CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2018
| Author | Bowles, Calla Johnson |
|---|---|
| Title | Ghosts of Willowbrook: Disability, Mourning, and Feminism |
| Summary | From 1951 to 1987, the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York served developmentally disabled children and adults. During its relatively brief tenure Willowbrook was wracked with scandals related to endemic mistreatment and neglect of its residents. Residents, or more accurately inmates, endured physical and sexual abuse from other inmates and attendants alike, suffered from lack of appropriate food, clothing, and hygiene, were purposefully infected with hepatitis as part of a scientific study, had vasectomies and hysterectomies performed without their consent or knowledge, and received no education to speak of despite the purported aim of the institution. In short: an inmate at Willowbrook State School could be the subject of almost all forms of ableist violence within the thirty-six years of operation. In this project I examine the legacy of Willowbrook as a means to approach the larger construction of violence against disabled people. How can Willowbrook be mourned and what are the feminist possibilities of mourning Willowbrook? My research utilizes documentaries and memoirs about Willowbrook—how they construct Willowbrook, Willowbrook’s former residents, and the aftermath of Willowbrook. For this analysis I utilize the hauntological method, looking for contradictions and absences in my source material—I am looking for ghosts. I suggest in this work that the ghost may have a feminist function in considering our responses to violence against disabled people. There must be a method of mourning that takes the fractured structure of life and death for disabled people as its core precept. |
| Supervisor | Hyaesin, Yoon; Lukic, Jasmina |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2018/bowles_calla.pdf |
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