Nancy Rudolph
Honorary Doctorate - 2006

Nancy Rudolph address UI&U graduates at the
2006 National Commencement Ceremony.For more than 50 years and across 100,000 miles, international photographer and UI&U alumna Nancy Rudolph (B.A.1989) has challenged us with her remarkable photographs, taken for her studies in visual anthropology, on assignment for her professional career, and "just for joy and inquiry."

In 2002, her array of experiences culminated in a moving retrospective exhibit, “Bearing Witness to the Human Spirit,” displayed at the Interfaith Center of New York City, Cincinnati’s YWCA Women's Art Gallery, and in the Nancy Fyfe Cardozier Gallery at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas.

Ms. Rudolph’s documentary-style photography focuses on the working people and children of many countries, including India, Nepal, France, Italy, Sweden, England and the United States. Among the photos included in her retrospective were 10 photos shot in Cincinnati, where Ms. Rudolph lived in the late 1980s while completing her bachelor’s degree at Union Institute & University. Like many adult learners who discover Union’s programs, Ms. Rudolph had completed one year of college before embarking upon her life path, but she never abandoned her thirst for knowledge and understanding about the places and people she met on her extraordinary journey. She had already demonstrated outstanding professional achievements while also raising a family, but one long-held dream remained unfulfilled — earning her bachelor’s degree.

At Union, Ms. Rudolph found a home where she could make use of the knowledge gained over her lifetime as the foundation to study how photography and anthropology intersect, in this instance within Cincinnati’s urban Appalachian community, and how concepts from sociology, human development, and history can deepen our understanding of photography as a window to human nature.

Most recently, Ms. Rudolph was Artist in Residence at the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, New Mexico, where she studied early in her artistic career as a painter under artist Nicolai Fechin of the Artist’s Workshop in Los Angeles. She is also writing a book about her life’s work, a “visual memoir” that includes her photographs, the stories behind them, and the ideas and beliefs that have motivated her throughout her artistic career.

For more than four decades, Ms. Rudolph’s photo projects have ranged from politically charged protests during the early years of the feminist movement to moments of great joy and utter hardship in societies throughout the world. Even while she has traveled the world, received countless honors from numerous organizations, had her photos included in prestigious public and private collections, including the Ministry of Health in Mexico City and the collection of Queen Noor and the late King Hussein of Jordan, Ms. Rudolph has maintained close ties with Union Institute & University, all while carrying out the university’s mission of socially relevant lifelong learning.