)(readMedia)-- Sarah Murphy of Williamsburg was awarded a bachelor of arts degree from Connecticut College at the 93rd commencement ceremony on May 22.

Murphy majored in sociology-based human relations.

The theme of the commencement ceremony was connections - connections to history, to each other, and, as keynote speaker Cynthia Enloe, a 1960 Connecticut College alumna and professor of International Development, Community and Environment at Clark University, told the 452 members of the senior class - dubbed the Centennial Class, as they graduate during the yearlong celebration of the college's founding in 1911 - that connections come with responsibility.

"There are always connections between labor and education, gender and class," she said. "Thinking about these connections should make us uneasy."

Enloe drew connections between the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the founding of Connecticut College in the same year. The pioneering women and men who chartered the college just two weeks after the fire would be thinking about their shirtwaists and fashionable clothing and wondering who made them and at what cost, she said. She urged the graduates to take a look at their own clothing labels and to think about their connections to garment workers all over the world.

The college awarded Enloe an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

About Connecticut College

Situated on the coast of southern New England, Connecticut College is a highly selective private liberal arts college with 1900 students from all across the country and throughout the world. On the college's 750-acre arboretum campus overlooking Long Island Sound, students and faculty create a vibrant social, cultural and intellectual community enriched by diverse perspectives. The college, founded in 1911, is known for its unique combination of interdisciplinary studies, international programs, funded internships, student-faculty research and service learning. For more information, visit www.connecticutcollege.edu.