Does the Jesus is King artist have a PhD?
Kanye West does not have a PhD. He dropped out of college to pursue music, but he does have an honorary doctorate from The Art Institute of Chicago, which he was awarded in 2015. So technically, he ought to be called Dr. West.
Read on to learn more!
A Doctorate is Different from a Ph.D.
Some people use the terms doctorate and Ph.D. interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. So before you learn how Kanye got his doctorate, you ought to understand what a doctorate is. In academic lingo, both Ph.D. and doctorate are terms that refer to a high distinction given to an individual who already has a master’s and bachelor’s degree. Both distinctions are within a single field of study or discipline, but they are structured in different ways.
For instance, a doctorate may be focused on one of two categories– research work or professional work. A person who holds a doctorate may be considered an expert in their respective field. A Ph.D. or a Doctor of Philosophy, on the other hand, is a person whose academic degree has the same professional and scholarly characteristics of doctorate holders but was earned differently because a Ph.D. requires far more research work than a doctorate.
Don’t be surprised that Kanye doesn’t have a Ph.D. because they are hardly ever rewarded on an honorary basis. Honorary doctorates are awarded often to honor people who have made valuable contributions to culture or society. During his acceptance speech, Kanye said, “I am a pop artist. So my medium is public opinion and the world is my canvas.” The same doctorate that he has, has previously been awarded to Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic, and Jeff Koons.
Kanye Has an Honorary Art Doctorate
Now that you know how an honorary doctorate works, let’s look at the history behind Kanye’s. Given the first half of his discography – with albums called The College Dropout, Late Registration, and Graduation – you may already know that Kanye never graduated from college. In 1997, he took painting classes at Chicago’s American Academy of Art, and soon transferred to Chicago State University to study English; but that’s about it. When he was twenty years old, Kanye dropped out of college to pursue music.
He has though, on a few occasions since, expressed his frustration at not having completed his college education. For instance, he once spoke about his regret at not having been able to join a fashion course at London’s Central Saint Martin’s art college.
Kanye West finally graduated in 2015 when he received an honorary doctorate from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, thus making him Dr. Kanye West.
Kanye was given recognition for his “transformative, genre-defying work” during the ceremony at the Institute. Kanye – a man who never lacks confidence; who has gone so far as to call himself the greatest artist of all time – was quite nervous during ceremony.
“I don’t feel that feeling a lot, the nerves of humility and modesty when being honored,” he said later, adding, “A humanization, a reality of being recognized. And all I thought as I sit here kind of shaking a little bit is ‘I need to get rid of that feeling. It would have been easier if I could have said that I had a degree at the Art Institute of Chicago.”
Kanye’s Doctorate Wasn’t Good News for Everyone
But wait, who gets to decide the person or persons that honorary degrees are awarded to? In this case, it is Lisa Wainwright – dean and vice president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s academic administration – and the other members of the committee she sits on. Speaking about the decision to honor Kanye during an interview with the Chicago Tribune, she said she was inspired by an interview in which Kanye said he would have loved to attend the Institute. “I read it and thought, ‘Wow, this is a fantastic moment.’ Here is this major figure in the cultural landscape promoting art school, this guy from Chicago saying art school is cool. So we thought, ‘This man deserves an honorary doctorate from us!’” she said.
However, some former and current students were not happy with this decision. Corinna Kirsch, a former student who is now an arts journalist, wrote, “As an alum of SAIC, I am offended that the school’s exorbitant tuition and fees will help fund this nonsense.”