Grace Kao

Ph.D. in Religion at Harvard University, 2003.

Grace Kao is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies. She regularly teaches "Religious Ethics," "Women, Ethics, and Religion," "Religion in American Life," "War and Peace," and “American Life: Post 9/11” and intends to teach courses on human rights and the philosophy of religion in the future. Given her training in both religious studies and philosophy (in addtion to her Ph.D. in Religion, Kao also earned a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Stanford University), her work and interests lie at the intersection of both fields. Her book, Grounding Human Rights in a Pluralist World: Between Minimalist and Maximalist Approaches, is currently under contract with Georgetown University Press. Professor Kao is an active member of the American Academy of Religion: she serves on the national steering committee of the “Law, Religion, and Culture” consultation and is the co-chair of the regional “Religion, Ethics, and Society” section. She is also active in the Society of Christian Ethics and is a founding member of the Asian and Asian-American Working Group.

Representative Publications:

Grace Kao and Jerome Copulsky, “The Pledge of Allegiance and the Meanings and Limits of Civil Religion,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 75.1 (2007): 121-149.

Grace Kao, “‘One Nation Under God’ or Taking the Lord's Name in Vain? Christian Reflections on The Pledge of Allegiance,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 27. 1 (2007): 183-204.

Grace Kao, “The Logic of Anti-Proselytization, Revisited.” In Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars, ed. Rosalind I. J. Hackett. London: Equinox Press (forthcoming in 2007).

Grace Kao, “Consistency in Ecofeminist Ethics: Contextual Moral Vegetarianism and Abortion,” International Journal of the Humanities 3.11 (2005/2006): 11-22.