Inclusive Excellence Past Events
Past Programs
Past Events
2024-25 Events
The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships (4/25/2025)
Date & Time: Friday, April 25, 2025, 12:00 - 2:00pm
Location: 210 Student Union, Landmark Room, North Campus
Intended Audience: Open Event
Join us on Friday, April 25, 2025 at 12:00pm for lunch and a discussion on Dr. Nathan H. Lents' book The Sexual Evolution. In The Sexual Evolution, Lents takes readers on a journey through the animal world, from insects to apes, revealing what the incredible array of sexual diversity can teach us about our own diverse beauty. Nature, it turns out, has made a lot of space for diverse genders and sexual behaviors. And why? Because when it comes to evolution—diversity wins. This is not just a political or social message, instead it’s a biological reality revealed through careful scientific study.
Indigeneity and Governance (4/4/2025)
Date & Time: Friday, April 4, 2025, 11:30am - 1:15pm
Location: 107 Capen, the Colloquium Room, North Campus
Intended Audience: Open Event
Join us on Friday, April 4, 2025 from 11:30am-1:15pm for lunch and a discussion on indigeneity and governance with UB professors Jorge Fabra-Zamora and Montgomery Hill. We will explore a range of issues related to how indigenous populations have defined and negotiated self-governance in the context of colonialism, neo-colonialism and globalization. Professors Fabra-Zamora and Hill will explore how Indigenous communities assert their political autonomy and rights within existing nation-state structures and re-centering Indigenous knowledge systems, legal traditions, and approaches to leadership.
2025 Inclusive Excellence Symposium: Charting a Path Forward for an Inclusive Future (2/28/2025)
Date: Friday, February 28, 9:00am - 3:00pm
Location: Center for the Arts, North Campus
Intended Audience: UB Community
Please join us on Friday, February 28 for the 2025 Inclusive Excellence Symposium: Charting a Path Forward for an Inclusive Future. At the 麻豆传媒o, we remain committed to exploring how we can contribute to building a better future for all, and we continue to celebrate the many programs and initiatives advancing inclusive excellence in our schools and colleges.
The 2025 Inclusive Excellence Symposium will bring together faculty experts from across the 麻豆传媒o, as well as an outstanding keynote speaker, Professor Ruqaiijah Yearby, Kara J. Trott Professor in Health Law from Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Complementing the keynote will be a morning panel on Challenges to DEI and Social Justice with Professor Athena D. Mutua from the UB School of Law and Professor LaGarrett King from the Department of Learning and Instruction in the UB Graduate School of Education. The afternoon panel on Strategies for an Inclusive Future will include remarks from Professor Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr. from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning in the UB School of Architecture and Planning and Professor Mishuana Goeman from the Department of Indigenous Studies in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.
PACOR Implementation Progress Report: Town Hall (11/18/2024)
Date & Time: Monday, November 18th, from 1:00-2:00pm (Online)
Intended Audience: UB Faculty, Staff, and Students
President Satish K. Tripathi and Provost A. Scott Weber invite the 麻豆传媒o community to the third annual town hall to learn about the progress UB is making to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and justice at UB through the implementation of recommendations made by the President's Advisory Council on Race. See the Office of the Provost website for more information.
Election Law Teach-In (10/8/2024)
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 8, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Location: Zoom webinar
Intended Audience: Open Event
The second event of the series will be a teach-in on Tuesday, October 8, 2024 with Professor Manoj Mate discussing the upcoming presidential election with UCLA Law Professor Richard Hasen. Professor Hasen is the Gary T. Schwartz Endowed Chair in Law and Director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project. He is the author of numerous books on election law, including his latest book, A Real Right to Vote: How a Constitutional Amendment Can Safeguard American Democracy.
Professor Hasen and Professor Mate will discuss the challenges facing the nation in this election, including concerns about foreign interference; disinformation; voter suppression and restrictions on minority voter participation; risks posed by non-acceptance of election results; and threats to election certification and the peaceful transition of power.
