Associate Professor

Elizabeth Freund Larus (Acting Department Chair for Fall 2009 Semester)

(Ph.D., University of Virginia)

--areas of specialization:

Comparative Politics, International Relations (East Asia), Politics of China and Taiwan;

--scholarly achievements:

Research Fellow, Centre for Asian Pacific Studies, Lingnan College, Hong Kong; Pacific Cultural Foundation Research Grant, Taiwan. Author of Economic Reform in China 1979-2003: The Marketization of Labor and State Enterprises (2005), numerous book chapters and articles on contemporary politics in China and Taiwan, including Soft-power versus hard cash: Retaining diplomatic allies,” in Taiwan and the International Community (2008), and “Taiwan Republic of China,” in Encylopedia of Modern China (2008). and articles in Policy Studies Review, American Asian Review and Asian Affairs.

2007-08 Academic Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) in Washington, D.C.

President, Virginia Consortium for Asisan Studies, 1999-2001.

Professor Elizabeth Larus participated in a delegation of U.S. scholars to visit Taiwan in June 2009. The delegation visit program included visits and interviews with high level government officials and academics, such as the Minister of Defense, deputy speaker of the Taiwan legislature, and mayor of Taizhong City, as well as with members of the National Security Council, Ministry of Foreign Affair, International Trade Office, the Mainland Affairs Council, and key members of Taiwan's two major political parties. Professor Larus also participated in a roundtable discussion of US-China-Taiwan relations with academics at the Institute of International Relations, a think tank at National Chengchih [Political] University. Dr. Larus visited the international headquarters of the Si Chi Foundation, a Buddhist aid non-governmental organization involved in disaster relief as well as aid and development projects worldwide. Dr. Larus ended the trip with a tour of thestate-of-the-art Central Taiwan Science and Research Park in Taizhong City in central Taiwan.

To send e-mail to Professor Elizabeth Freund Larus:  elarus@umw.edu