Celebrating 2 years of SF's Francophone Museum with a deep dive into the history of French contributions to Bay Area universities.

From the Quebecois priests and Walloon sisters who settled in the Santa Clara Valley during the Gold Rush, to the modern French-U.S. programs that have established an official French presence at UC Berkeley and Stanford — with François Mitterrand's landmark visit in May 1984 as a turning point along the way — French and Francophone students, faculty, and administrators have played a meaningful role in shaping the San Francisco Bay Area's academic landscape.

In celebration of the second anniversary of the Francophone Museum in San Francisco, join us for this conference talk from David Do Paço tracing the economic, social, political, and cultural threads of French-U.S. academia in the Bay Area and beyond. The talk draws attention to its deeply international character and, through the lens of France's engagement, examines how academic and scientific diplomacy has shaped the reach and reputation of U.S. universities. It also looks at the internal dynamics of the Franco-American scholarly community.

David Do Paço has served as the inaugural attaché for academic cooperation in San Francisco where, on campuses, he represents the cultural services of the Embassy of France in the U.S. — Villa Albertine —since 2023. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and has taught at Paris I, Sciences Po, and Columbia University. His work contributes to the new diplomatic history and explores diasporic dynamics and the social life of foreigners. We are grateful for his pro bono participation in this conference.

This event will be held in French.

Free for students. $5 for members of the Alliance Française de San Francisco, $10 general entry.