Free Speech Teach-In (9/25/2024)
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Location: Zoom Webinar
Intended Audience: Open Event
The first Campus Community Conversation will take place on Wednesday, September 25, 2024 and feature UB Law professors Manoj Mate and Paul Linden-Retek in conversation with Vice Provost and Professor of Law, Seval Yildirim, about the parameters of First Amendment free speech protections. The panel will discuss constitutional doctrine covering specific categories of free speech protections across different domains.
Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence.
UB Women’s History Month Symposium: From the Roots to the Sky: Women, Organizing, and Social Justice (3/1/2024)
Date & Time: Friday, March 1, 2024, 8:30am - 2:30pm
Location: UB Center for Tomorrow, North Campus
Intended Audience: Open Event
Please join the UB Office of Inclusive Excellence, the Cora P. Maloney Center, and the UB Gender Institute for the inaugural Women’s History Month Symposium. The symposium will consist of a dynamic plenary panel focused on activism; a keynote address by Patrice Funderburg, executive director of the Center for Community Transitions, focusing on social justice; and two workshops on organizing and self-care. It will provide a unique opportunity for UB to come together with faculty, staff, students, and community members to discuss the important roles women hold as activists, organizers, and social justice advocates in society. Faculty, staff, students, and community members of all genders are welcome to attend!
For more information, please visit the Event Webpage. To register, please visit the or the . For questions, please contact the Office of Inclusive Excellence at 716-645-6200 or via email at vpix@buffalo.edu.
Sponsored by the UB Office of Inclusive Excellence (OIX), the Cora P. Maloney Center (CPMC), and the UB Gender Institute.
UB’s Inaugural Arab American Heritage Month Celebration (4/25/2023)
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 25, 2023, 3:00-4:30pm
Location: Student Union 210 (Landmark Room)
Intended Audience: University Community and Alumni
Please join us to celebrate Eid Al Fitr and April’s designation of Arab American Heritage Month for the first time here at UB! We will be hosting several local Arab American leaders to talk about what these events mean to them as well as their experiences and achievements in our local community. Arabic themed hors d’oeuvres and desserts will be available.
Please RSVP viafor planning purposes or visit the for more information.
Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence and PSS Inclusion and Diversity Committee
Javier Ávila One Man Show: "The Trouble With My Name" (10/11/2022)
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 11, 2022, 6:00-7:00pm
Location: Center for the Arts (Screening Room), 麻豆传媒o
Intended Audience: Open Event
Come watch the autobiographical journey of a man who moves between cultures to provide a fascinating perspective of American Latinos who struggle to dispel misconceptions about their identity and place in the world.
To register, . For more information on Dr. Ávila, visit .
Presented by the 麻豆传媒o in collaboration with the Hispanic Heritage Council and the Buffalo State West Side Promise Neighborhood. UB cosponsors include the Office of Inclusive Excellence, College of Arts and Sciences, Intercultural and Diversity Center, Latin American Student Association, and Latin American Law Student Association.
Juneteenth Ticket Offer (Summer 2022)
Date & Time: June 17-19 and 24-26
Intended Audience: Students, Staff and Faculty
In commemoration of Juneteenth, the Office of Inclusive Excellence is offering free tickets to by Lorraine Hansberry being performed at the African American Cultural Center’s . Show dates are June 17-19 and 24-26, and there is a limit of 2 tickets per person. Students are especially encouraged to request tickets, and we welcome staff and faculty requests as well.
If you would like to request tickets, by Wednesday, June 8. Limited tickets are available, and we may not be able to accommodate every request. A representative from the Office of Inclusive Excellence will respond to let you know if you were selected by June 9.
Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning (4/21/2022)
Date & Time: Thursday, April 21, 2022, 12:00-1:00pm
Intended Audience: Open Event
Join poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong, author of New York Times bestseller Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, in conversation with Carrie Tirado Bramen, Director of the UB Gender Institute and professor of English. A book that fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history, Minor Feelings explores the melancholy and shame Hong felt growing up in Los Angeles as the daughter of Korean immigrants, how the comedy of Richard Pryor helped her to address these “minor feelings,” and the dynamics of Asian American racism in the past and present of US race relations. Hong writes with candor and brilliant insight about identity and individuality, family and friendship, and art and politics. Minor Feelings won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
In anticipation of this event, Professor Carrie Tirado Bramen will facilitate a discussion about Minor Feelings on Thursday, April 7th at noon via Zoom. All are welcome.
