UAA Polaris lecture series welcomes Michael Zuckert

Exploring links between American political principles and Christianity
UAA continues its highly regarded Polaris lecture series when it hosts Michael Zuckert, Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, for an evening event entitled "America's Two Foundings."  This free lecture will be held on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in UAA/APU Consortium Library, room 307.

The continuing controversy about the place of religion in America's founding is one of the chief elements of the culture war in America.  Zuckert's lecture will investigate the relationship between American political principles and Christianity by looking at the two great founding moments of American life-the arrival of the Pilgrims and the making of the American Revolution.  Two texts he will focus on include the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence.

Professor Zuckert received his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. A former professor at Carleton College, Zuckert now teaches Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He has written extensively on American political thought and the political philosophy of early modernity. The author of several books, The Truth about Leo Strauss (2006), coauthored by Catherine Zuckert, is his most recent.

The Polaris lectures, named for the North Star on Alaska's flag, address a wide range of subjects in the liberal arts.  Organized by the UAA Democracy Forum with assistance from the University Honors Forty-Ninth State Fellows Program, the Office of Community Partnerships, the Polaris Society, the Alaska Humanities Forum, and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Polaris lecture series began in the 1980s to commemorate the bicentenary of the American Constitution.

Zuckert's lecture is free and open to the public.  Parking is free.