Aristófanes Cedeño to receive honorary doctorate at Fall 2024 Commencement
MSU will award an honorary degree to an impactful educator and administrator in Kentucky higher education at the Fall 2024 Commencement ceremony.
Dr. Aristófanes Cedeño will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters. He is director emeritus of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholar Program (GSP). GSP is a summer residential program for outstanding high school students in Kentucky who are rising seniors. MSU has hosted GSP for 14 years and has been a long-standing supporter of the program since 2006.
“Dr. Cedeño’s contributions to higher education in Kentucky, particularly through his leadership with the Governor’s Scholars Program, have been transformative,” said Dr. Jay Morgan, president of Morehead State University.
“His dedication to cultivating the minds of our state’s most talented young people has had a lasting impact. Morehead State University is proud to honor Dr. Cedeño with a Doctor of Humane Letters and celebrate the enduring partnership between MSU and the Governor’s Scholars Program, which reflects our shared commitment to academic excellence and opportunity.”
Born and raised in Panama, Dr. Aristófanes Cedeño earned the degree of Attorney at Law at the University of Panama, where he taught political science before moving to the U.S. Once here, he earned a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from Michigan State University.
For 15 years, Dr. Cedeño worked as a professor at the University of Louisville. He has published a book on Panamanian culture. His research interests include natural law, the 19th century, and the Romantic Movement, and he has published and edited a book and several papers in these areas.
Dr. Cedeño joined the Governor's Scholars Program (GSP) as faculty in 1992 and has served the program as campus director (Northern Kentucky University, 1995-2001), academic dean (1998-present), and executive director (2006-present).
Dr. Cedeño has completed appointments as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow (2006-2007, University of Pittsburgh) and a Bingham Fellow (Louisville, 2012). He currently serves on the Board of the Kentucky Humanities Council and the National Conference of Governor's Schools.
The ceremony is at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 14, in the Academic-Athletic Center (AAC).
For more information on MSU's 2024 Fall Commencement and to livestream the ceremonies, visit moreheadstate.edu/graduation.
