The Stories Are Still There

Posted on by

On November 9, 2025, journalist Emilia Otte published a feature in The CT Mirror examining the history and legacy of the Mansfield Training School. The article follows the work of UConn English professor Brenda Brueggemann and her students as they piece together the school’s complicated past. The team has worked to ensure this history is not forgotten through the building of this memorial website, the collection of oral histories, and countless hours of archival research.

Otte situates Mansfield Training School in the broader history of disability institutions across the United States. The school’s story is traced through its origins in the mid-1800s to its closure in 1993. But the piece also highlights the importance of lived experience through stories from former workers and family members.

This article explores the reality of institutionalization and the continuing efforts to ensure that this history is preserved and passed onto future generations.

Read the full article by Emilia Otte in The CT Mirror: UConn grapples with the legacy of a CT institution for the disabled

Brenda Brueggemann, professor at the University of Connecticut and director of the Mansfield Training School Memorial and Museum Project, poses in her office on campus. Photo by Shahrzad Rasekh for The Connecticut Mirror.

English professor Brenda Brueggemann in her office at the University of Connecticut. CREDIT:SHAHRZAD RASEKH / CT MIRROR