September 11, 2012
The guest speaker for the United States Constitution Day and Citizenship Day is Professor Lynne E. Ford, Ph.D. associate provost for Curriculum and Academic Administration at the College of Charleston in South Carolina.
She is scheduled to speak at SSU on Monday, Sept. 17, at 6:30 p.m. in the University Center West Ballroom on "Gender Equality: A Tale of Two Amendments." The talk is focused around what we can learn about the nature of constitutional equality generally and gender equality more specifically by comparing the basis of the successful suffrage amendment with the failed Equal Rights Amendment.
Ford's teaching and research interests are in American politics with an emphasis on women and politics, elections and voting behavior and civic engagement. Her book, "Women and Politics: The Pursuit of Equality" is now in its third edition.
More than 220 years ago, the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, Penn., and representatives from 12 of the original 13 colonies drafted the Constitution of the United States of America. They met May 25, 1787 and finished the document that became the supreme law of the United States on September 17, 1787.
The law establishing the holiday was created in 2004 with the passage of an amendment by Senator Robert Byrd to the Omnibus Spending Bill of 2004.
Before this law was enacted, the holiday was known as "Citizenship Day." In addition to renaming the holiday "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day," the act mandates that all publicly funded educational institutions provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution on that day.
In May 2005, the U.S. Department of Education announced the enactment of this law and that it would apply to any school receiving federal funds of any kind. This holiday is not observed by granting time off work for federal employees.
The lecture is sponsored by the Office of the Provost. It is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Social Science Professor Stylianos Hadjiyannis, Ph.D. at SHadjiyannis@shawnee.edu or the Office of the Provost at (740) 851-8472.