Celebrated philosopher to present 2011 Burke Lecture on Feb. 10

Noted professor of law and philosophy Susan Haack, Ph.D., will present a talk on the First Amendment for the Richard J. Burke Lecture in Philosophy, Religion and Society from 7-9 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 10, in Banquet Room B in the Oakland Center.

Dr. Haack will discuss “Cracks in the Wall, a Bulge Under the Carpet: The Singular Story of Religion, Evolution and the U.S. Constitution.” The talk will center on the evolution of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, and specifically its role in the teaching of evolution in public high schools.

Dr. Haack was educated at Oxford and Cambridge universities in England, and served as a lecturer, reader and professor at the University of Warwick.

Since 1990 she has taught at the University of Miami in Florida, where she now is Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law.

She is the author of several books and numerous articles on logic, epistemology, philosophy, metaphysics, law and science. In 2004, Dr. Haack was included in “100 Philosophers: The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers,” as one of the handful of living philosophers so honored. In 2005, she was included in a list in the Sunday Independent (London) of the 10 most important women philosophers of all time.

The Burke Lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the website or contact Kristin Clarke at (248) 370-2650; e-mail klclarke@oakland.edu.