The connection between drugs, race and the rise of the carceral state in the United States will be explored by Niagara University History professor Michael Durfee in a presentation, “Race, Space, and the Making of Mass Incarceration,” on Thursday, Nov. 3, at noon in Williams Center Room S204.
Dr. Durfee investigates grassroots activism related to drug abuse and legislation, the media’s role in what he calls the crack panic and the current rise of mass incarceration. Durfee serves as a contributing editor for “Points: The Blog of the Alcohol and Drugs History Society,” an academic group blog that brings together scholars with the goal of producing original and thoughtful reflections on the history of alcohol and drugs, the web of policy surrounding them and their place in popular culture.
Durfee earned his doctoral degree in History from the State University at Buffalo in 2015 with the dissertation, “Crack Era Reform: A Brief History of Crack and the Rise of the Carceral State, 1985-1992.”
The lecture, sponsored by the Department of History and the Honors Program, is free and open to the public.
