Tomiko Brown-Nagin ’92 will address Class of 2023 at Commencement

Tomiko Brown-Nagin ’92, a leading historian on law and society and dean of Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, will be the featured speaker during Furman’s Commencement on May 6.

An award-winning legal historian and an expert in constitutional law and education law and policy, Brown-Nagin is also the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard Law School and a professor of history in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

She has published articles and book chapters on a wide range of topics, including the U.S. Supreme Court’s equal protection jurisprudence, civil rights law and history, the Affordable Care Act and education reform.

Brown-Nagin’s latest book, “Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality,” explores the life and times of the pathbreaking lawyer, politician and judge. Her previous book, “Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement,” was published in 2011.

As chair of the Presidential Committee on Harvard and the Legacy of Slavery, she co-authored a report detailing the university’s direct, financial and intellectual ties to slavery. Harvard subsequently committed $100 million to redress harms to descendant communities in the United States and the Caribbean.

Brown-Nagin, who grew up in Greenwood, South Carolina, was a Truman scholar at Furman as well as a member of Senior Order and Students for Diversity. After graduating summa cum laude from Furman in 1992 with a degree in history, she earned a juris doctorate at Yale Law School in 1997 and a Ph.D. in history at Duke University in 2002.

The Commencement ceremony for the Class of 2023 is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. on May 6 after the traditional procession of students from Furman Mall to Paladin Stadium.

For more information on the events of Commencement Weekend, click here.