Campus Community Conversations
Campus Community Conversations is a campus-wide initiative from the Office of Inclusive Excellence. Through a series of teach-ins, panel discussions and moderated conversations, Campus Community Conversations seek to bring the UB community together in learning and conversation on a wide range of current topics.
Upcoming Campus Community Conversations
Elections and Intra-Partisan Gerrymandering (9/29/2026)
Date & Time: Tuesday, September 29, 2026, 12:00 - 2:00pm
Location: The Buffalo Room, 10 Capen Hall, North Campus
Intended Audience: Open Event
The Jaeckle Center for Law, Democracy, and Governance and the Office of Inclusive Excellence proudly present the first Campus Community Conversation of the 2026-27 academic year.
Join us on Tuesday, September 29, 2026 at 12:00pm for lunch and a discussion with Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos starting at 12:30pm on how intra-partisan gerrymandering impacts representation, governance, and political power in the United States.
Space is limited, please click here to register.
About Professor Stephanopoulos
Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. His research and teaching interests include election law, constitutional law, administrative law, legislation, and comparative law. His work is particularly focused on the intersection of democratic theory, empirical political science, and the American electoral system.
He is the author of Aligning Election Law (2024) and a coauthor of Election Law: Cases and Materials (7th ed. 2022), and his academic articles have appeared in multiple law journals.
He has been involved in several litigation efforts, including two partisan gerrymandering cases based on his scholarship and decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. He continues to work on litigation and advocacy as the Director of Strategy of Harvard Law School’s Election Law Clinic.
Past Campus Community Conversations
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. Space is limited, please click here to register.
After earning degrees in Biology and Pharmacological and Physiological Science, Nathan H. Lents completed postdoctoral training in Genomics and Computational Biology before joining the faculty of John Jay College of the City University of New York in 2006, where he is now Professor of Biology and the Director of the Cell and Molecular Biology major. Lents’s research focused on the evolution of the human genome with particular focus on human-unique RNA genes and microRNA gene evolution in humans and Neanderthals. He also is a popular science writer and speaker and the author of three books: Not So Different, Human Errors, and The Sexual Evolution.
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.
For more information, please visit our Campus Community Conversation page. Space is limited, please click here to register.
Election Law Teach-In (10/8/2024)
Date & Time: Tuesday, October 8, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Location: Zoom webinar
Intended Audience: Open Event
Professor Manoj Mate will discuss 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.
Sponsored by the Office of Inclusive Excellence.
Free Speech Teach-In (9/25/2024)
Date & Time: Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 12:00pm - 1:30pm
Location: Zoom Webinar
Intended Audience: Open Event
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.
