The Office of Inclusive Excellence is presenting two talks next months in association with the exhibition “Revolution: Civil Rights at UB, 1960-1975,” currently on display in the Silverman Library.

“Make the Struggle Everyday: A Retrospective on 50 years of Student Protests at Predominately White Institutions” by Lori Patton Davis, professor of urban education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, will take place from 2:30-4 p.m. March 8 in 106 O’Brian Hall, North Campus.

It is co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Education.

The following week, David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, will speak on “Mass Incarceration in the United States.”

His lecture, co-sponsored by the School of Law, will be held at 4:30 p.m. March 13 in 509 O’Brian Hall.

Both lectures are free of charge and open to the public.

The ACLU’s National Prison Project challenges the conditions of confinement in prison, jails and other detention facilities, as well as the policies that have given the United States the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Fathi, who was named director of the Prison Project in 2010 after 10 years as a staff lawyer with the organization, has special expertise in challenging “supermax” prisons, where prisoners are held for months or years in conditions of almost total isolation.

He also represented the ACLU in negotiations that lead to the adoption of the “United Nations Revised Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners,” also known as the “Nelson Mandela Rules.” The revision, which was passed unanimously by the U.N. General Assembly, updated the 1955 resolution to reflect recent advances in correctional science and best practices.

Patton Davis is a higher education scholar whose research agenda focuses on African Americans in postsecondary contexts, Critical Race Theory as applied to higher education, student development theory and the influence of campus environments on student experiences.

She is a leading researcher in the area of culture centers — organizations, buildings or complexes that promote culture and arts. She was one of the first to write a dissertation focusing on culture centers, “From Protest to Progress: An Examination of the Relevance, Relationships and Roles of Black Culture Centers (BCCs),” and more recently edited the book “Campus Culture Centers in Higher Education,” which highlights various types of racial- and ethnic-specific culture centers in higher education, their continued relevance and implications for their existence in relation to student retention and success.

For more information on the lectures, contact the Office of Inclusive Excellence at 645-6200.