Constitution Day Conference 2026
See the livestream of the conference.
See photos of the conference.
The Center for Constitutional Studies (CCS) hosts its annual Constitution Day conference Sept. 15, 2026, on UVU campus in Clarke Building (CB) 101.
The theme of the conference is To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and American Self-Government.
Guest presenters include Dr. James Stoner, Lousiana State University; Dr. Jack Rakove, Stanford University; and Dr. Elizabeth Kaufer Busch, Christopher Newport University.
Conference Schedule | Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026
- Opener | 9:30 a.m. | CB 101
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- Pre-show for high-school students attending the conference
- Session 1 | 10 a.m. | CB 101
- James Stoner, Louisiana State University | "Begin the World Over Again": What the American Revolution Did and Did Not Do
- Session 2 | 11:30 a.m. | CB 101
- Elizabeth Kaufer Busch, Christopher Newport University | Ending Tyranny: How the Declaration Creates Constitutionalism
- Lunch Break | 12:30 p.m.
- Session 3 | 2:30 p.m. | CB 101
- Jack Rakove, Stanford University | The Dilemma of Declaring Rights
- Adjourn | 3:45 p.m.
Presenters and Panelists
- James Stoner | Professor James R. Stoner, Jr., is Hermann Moyse, Jr., Professor of Political Science and Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute at Louisiana State University. He is the author of Common-Law Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism (Kansas, 2003) and Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the Origins of American Constitutionalism (Kansas, 1992), as well as a number of articles and essays. He is co-editor of five books, including Free Speech and Intellectual Diversity in Higher Education (Lexington, 2023), with Paul O. Carrese and Carol McNamara.
- Jack Rakove | The William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science (emeritus) at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1980. His principal areas of research include the origins of the American Revolution and Constitution, the political practice and theory of James Madison, and the role of historical knowledge in constitutional litigation. He is the author of eight books, including Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution(1996), which won the Pulitzer Prize in History, and Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America (2010), which was a finalist for the George Washington Prize.
- Elizabeth Kaufer Busch | Founder and Co-Director of the Center for American Studies, the Laura and Pete Walker Professor of American Studies, and Director of American Studies at Christopher Newport University. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Michigan State University, specializing in modern and American political thought, and previously served as Assistant Professor of Government at Berry College. Her current book project, The American Proposition: Still Our Last, Best Hope (forthcoming, Bloomsbury), co-authored with William E. Thro, argues that recovering a shared commitment to constitutional limits, unalienable rights, and human equality—particularly within higher education—is essential to overcoming the nation's political and cultural divisions.