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We are excited to welcome you to San Francisco next week for the 2026 Law and Society Association Annual Meeting!
With the conference just around the corner, we wanted to share a few final reminders and updates to help you prepare for the meeting. Below you will find links to the most up-to-date program schedule, the conference app, highlighted sessions, and more.
We wish you safe travels and look forward to seeing you soon in San Francisco!
| | 2026 Program Book Now Available! | | The 2026 San Francisco program book is now available to download. You will find a welcome message from the program committee co-chairs, as well as a program overview, participant index, and much more! The program book is current as of May 19, 2026. Please use the online schedule or the app to find the most up-to-date information. | | Download the LSA 2026 Annual Meeting Mobile App | |
SEARCH: The App Store or Google Play for “LSA Events”
or
SCAN: Use your device’s QR code scanner
| | A/V Information for Presenters | | |
Best plan: A laptop with HDMI output + your presentation on a USB drive.
All session rooms will have a digital projector and screen. Panelists must supply their own laptop computers if you plan to display slides during their session.
To prepare for a smooth start to your presentation, we recommend bringing a laptop with an HDMI output and saving your presentation on a USB drive. Mac laptop users should bring an adapter that allows them to connect to HDMI. Please come prepared!
| | LSA 2026 Plenary and Awards Ceremony | |
Thursday, May 28th
4:45 pm
Continental 5 and 6
LSA Annual Meeting attendees are invited to the plenary, “Sanctuary,” followed by the 2026 LSA Annual Awards Ceremony and Welcome Reception on Thursday, May 28.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence will open the plenary with a blessing, followed by a moderated discussion with UCLA Chicana/o and Central American Studies Professor Leisy Abrego and Yale Law Professor Monica Bell. The Awards Ceremony will honor 15 trailblazing researchers for their contributions to law and society scholarship.
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Wednesday, May 27th
1:00pm
Folsom Street Community Center
1286 Folsom Street
The CRN6 Day of Dialogue is a collaborative gathering that brings together researchers, organizers, and sex workers for an afternoon of connection, reflection, and strategy. Centered on this year’s theme of sanctuary, the event begins with a participatory World Café, where attendees engage in small-group conversations to share experiences, surface collective priorities, and imagine possibilities for care and resistance.
The second half of the program features a panel of researchers and sex workers in dialogue, bridging lived experience and scholarship to deepen conversations around challenges and advice for building community-research partnerships.
The day concludes with a community mixer and fundraiser next door, featuring a lively burlesque and strip show benefiting a local sex worker–led organization.
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Thursday, May 28th
11:45am
Plaza Room B
This session will honor the memory of Marc Galanter, a former LSA President and an influential scholar of the law and society movement. Everyone is invited to share memories, reflect, and learn more about Marc's wide-ranging contributions to the field, which helped to define the contours of our intellectual community.
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Friday, May 29th
11:45am
Golden Gate 01
This session will be an informal remembrance of Samuel Krislov, a founding member of the Law & Society Association, for his mentorship and scholarship. Whether you were Sam's student, influenced by him, published in the Law and Society Review when he was editor, or are simply curious about the early history of the association, everyone is invited to celebrate his long legacy of teaching, scholarship, and institution building.
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"A Matter of Conscience: Sanctuary in the 1980s to the Present"
Wednesday, May 27th
5:30 - 7:30pm
UC Law San Francisco
333 Golden Gate Avenue, 5th Floor
Featuring: Karen Musalo, Theo Rigby, Ming Hsu Chen, Jose Artiga, and Drew Paton
Please join the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS), Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality (RICE) Center, and the Law & Society Association (LSA) for a film screening and discussion exploring the Sanctuary Movement that took root in the United States in the 1980s.
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"The Birth of Law"
Thursday, May 28th
10:00 am
Plaza Room A
Chair: Florian Grisel | University of Strasbourg
Participants:
Matthew Erie, Mark Fathi Massoud, Fernanda Pirie, Ashley Rubin, Shitong Qiao
How do rules develop without centralized authority? Where do legal norms begin? This roundtable explores the genesis of autonomous legal orders.
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"The Law and Society Review at 60: Sanctuaries, Shadows, and the Next Sixty Years"
Thursday, May 28th
2:45 pm
Plaza Room A
Chair: Lee Cabatingan | University of California, Irvine
Participants: Bill Maurer, Sara Wakefield, Kathryn Henne, Isabel Patten, Michael Ralph
This session reflects on the first 60 years of the LSA's journal, Law and Society Review, and speculates on the next 60.
| | Welcome to San Francisco! | | |
We are pleased to hold the 2026 LSA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA, a city with a rich, unique, and dynamic history. From the 1849 Gold Rush, to the countercultural movements of the mid-twentieth century, to the tech explosion of recent decades, San Francisco has long represented the most concentrated expression of the United States' cultural attitudes and economic realities--for better and for worse.
