September 15-16, 2022
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 2022 conference provides multiple opportunities to reflect critically on the past, present and future of constitutional rights, freedoms, citizenship, democracy, equality and justice.
Unless otherwise noted, all sessions will take place in Library 121. For further information continue to visit this website and follow social media, #rightsandwrongs; @RightsWrongsSF.
Further details about the conference program will be announced in the coming weeks. The conference coordinator is Marc Stein, Jamie and Phyllis Pasker Professor of History (marcs@sfsu.edu).
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.
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Session 1
Keynote Presentation by Leti Volpp - “Citizenship Acts: The Legacy of Ozawa v. United States”
9:30 - 10:45 a.m., Humanities Building 133
Moderator: Marc Stein (SF State History Department)
The Robert D. and Leslie Kay Raven Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley, Volpp earned a JD from Columbia Law School, a MSc in Legal Studies from the University of Edinburgh, and a MSc in Public Health from Harvard. She is the co-editor of Looking for Law in All the Wrong Places (Fordham University Press, 2019) and Legal Borderlands (Johns Hopkins Univ. 2006). Her recent publications include “Migrant Justice Now” in the Colorado Law Review (2021); “Pushing Out and Bleeding In: On the Mobility of Borders” in The Shifting Border: Ayelet Shachar in Dialogue (Manchester Univ. Press, 2020); “Protecting the Nation from ‘Honor Killings’” in Constitutional Commentary (2019); “Refugees Welcome?” in the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal (2018); and “Passports in the Time of Trump” in Symplokē (2018). Her honors include two Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowships, a MacArthur Foundation Individual Research and Writing Grant, the Association of American Law Schools Minority Section Derrick A. Bell, Jr., Award, and the Professor Keith Aoki Asian Pacific American Jurisprudence Award.
Session 2
Abraham Lincoln’s Constitution
11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m., Library 121
Moderator: Eva Sheppard Wolf (SF State History Department)
Peter Field (University of Canterbury, Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha, School of Humanities and Creative Arts): “‘A Picture of Silver Framing an Apple of Gold’: Abraham Lincoln’s Understanding of the American Constitution”
Session 3
Keynote Presentation by Radhika Rao - “Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: Roe, Dobbs, and the Future of Abortion”
12:30 - 1:45 p.m., Library 121
Moderator: Marc Stein (SF State History Department)
Radhika Rao will present “Reproductive Rights and Wrongs: Roe, Dobbs, and the Future of Abortion.” Professor of Law and Harry and Lillian Hastings Research Chair at the University of California Hastings College of Law, Rao earned her JD magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, was Supreme Court Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and clerked for Harry Blackmun and Thurgood Marshall at the US Supreme Court. She has been a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School and the University of Michigan and a Fulbright Distinguished Professor at the University of Trento in Italy. Her recent publications include “Informed Consent, Body Property, and Self-Sovereignty” in Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (2016); “Selective Reduction: ‘A Soft Cover for Hard Choices’ or Another Name for Abortion” in Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics (2015); and “Equal Liberty: Assisted Reproductive Technology and Reproductive Equality” in UCLA Law Review (2008). She also wrote the entry on abortion for the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Comparative Constitutional Law (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017). She has served as a member of the California Advisory Committee on Human Cloning and currently serves on the California Human Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee.
Friday, September 16, 2022
Session 4
Threats to Democracy
10:30 a.m. - noon, Library 121
Moderator: Charles Postel (SF State History Department)
Rebecca Eissler (SF State Political Science Department), “The Nature of the Presidency: Lessons from January 6th”
Nick Conway (SF State Political Science Department), “In Through the Backdoor: Recent Redistricting and Election Challenges at the Supreme Court”
Session 5
Reproductive Justice
12:30 - 2 p.m., Library 121
Moderator: Karen Boyce (SF State Health Promotion and Wellness)
Marc Stein (SF State History Department): “From Marital to Reproductive Rights: Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Eisenstadt v. Baird”
Amanda Michelle Roberti (SF State Political Science Department): “From Reproductive Just-Us to Reproductive Justice: Forging an Inclusive and Dignity-Based Abortion Policy Post-Roe”
Session 6
Workers’ Rights: Labor Confronts the Law and the Supreme Court
2:15 - 3:45 p.m., Library 121
Moderator: Sue Englander (SF State History Department)
William B. Gould IV (Stanford Law School): “The Supreme Court and Labor Law: Some Reflections on Janus and Other High Court Rulings”
Karen Sawislak (University of San Francisco Faculty Association): “Labor Law on the Ground”
Reuel Schiller (University of California Hastings College of Law): “Unions and the State: What Labor History Tells Us About the Relationship Between Unions and the Constitution”
The Rights and Wrongs conference welcomes persons with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations upon request. SF State 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 Marc Stein at marcs@sfsu.edu as soon as possible so the request can be reviewed.
Grateful acknowledgement to Dean Andrew T. Harris and Interim Dean Sophie Clavier for the support of the College of Liberal & Creative Arts; Laura Lisy-Wagner (Chair) for the support of the History Department; Alexis Cabrera, Sheri Kennedy, and Diana Rumjahn for website management; Niko Sigua, Ruth Truman, Dylan Weir, and Jennifer Zoland for administrative assistance; Audrey Chuck for financial administration; Christopher Clark for communications and technology assistance; Academic Technology for ilearn support; and Erick Delgado for poster design. 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 SF State.