Along with pretty much everyone else, I’ve had my head and heart full of Dolly. She means a lot to me and my family. I have a large back tattoo of ‘islands in the stream’ in which each island represents a close family member. At our wedding reception at the local pub people were awarded a badge with either Dolly or Kenny’s face on it, dictating which part they would sing at the karaoke mass sing along. When my mum died, my oldest grrrl toasted her life with the last bottle of Dolly’s prosecco.

On numerous difficult health days my mantra has long been ‘better get to livin’.

For a number of years I submitted a request for Dolly to be nominated for an honourary degree from the University of Sussex. It never happened. But in recognition of of how fucking cool it could have been, here is the form I submitted (Note this is pre-pandemic)

CONFIDENTIAL UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

HONORARY AWARD NOMINATION FORM

Name of individual being proposed for an Honorary  Award: Dolly Parton

Alumnus/a of the University? /NO

Please set out why you think the University should honour this individual by completing Box 1, Box 2 (optional) and either or both of boxes 3 and 4:

Box 1

Set out in this box the achievements of the individual in respect of what has made them distinctive having achieved excellence in their field.

Dolly Parton has played an important public role contributing to the development, progress and change in society.  Her work, crossing philanthropy, education, popular culture and maintaining a public awareness of the history of folk narratives is an excellent match for the interdisciplinary, public facing, and bottom up approaches that Sussex has been founded on.  She is the world’s most recognisable female country singer, an advocate for children’s literacy and spokeswoman for equality for women.  Her work takes the heritage and history of marginalised people and turns them into something to be publically explored and enjoyed.  Dollywood for example, combines the history of her own career with the preservation of local skills such as, glassworking, grist milling, and foundry work.  She has foregrounded the role of musical education as an important element of community heritage. Her songwriting, is as important as her own performance.

As a musician, song-writer, television performer, writer and actress, stories, and storytelling are at the heart of her musical and heritage work. The ethos of the Dollywood Resort, is based on ‘the rich traditions of storytelling, family and togetherness’

Beyond her worldwide reputation as a performer and her work maintaining the importance of everyday heritage, she is a significant philanthropist in areas of direct connection with Sussex.  Her Dollywood Foundation has been raising funds through concerts since the 1990s.

Her ‘Imagination Library’ was established in 1995 and send one book per month to children from birth to school. This has made an important contribution to awareness of childhood literacy rates and has directly impacted thousands of children’s future engagement with education.  Children in the USA, UK, Canada and Australia have directly benefitted from this programme.  Over 750,000 children in 1600 different communities receive these books. Research has already found significant improvement in early childhood literacy for children enrolled in the program. Further studies have shown improved scores during early literacy testing. Like Dolly’s stories in song, this work is based on the transformative potential that education has for social mobility.

She is a key spokesperson for the Save the Music Foundation which is dedicated to re-introducing music education, and the importance of music as a form of community participation.

 Her importance as a philanthropist has been recognised by the Association of American Publishers, GoodHouskeeping, American Association of School Administrators, National State Teachers of the Year and Parents as Teachers National Center.

Box 2 (NB completion of this box is optional)

Set out in this box how the award to the individual might reinforce the University’s key strategic objectives or increase the profile of a particular area of the University.

Dolly Parton embodies the key areas that Sussex has an international reputation; in community and folkloric heritage, literacy and public engagement, and as an advocate for young women and the LGBTQ community.

  Our world leading American Studies dept. engages with histories of class, popular culture and politics.  Our Centre for Innovation in the Study of Youth and Childhood brings together outward engagement with young people, and research on the significance of early and positive experiences of music and literacy education.  She has been a long standing ally of the LGBTQ community, particularly working hard to raise issues of equality to rural and Christian communities who are so often ignored in discussions around equality and sexuality.  She has publically advocated gay marriage and transrights.

Finally, her work establishing and maintaining a history of country, and folk music is very much in line with Sussex’s roots in folkloric and people’s history through popular culture. These can be traced back to Sussex’s role in the History Workshop and to our unique archival holdings on the Copper Family, for example.

Her Dollywood Foundation collects, curates and values the role of story telling as a shared heritage, something that fits exactly with Sussex’s reputation as a world leader in oral and life history methods.

Box 3

Set out in this box the individual’s previous contribution to, or relationship with, the University.

Her work has influenced and inspired many of us, particular in recent discussions around gender, and popular cultural history.

Box 4

Set out in this box the individual’s potential future advocacy or support for the University.

Dolly Parton’s worldwide reputation would help raise Sussex’s profile as a university that takes popular culture and its educational role seriously.  She has a particularly inspiring impact on young women and the LGBT community. We are a university that have invested in the transformative possibilities of education, of the importance of taking people’s own histories seriously.  From her impoverished background she has used the culture and heritage around her to build a global career, nominated for an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.  Inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame and the National Academy of Ppoular Music, Dolly Parton was recognised as an official ‘Living Legend’ by the US Library of Congress in 2004. As a role model for women, she is second to none. In the current context of ‘lad culture’, and pornification of young women, Sussex would do well to have an older woman who can critique and analyse gender from within as a celebrated role model.  She is a woman who connects with millions of women across generations, as the mass appeal of the film 9 to 5, andher appearance at Glastonbury festival  showed. They connect with her for a reason.  She brings a rich heritage of folk practices and experiences of social mobility and applies  them practically in today’s society.

Dolly Parton would be an excellent honorary member of CIRCY, for example.  Over the last year there has been a considerable growth in ‘Girls Studies’ in the UK.  CIRCY and the Centre for Sexual Dissidence are well positioned to organise a major international conference in this area.  Dolly Parton would be the ultimate keynote at such an event.