San Francisco Highlights:
Golden Gate Bridge:
Guide to Biking Across
Guide to Walking Across (bring a jacket!)
Best Spots to View the Bridge:
- Baker Beach
- Battery Spencer
- Crissy Field
- Golden Gate Overlook
- Kirby Cove
- Land's End
Golden Gate Park: San Francisco's much larger answer to Central Park; home to many gardens, museums, and other attractions
Pier 39: sea lions and clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls
Alcatraz Island: former federal penitentiary that held Al Capone and George "Machine Gun" Kelly
The Presidio: former military post turned national park site
Lombard Street: most crooked street in the world (allegedly)
See more here >>
Neighborhoods:
Chinatown: oldest Chinatown in North America
Haight-Ashbury: headquarters for the 1967 Summer of Love
Castro: one of the country's first gay neighborhoods
See more here >>
Museums:
de Young: great views of the city on a clear day
California Academy of Sciences: world-class science museum featuring a planetarium, aquarium, indoor rainforest, and more
Exploratorium: hands-on, interactive science museum
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA)
Legion of Honor
Cable Car Museum
See more here >>
Niche Attractions:
Musee Mechanique: hands-on museum of vintage arcade games
City Lights Bookstore: popular meeting place for Alan Ginsburg and the Beat Poets
Hotel Vertigo: the hotel from Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 classic film, Vertigo
Japanese Tea Garden
San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers
Internet Archive Headquarters
AIDS Interfaith Memorial Chapel
Showgirl Magic Museum
See more here >>
Vistas:
Battery Spencer: the most famous view of the Golden Gate Bridge
Coit Tower: 360-degree views of the city and the Bay
Twin Peaks: Classic view of Downtown along Market St.
Bernel Heights Park
Grand View Park
Land's End
Marin Headlands
Don't skip these meals during your visit!
Cioppino (Italian-American seafood stew):
- Sotto Mare
- Anchor Oyster Bar
- Hog Island Oyster Co.
Vietnamese Garlic Noodles:
Mission-Style Burritos:
- Taqueria El Farolito
- Taqueria La Cumbre
- El Toro Taqueria
Sourdough Bread:
- Acme Bread Company
- Tartine Bakery
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TRANSPORTATION: AIRPORT TO HOTEL
- Rideshare (Uber, Lyft)
- Train (BART – Bay Area Rapid Transit)
RIDESHARE
Domestic Terminals: Domestic Garage, Level 5
Terminal 1: A/B & B
Terminal 2: C & D
Terminal 3: E, F, & F/G
International Terminal: Pick-ups located at Departures/Ticketing Level, Pick-Up/Drop-Off Zones 14 – 17
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TRAIN
SFO BART Station: located in the International Terminal, on the Departures/Ticketing Level near the G Gates
From Domestic Terminals: Take free AirTrain to Garage G/BART Station Stop
Single Ride: $11.80 (Tap to Pay, Cash)
Take the Red-N or Yellow-N line and get off at Powell Street Station.
Walk 0.3 miles from Powell Station to the hotel.
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TRANSPORTATION: GETTING AROUND SAN FRANCISCO
- Rideshare (Uber, Lyft)
- Muni/SFMTA (Network of buses, Metro trains, cable cars, and streetcars)
MUNI/SFMTA (San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency)
Trip Planning:
SFMTA Trip Planner
MuniMobile App
Fare Payment:
Payment Options:
- Tap to Pay
- MuniMobile App
- Clipper Card
- Cash (exact change)
Fares:
Single Ride - $2.85
Day Pass - $5.70
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Registration
Registration will be in the East Lounge during the following hours:
Wednesday, May 27th | 4pm - 6:30pm
Thursday, May 28th | 7am - 6:30pm
Friday, May 29th | 7am - 6:30pm
Saturday, May 30th | 7am - 6:30pm
Sunday, May 31st | 7am - 11am
| | Visit Our Book Exhibit Hall! | | |
The Exhibit Hall will be in Continental Ballroom 4 during the following hours:
Thursday, May 28th |12pm - 8pm
Friday, May 29th | 9am - 5pm
Saturday, May 30th | 9am - 5pm
Sunday, May 31st | 9am - 12pm
| | Thank You To Our Sponsors! | | | | |
