The UCCS Heller Center for Arts & Humanities and the UCCS Department of Philosophy are delighted to welcome Professor Leland Harper as the Fall 2021 Heller Center Fellow. He is an associate professor of philosophy at Siena Heights University.

Is there racism in heaven? Even asking such a question seems absurd. But, if we operate with one of the two constructs of Heaven typically portrayed in popular culture, then the possibility that racism exists in Heaven is not only real but likely.

Dr. Leland Harper is a Canadian philosopher and since 2018, assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at Siena Heights University (Adrian, Michigan). His most recent book is Multiverse Deism: Shifting Perspectives of God and the World (Lexington 2020). He and Prof. Jennifer Kling (UCCS/Philosophy) just co-authored the article “The Semantic Foundations of White Fragility and the Consequences for Justice,” for a special 2020 issue of the journal Res Philosophica focusing on mass incarceration and racial justice. He received an undergraduate degree from Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Surrey, British Columbia), his master's from Ryerson University (Toronto, Ontario), and a doctorate from the University of Birmingham (Birmingham, UK). He has published articles in various academic journals and edited books. He has two forthcoming books: Democracy in Crisis: Perspectives on a Failing Institution from Vernon Press, and The Words We Speak Become the House We Live in: Language, Race, and Justice in the United States, which will be published by Lexington Press.

His areas of specialization are philosophy of religion and philosophy of race. In the philosophy of religion, he is interested in the epistemic status of miracles and religious experiences and also in the nature of omnipotence. His dissertation was a study of multiverse theory and alternative conceptions of God in which he addresses the theological consequences of theories in quantum physics. In the philosophy of race, he highlights topics related to racial solidarity and the exploration of the terminology used to describe racist dispositions. He has researched and taught epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, critical thinking, ethics, and philosophy of love and sex.

Dr. Harper will be in residence at UCCS from September 13-18, 2021.