While fresh-faced first-year students have just begun their inaugural Memorial University semester, seasoned Memorial graduands are about to receive their hard-earned degrees and cross the convocation stage.

Memorial University will celebrate fall convocation at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre on Thursday, Oct. 15.

During three sessions, more than 800 undergraduate and graduate degrees will be awarded to Memorial’s newest alumni, the Class of 2026.

Honorary doctorate

Visual artist, educator and public intellectual Dr. Pamela Elizabeth Hall will be recognized with an honorary doctor of letters degree.

Honorary degree recipients are chosen by the Senate, the university’s highest academic governing body.

The honorary doctorate is designed to recognize extraordinary contributions to society or exceptional intellectual or artistic achievement.

The awarding of honorary doctorates, an important feature of Memorial’s convocation, serves to celebrate both the individual and the university and to inspire graduates, their families and guests.

Convocation details

For more information about fall convocation 2026, please visit the convocation website.

Ceremonies will be webcast live via the main page of the university’s website.

A biography of the fall 2026 honorary degree recipient follows below.

Dr. Pamela Elizabeth Hall

Dr. Pamela Elizabeth Hall was born in Kingston, Ont.

For more than 50 years, Dr. Hall has been one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s most influential artists, innovators and public intellectuals.

An interdisciplinary creator, her extraordinary career as a visual artist, filmmaker, author, educator and researcher has reshaped how this province understands knowledge, place and community.

She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Sir George Williams University, a master of education degree from the University of Alberta and a doctoral degree (sociology, folklore and humanities) from Memorial University.

Her depth of contribution, nationally recognized through multiple awards, firmly establishes her as a leading cultural figure of her generation.

She is the recipient of the VANL-CARFAC Long Haul Award, the Rex Tasker Award, the Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Sites Heritage and History Book Award, was the inaugural recipient of the Directors Guild of Canada Award for Outstanding Achievement in Production Design and is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.

Dr. Hall’s interdisciplinary practice has long bridged art, science and community — often decades ahead of contemporary trends in socially engaged art and participatory research.

Whether working in fisheries communities, in the health-care system or alongside Indigenous knowledge-holders, she has consistently expanded the boundaries of artistic practice and public scholarship.

Her landmark project, Towards an Encyclopedia of Local Knowledge, exemplifies her commitment to ethical collaboration and the preservation of ecological, cultural and land-based knowledge across Newfoundland and Labrador. It is a foundational contribution to community-driven research in Canada.

Dr. Hall’s transformative relationship with Memorial University spans roles as the Faculty of Medicine’s inaugural artist-in-residence and the university’s first public engagement post-doctoral fellow, and as a graduate of Memorial’s pioneering Interdisciplinary PhD Program.

Through teaching, mentorship and public engagement, she has influenced generations of students, artists and scholars, leaving a lasting imprint on our academic and cultural landscape.

For a visionary practice that reflects Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural identities and the diversity of our communities, and for her leadership in expanding the role of art in public life, Dr. Pamela Elizabeth Hall will receive the degree of doctor of letters, honoris causa.