William A. Graham, Dean of Harvard Divinity School, Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, and John Lord O'Brian Professor of Divinity, received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from the University of North Carolina on Sunday, May 9, 2004,at commencement exercises in Chapel Hill.
Graham, a Chapel Hill native, graduated summa cum laude from UNC in comparative literature in 1966. He went on to receive master's and doctorate degrees in the comparative history of religion and Islamic studies from Harvard, where he has been on the faculty since 1973.
He was appointed dean of the Divinity School in 2002. His scholarly work focuses on early Islamic religious history, and textual traditions and challenges in the history of world religion.
He has been a member of the advisory board for UNC's Institute for the Arts and Humanities, based in the College of Arts and Sciences, since 1992.
—by Will Joyner