The 21st Annual Willowbrook Memorial Lecture will be held on Wednesday, May 7 in the Center for the Arts (Building 1P) Recital Hall from  2:45pm to 4:30pm.

This year’s lecture is entitled “Forgetting Is Not an Option: Triumphs and Tragedies of American Deistitutionalization.” Speakers will include:

James W. Conroy, Center for Outcome Analysis and Co-President the Pennhurst Memorial
and Preservation Alliance;
Jean Searle, Co-President of the Pennhurst Memorial and Preservation Alliance;
Diane Buglioli, Deputy Executive Director, A Very Special Place, former Willowbrook staff
member, and coordinator of the Human Rights Walk Project and Land Use Committee for the
Staten Island Developmental Disabilities Council;
Darryl Hill, College of Staten Island, co-author of A History and Sociology of the
Willowbrook State School; and
David Goode, College of Staten Island, co-author of A History and Sociology of the
Willowbrook State School; with
Henry Kennedy, moderator, Willkie Far & Gallagher, LLC, parent of a daughter with disability

The event will highlight the efforts to preserve the memory of Pennhurst State School, an institution in Philadelphia comparable to Willowbrook, and a brief discussion of the newly published book about Willowbrook, A History and Sociology of the Willowbrook State School.

This event is sponsored by the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work and the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences.