Contributors
JeanMolly Ameru (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Inclusive Special Education program in the School of Education. This spring 2024 she is a teaching assistant for EDU 203: Practicum. She has worked as a high school teacher and later joined several International Organizations in Uganda and South Asia-UNICEF Nepal where she served in different capacities as an Inclusive Education disability (Policy) Specialist. For this exhibition project, she is interested in the dehumanizing practices of the freak shows used as entertainment entities against persons with disabilities for profit by the ableist for self gains. She is also passionate about deinstitutionalisation in schools in the context of students with developmental disabilities, students of color, those from low socioeconomic status, women and girls, immigrants, and non-English language speakers and their families.
Neil Boedicker (he/him) is a master’s student in the Inclusive Special Education (Grades 7-12) program and a member of Project IMPRESS. Neil is most interested in the history of how change was made throughout our country for people who have disabilities. For this exhibition, he is focusing on court cases and how they connect to the deinstitutionalization of Willowbrook.
Caitlin Cafiero (she/they) is a disabled doctoral student in Cultural Foundations of Education. They currently serve as a teaching assistant for EDU 310: The American School but have worked as an early childhood and inclusion teacher. In the scope of this exhibition, Caitlin is particularly interested in re-centering the voices of disabled people themselves in historical discussions of disability, institutionalization, eugenics, and movements towards autonomy and disability justice. Her dissertation research is preliminarily focused on the narrative of polio as a site of formation of disabled identity and how archival silences in that narrative have contributed to existing tensions within the disability community.
Raquell Carpenter (she/her) is a dedicated master’s student enrolled in the Inclusive Special Education Program with a focus on 7-12 Generalist education. Her passion for teaching and inclusivity shines through in her role as a first-year 7th-grade Mathematics Teacher at Brighton Academy Middle School. For this exhibition project, she directs her attention to legal battles and societal shifts concerning the rights and inclusion of individuals with disabilities, focusing on cases such as White vs. Manlius, Webster vs. Perry, and the Supreme Court ruling on the Pennhurst case, which collectively highlight the ongoing struggle between local community interests and the imperative of integrating disabled individuals into mainstream society.
Kayla Cornelius (she/her) is a master’s student in the Inclusive Special Education Program (Grades 7-12 Generalist) and currently a 7th Grade Special Education Teacher at Syracuse STEM at Blodgett. Her research interest lies in exploring how court cases have supported the legality of deinstitutionalization. For this exhibition project, Kayla's research dove into the legal frameworks and precedents that have facilitated the transition from institutional care to community-based settings for individuals with disabilities.
Sierra Eastman (she/her) is a master’s student in the Teaching and Curriculum program. She is currently a mathematics teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Syracuse, New York. As a teacher of a very diverse population of students, Sierra is most interested in advocacy for those with disabilities that affect their learning. For this exhibition, Sierra explored the question of how advocacy has changed throughout disability history, and more specifically, who has done the advocating from the time of institutionalization to now.
Kionna Morrison (she/her) is a master’s student in the Inclusive Special Education (Grades 7-12) program and a member of the Project IMPRESS cohort. She is currently an Algebraic Reasoning Teacher at Huntington PK-8. Kionna was interested in the intersectionality of race and special education. Her research led her to delve deeper into the experiences of people of color in institutions like Willowbrook and how their stories were documented. As times changed, so did the landscape of special education. In the special classes of our time, what is the experience of Black children in these settings? How has their experience been represented in the archives?
Thea Pilipina (she/her) is a masters student in the Inclusive Education 7 - 12 program and is an Urban Teacher Fellow. She is currently an elementary school teacher at Seymour Dual Language Academy in Syracuse, New York. For this exhibition, Thea is interested in the research and the history of eugenics and stirpiculture. She has put her focus on the history and the experiments of early eugenicists such as Hilda Noyes and James Jackson along with other communities that contributed to the idea of eugenics. What was the impact on eugenics? How did eugenics affect the time period?
Bridget Robshaw (she/her) is a master’s student in the Inclusive Special Education (Grades 7-12) program and a member of the Project IMPRESS cohort. She is currently a Resource Teacher (Grades 10-11) at Watertown High School. Bridget is most interested in the lived experience of people with disabilities. For this exhibition project, she is focusing on the historical media representation of people with disabilities.
Gabriel Warner (ey/em/eirs) is a masters student in the Inclusive Special Education 7-12 program and is a Syracuse Urban Teachers Fellow. Ey are an English as a New Language teacher at Lincoln Middle School in Syracuse, New York. As a disabled person, Gabriel was most interested in the historical representation of disabled people in the media and how disabled people themselves had or lacked agency in their participation in these industries.
Julia M. White (she/her) is the instructor of SPE 644. She is a 2023 - 2024 Syracuse University Libraries' Special Collections Research Center Faculty Fellow, and this course and digital exhibition is the culmination of her research and engagement with the SCRC. She is particularly pleased that this exhibit highlights so much of the activism that is the hallmark of the history of the School of Education. Her research interests are inclusive education as a human right and (special) education policy. She would like to thank the librarians and staff for an amazing summer in the SCRC and in particular Jana Rosinski and Patrick Williams for making this exhibition actually happen!