Providence, R.I.--Dr. Robert P. George, J.D. '09Hon., the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, will give the keynote address at Providence College's Academic Convocation on Wednesday, September 16.

The ceremony is open to the College community and the public. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. on Hendricken Field. In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved to the Peterson Recreation Center.

In addition to George's address, convocation will feature the presentation of the 2008-09 Joseph R. Accinno Faculty Teaching Award to Dr. Charles R. Toth, associate professor of biology.

The ceremony also will include the introduction of 31 new, full-time faculty members; recognition of 13 recently retired faculty members; the formal conferring of tenure to 12 faculty members; and the formal conferring of promotions in faculty rank.

Teacher and champion of human rights
George has been a faculty member at Princeton since 1985. An award-winning scholar and author, he is a member of the President's Council on Bioethics and the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and as a Judicial Fellow of the U.S. Supreme Court.

George was the 2007 John Dewey Lecturer in Philosophy of Law at Harvard University and the 2008 Judge Guido Calabresi Lecturer at Yale University. Currently, he serves on UNESCO's World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology.

A graduate of Swarthmore College, George earned a master's degree in theological studies and a juris doctorate from Harvard University and a doctorate in philosophy of law from Oxford University.

George, whose areas of expertise include bioethics, constitutional law, philosophy of law, and political philosophy, is the author of many books including Making Men Moral: Civil Liberties and Public Morality (Oxford University Press, 1993) and In Defense of Natural Law (Oxford University Press, 1999).

In 2008, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the highest honors a president can confer on a civilian. He is also the recipient of the Bradley Prize for Intellectual and Civic Achievement and the Sidney Hook Memorial Award of the National Association of Scholars. George was honored with an honorary Doctor of Juridical Science degree by the College at the Ninety-First Commencement Exercises in May.

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