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Festival Albertine: Redefining Normality and Disease

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Elizabeth Guffey, Siri Hustvedt and Laure Murat will join two representatives of L’Oiseau Mouche Theater Company to discuss how the understanding of mental illness can move beyond a dichotomous perception of normality and disease. Moderated by Sara Hendren.

RSVP is required.
Please note seating is extremely limited and is available on a first-come first-serve basis.

Watch this event live via Livestream on Nov. 3 at 4:30pm (EST).

Elizabeth Guffey works at the intersection of art, design and disability studies. Her book Designing Disability: Symbols, Space and Society (Bloomsbury) that designs like the International Symbol of Access or “wheelchair symbol” can alter the environment, making people more disabled or less, depending on the design’s planning and use. She is also Founding Editor of the academic journal Design and Culture. Guffey currently heads the MA in Modern and Contemporary Art, Criticism and Theory at the State University of New York, Purchase College.

Sara Hendren’s recent work includes collaborative public art and social design that engages the human body, technology, and the politics of disability. She frequently writes and lectures on prosthetics, disability studies, hybrid art-engineering practices, critical design, and related topics. Her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad and is held in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art. In spring 2018, she is a Logan Nonfiction Fellow at the Carey Institute for Global Good.

Siri Hustvedt has a PhD in English literature from Columbia University and is a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. The author of six novels, four collections of essays, and a work of nonfiction, Hustvedt is the recipient of numerous awards. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

Laure Murat is the Director of the Center for European and Russian Studies at UCLA, and professor in the Department of French and Francophone Studies. She specializes in cultural studies, history of psychiatry, and queer theory. She is the author of several books, including The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon. Towards a Political History of Psychiatry (2014), and is a columnist for the French newspaper Libération.

L’Oiseau Mouche is a theater company based in Roubaix, France that consists of 23 members, all of whom are professional actors with mental disabilities. Its working condition is highly collaborative, with everyone taking part in the cleaning, the welcoming of the audience, and other activities. Stéphane Frimat, the director of the company, and actress Alpérine will participate in the panel discussion.

This event is part of Festival Albertine, an annual, five-day event hosted by Albertine Books, the bookshop and cultural center operated by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the US. Inaugurated in 2014, Festival Albertine has become a vital summit for discourse between leading French-speaking and American thinkers. Previous curators include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Gloria Steinem and others.

Festival Albertine is presented in partnership with The Recanati-Kaplan Foundation, Susannah Hunnewell, Van Cleef & Arpels, Air France, Institut français, Onassis Foundation USA, Carnegie Corporation of New York, and Emily and James Hamilton. Generous support is provided by Champagne Pommery and Intercontinental New York Barclay. Media Partner: The New York Review of Books.

Albertine is committed to making its bookstore and events accessible to all visitors. For information about wheelchair accessibility, elevators, restrooms, and accommodation for those who have hearing impairments, please refer to albertine.com/about-us or write to us at info@albertine.com.

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Festival Albertine: Redefining Normality and Disease

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