16 – 17 September 2026
San Francisco State University has a proud tradition of organizing conferences for Constitution and Citizenship Day, a national holiday that commemorates the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. The conference provides multiple opportunities to reflect critically on the past, present, and future of constitutional rights, freedoms, citizenship, democracy, equality, and justice.
Wednesday, Sept. 16
Revolution(s) in Global Context
A roundtable of professors will respond to the Sutro Library’s exhibit of rare materials related to the American, French, and Haitian revolutions and Latin American independence.
Time: 9:30 – 11 a.m.
Location: Special Collections & Archives, LIB 460
Museums and the Fullness of History
A keynote presentation by Lori Fogarty, Director of the Oakland Museum, followed by a conversation with Museum Studies professor Lissette Jiménez and an audience Q&A.
Time: 4 – 6 p.m.
Location: Library Events Room, LIB 121
Thursday, Sept. 17
Building a Community Archive: The 1968 SFSU BSU/TWLF Student Strike College of Ethnic Studies Oral History Collective
Dr. Tiffany Caesar, Africana Studies professor; Hal Saga, MA student in Ethnic Studies; and Sydney Jackson Sihombing, BA in History, will present a roundtable about digital technologies and historical storytelling. Sutro Library will feature selections from their 2016 Women’s March poster collection.
Time: 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Location: Special Collections & Archives, LIB 460
Queering the Bicentennial: Patriots, Protesters, Pornographers, and Profiteers in the 1970s
Marc Stein, the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History and current president of the Organization of American Historians (OAH), will discuss his new book, Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s. Sutro Library will feature selections from their 2016 Women’s March poster collection.
Time: 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.
Location: Special Collections & Archives, LIB 460
Gallery Exhibit
On Strike! Shut It Down! SF State Strikes of 1968–69
Explore a student-curated and student-designed exhibition on the historic student-led strikes of the 1960s, featuring archival video footage, photos, artwork, and documents.
Time: Ongoing
Location: Special Collections Gallery, LIB 462
Contact
Updated details about the conference program will be added in the coming weeks. The conference coordinator is Marc Stein, Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History (marcs@sfsu.edu). The sponsors are the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, the History Department, and the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Chair in U.S. History.
Accessibility
The conference sponsors are the College of Liberal & Creative Arts, the History Department, the History Students Association, and the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Chair in U.S. History. The Rights and Wrongs conference welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations upon request. SFSU students, faculty, and staff with disabilities who need reasonable accommodations are encouraged to contact the Disability Programs and Resource Center (DPRC), which is available to facilitate the reasonable accommodations process. The DPRC is located in the Student Service Building and can be reached by telephone (voice/415-338-2472, video phone/415-335-7210) or by email (dprc@sfsu.edu). Others who need reasonable accommodations for this event can contact Sarah Crabtree at slc123@sfsu.edu as soon as possible so the request can be reviewed.
Acknowledgements
Grateful acknowledgement to Interim-Dean David Landy for the support of the College of Liberal & Creative Arts; Laura Lisy-Wagner (Chair) for the support of the History Department; Cecilia Cao for website management; Audrey Chuck for financial administration; Academic Technology for Canvas support; Demille Lavon Taylor for poster design; and Reese Uteda for conference assistance. We also acknowledge with appreciation the Pasker/Pittman families for their generous support of the Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Chair, which supports historical and legal studies at SFSU.
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