Presented by the Office of Inclusive Excellence in collaboration with the Gender Institute.
Introduction to Native American Cultural Competency (10/11/2021)
Date & Time: Monday, October 11, 12:00-1:00pm (Online)
Intended Audience: Open Event
This two-session series begins on October 11 (Indigenous Peoples Day) by offering an overview of major Native and Haudenosaunee cultural concepts, discussing challenges to Native health and well-being, and sharing recent and emerging efforts to support community wellness.
Presented by the Office of Inclusive Excellence in partnership with Native American Community Services
Gender Inclusivity in the Classroom (9/21/2021)
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 21, 3:00-4:30pm
Location: Online Event via Zoom ()
Intended Audience: Open Event
Transgender and non-binary students often report finding classroom spaces uncomfortable, ranging from an awkward spotlight being placed on them by well-intentioned faculty to being regularly misgendered and experiencing dysphoria, which interferes with learning. Hear perspectives from UB’s transgender and non-binary students about what faculty can do to make classrooms safer and more affirming spaces. A presentation by Dana Fang will be followed by a panel of gender-expansive students with an opportunity for questions and answers. .
Presenter: Dana Fang is a queer, nonbinary writer and scholar from the Midwest. They received their M.F.A in Poetry from the Iowa Writers Workshop and are currently a PhD candidate in the Poetics Program at the 麻豆传媒o.
Presented by the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the , the Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation, and the Intercultural and Diversity Center.
Progress Pride Paths Ribbon Cutting (9/8/2021)
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 8, 12:00-1:30pm (Knox Quad, Outside the Student Union)
Intended Audience: UB community
All members of the UB community are invited to gather at the Progress Pride Paths on the North Campus. A ribbon cutting will be preceded by brief remarks from campus leaders and followed by a celebration with music, food, and representatives from queer student, faculty, staff, and community groups. Progress Pride Paths is the inaugural site from the Office of the Provost’s Contemplative Site series. The installation is bold art that elevates identity intersectionality and challenges us to recognize privilege and equity at the same time we celebrate all that is beautiful about queerness.
Sponsored by LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association, the Office of Inclusive Excellence, and the Intercultural and Diversity Center
Land, Race, and Indigeneity: Building Solidarity Practices (4/13/2021)
Date & Time: Tuesday, April 13, 12:00–1:00pm
Intended Audience: Open Event
This conversation between Mishuana Goeman and Theresa McCarthy will delve the racialization of Indigenous peoples in North America and its effect on individuals and communities. These ways of “seeing race” and implementing them in settler policies have had profound effects on understanding American Indians as political entities. By unpacking some of the history and they ways that race has shifted and changed over time, Prof. Goeman and McCarthy hope to posit new ways forward for solidarity practices. In order to “ground” this conversation, we will discuss Indigenous art pieces that posit new ways to interpret the history of racializing Indigenous peoples.
Presented by the Office of Inclusive Excellence
Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America (Film Screening) (2/25/2020)
Forbidden: Undocumented and Queer in Rural America is a feature length documentary about an inspiring young man whose story is exceptional, although not unique. When Moises Serrano was just a baby, his parents risked everything to flee Mexico in search of the American dream. Forbidden to live and love as an undocumented gay man in the country he calls home, Serrano saw only one option—to fight for justice.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director, Tiffany Rhynard, and the subject of the film, Moises Serrano.
Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence in partnership with the Department of Theater and Dance
Crosswalk Celebration
Painting the Crosswalk
UB's First Pride Parade (4/24/2019)
Student Union Field filled with For Freedom signs for Spirit Day
On October 18, 2018, the Office of Inclusive Excellence collaborated with the LGBTQ Faculty and Staff Association, the Intercultural and Diversity Center, and LGBTQ student organizations to recognize Spirit Day through a public art display on campus. UB students expressed different forms of freedom important to them using lawn signs designed by the For Freedoms project.