Upcoming events
Clinical, Sociological, and Cultural Dimensions of Frailty: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue
14 - 16 November 2023 | Fondation Brocher, Geneva | Professor Susan Pickard and Dr Victoria Cluley
An annual symposium from Fondation Brocher.
"Despite the rich and complex nature and meanings of frailty, researchers who study frailty tend to do so in distinct disciplinary enclaves and rarely talk to one another. Clinicians and social scientists, those working in the field of social or cultural gerontology and medical humanities, anthropologists of ageing, and science and technology (STS) scholars have their own conferences and their own journals, and consequently they pose different questions through different conceptual tools and rarely if ever share this knowledge with other disciplines.
Our understanding of frailty – both viewed as a clinical technology and as a socio-cultural phenomenon - will immensely benefit from conversations between the social sciences and biomedicine to generate new transdisciplinary understandings of the problem. Such understandings would seek to go beyond ‘decline’ narratives (Gullette, 1997) and notions of individual and/or physiological failure, by bringing different conceptual tools and approaches to bear on the issue, as well as reconfiguring ones we already have, and finally by drawing on insights from societies in the east and the global south."
The workshop is organised around five themes:
1. An overview of innovation in frailty technologies
2. Social and philosophical concepts, methodologies and theories
3. Imaginaries and alternative imaginaries of the fourth age
4. Unequal ageing, relationships of power and frailty
5. Frailty and the limits of human control
- Download the Brocher Foundation Programme 2023 (PDF)
British Sociological Association (BSA) Death, Dying and Bereavement Working Group Annual Symposium
14 December 2023 | School of Law and Social Justice Building (Hybrid)
This year's symposium, which focusses on the theme of 'Death and Sexuality', will be a hybrid event co-organised by the Centre for Ageing and the Life Course and the British Sociological Association.
Call for Papers - Deadline 18 September 2023, 23:59.
Call for Papers - 2023 BSA Conference (PDF)
Registration will open in Autumn 2023.
Past event highlights
Often Seen but Seldom Heard: Giving Voice to Britain’s Birth Cohort Members
8 November 2023 | School of Law and Social Justice Building
Have you heard of cohort studies? Are you interested in mixed methods research? Here was a fantastic opportunity to engage with a world-leading researcher on British cohort studies from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at UCL.
We were joined by Dr JD Carpentieri, Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Policy, Institution of Education, University College London, who gave the lecture.
Help Really Wanted? The Impact of Age Stereotypes in Job Ads on Applications from Older Workers
11 October 2023 | School of Law and Social Justice Building
In the inaugural seminar for the Centre for Ageing and the Life Course with Professor Ian Burn, Professor of Economics, Management School, University of Liverpool, Ian uncovers age discrimination in labour market for older workers.
Have you ever wondered whether the words used in job ads influence who actually applies? Professor Burn brought us some fascinating research that gets right to the heart of this question. We already know from previous studies that older job seekers face discrimination. But have you ever considered the impact of the language used in job ads? Taking real job ads as their inspiration, Professor Burns and his team employed machine learning techniques to create ads that randomly include or exclude ageist language connected to age-related stereotypes. Interestingly, it turns out that the language used in job ads, which relates to ageist stereotypes, can discourage older workers from pursuing job opportunities. This holds true even when the language isn't overtly or explicitly about age. This effect on the hiring of older workers can be just as significant as direct age-based discrimination in the hiring process.
Exploring Different Sexual Realities in Mid-Late Life: The Consideration of Menopause and the Double Standard of Ageing
15 June 2023 | School of Law and Social Justice Building
In this talk titled, “Exploring Different Sexual Realities in Mid-Late Life: The Consideration of Menopause and the Double Standard of Ageing,” Doctoral Candidate at the University of Georgia, Keely Fox, discussed the importance of considering a multi-dimensional approach when attempting to understand the sexualities of women in their mid-to-late life. Fox aims to connect both feminist and life course perspectives to guide the beginning stages of her mixed methods investigation to capture the lived experiences of women who are ageing in two different countries: the United Kingdom and the United States.
Centre for Ageing and the Life Course - Research Cluster Launch
16 May 2023 | 13:00 - 16:00 | University of Liverpool
We celebrated the launch of the interdisciplinary Centre for Ageing and the Life Course (CALC) research cluster, based in the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool.
The following researchers gave presentations at the launch:
- Professor Liz Barry, University of Warwick, presented on: ‘Blue Nights: The Experience of Frailty in Modern Life-Writing, Literature, and Thought.
- Professor Yu Song, XJTLU, presented on ‘Migrant Grandparents: Care Arrangements and Identity (Re)formation.
- Dr Shibley Rahman, University College London, presented on: ‘When I’m 65. The Precarity of Delirium’.
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