ORS Speaker Series: Jess Dillard-Wright

Content

Queer nurses, Hildegard Peplau, and the Lavender Scare

Throughout the academic year, the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing (EMCON) Office of Research and Scholarship (ORS) hosts a series of speakers from campus and beyond to highlight exciting scholarship for the EMCON community. 

In this latest installment, we are proud to feature our very own Jess Dillard‑Wright, PhD, associate professor and associate dean of equity and inclusion. Dr. Dillard-Wright will be discussing their research on the history of queer nurses and their activism in the second half of the 20th century in a presentation titled, "Rumor Without Recourse: The Lavender Scare Comes to Teacher's College." 

Hildegard Peplau remains one of the most notable thought leaders of the 20th century. In the early 1950s, she was a rising star at Columbia's Teachers College and a central innovator in psychiatric and mental health nursing in the US. However, she was nearly booted from her doctoral program and was forced to resign her faculty position at Columbia University Teachers College in 1953, in the wake of whispered allegations of homosexual advances. This presentation will situate Peplau's experiences at Teacher's College in the broader social, political, and academic context of the Cold War timeframe while teasing out implications for the maturing discipline of nursing.

This is a hybrid event. We encourage you to join us in Skinner 08, but you are also more than welcome to join via Zoom. Refreshments will be provided for in-person attendees.

Please feel free to reach out to nursing-research [at] umass [dot] edu (nursing-research[at]umass[dot]edu) with any questions. We look forward to seeing you there!