Furman to hold summer commencement Aug. 12

Kate Kaup, the James B. Duke Professor of Asian Studies and Politics and International Affairs at Furman University, will serve as speaker when Furman holds its summer commencement exercises Saturday, Aug. 12 at 4 p.m. in the Younts Conference Center.

The university will award approximately 60 undergraduate and graduate degrees during commencement. Furman President Elizabeth Davis will preside over the ceremony.

Furman President Elizabeth Davis will preside over the commencement ceremony.

Kaup joined the Furman faculty in 1997 and teaches world politics, Chinese politics and Asian politics in addition to a wide variety of seminars. Her research focuses on ethnic minorities and rule of law developments in China, as well as human rights concerns, and she regularly lectures in Furman’s OLLI program and in public venues across the country.

Kaup is author of Creating the Zhuang: Ethnic Politics in China and editor and contributor to the textbook, Understanding Contemporary Asia. She has served as special adviser for Minority Nationalities Affairs at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and has been a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Yunnan Nationalities University.

Kaup has been chair of the Asian Studies Department and the Furman Faculty, and she serves on the Board of Directors for the Cura Foundation, a non-profit supporting at-risk middle school students in Greenville. A graduate of Princeton University, she holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Government and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.

For more information, contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at 864-294-3107.