Lecture: Disability, Race, Gender, and Sexuality: Or, How to Become a ‘Student’ at the Willowbrook State School (1950-1985)

A public lecture, “Disability, Race, Gender, and Sexuality: Or, How to Become a ‘Student’ at the
Willowbrook State School (1950-1985),” with Professor Darryl Hill (College of Staten Island, Psychology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies) and Helen Nieves, LMHC (Aristotle’s Psychological and Biofeedback Services) will be held on Thursday, May 15 in Building 6S, Room 138 from 2:30pm to 4:30pm as part of the Psychology Department Colloquium Series.

Willowbrook State School is perhaps one of the more notorious institutions in New York’s history, becoming home to, at one point, more than 5,000disabled New Yorkers. In this archival analysis of the records of Willowbrook residents, we deploy an intersectional framework to explain how children were certified and admitted to Willowbrook, and how residents were characterized by staff throughout their stay at the school.