Upcoming events
Frailty, Illness, and Health in Deep Old Age: Perspectives from Medical Sociology and Social Gerontology
11 December 2024 | School of Law and Social Justice Building
CALL FOR PAPERS
We invite scholars at all career stages to submit abstracts for a one-day, in-person conference hosted by the Centre for Ageing and the Life Course.
This conference aims bring together researchers working in social gerontology and/or medical sociology to discuss concepts, methods and empirical research on the topic of ageing and frailty. We are particularly keen to engage with empirical and theoretical research in progress as well as the work of new and emerging global scholars.
Possible themes can include, but are not restricted to:
- The political implications of frailty as a social, cultural or medical category
- The relationship between health and illness in old age
- Frailty and inequalities
- Frailty, corporeality and embodiment
- Gender, ethnicity and intersectional issues in frailty
- Life course approaches to frailty
- Frailty as a gateway to the ‘fourth age’
- The socio-cultural, psychological and environmental dimensions of frailty
- Frailty in the global South
- Innovative methodological and conceptual approaches to viewing frailty
- Co-production and older people’s experience of frailty
We will pay reasonable travel and accommodation costs for speakers whose papers are accepted.
Abstracts should be 150-300 words. Please send all abstracts, together with a brief bio to Professor Paul Higgs (p.higgs@ucl.ac.uk) and Professor Susan Pickard (susan.pickard@liverpool.ac.uk) by 15th July 2024. Colleagues will be notified about the status of their proposals by 1st August with the final programme being published by 1st September 2024.
Organising Committee
- Professor Paul Higgs, Professor of the Sociology of Ageing, University College, London
- Professor Susan Pickard, Professor of Sociology, Centre for Ageing and the Life Course, University of Liverpool
- Dr Chao Fang, Lecturer in Sociology, Centre for Ageing and the Life Course, University of Liverpool
The organisers are pleased to acknowledge the financial support of the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.
- Download the Call for Papers - Poster (PDF)
Past event highlights
New Perspectives on the Menopause
15 June 2024 | King's College London
A one-day cross disciplinary conference discussing recent developments in researching and understanding the menopause.
The aim of the conference is to bring together speakers and attendees from a range of disciplines, backgrounds and geographies in order to discuss recent developments in researching and understanding the menopause in diverse contexts, whether professional, medical, historical, cross-cultural or personal.
The conference will have four non-parallel panels that will broadly focus on the following areas: the experience of the menopause in different cultures and contexts; mediatic representations of the menopause; menopause in the workplace, including the plenary by Professor Kathleen Riach; and biocultural and historical discourses on the menopause.
A selection of papers presented at the conference will be put forward for consideration in a forthcoming volume on the menopause, edited by Professor Susan Pickard, in the De Gruyter series, Ageing and Care in 2025.
- Download the programme New Perspectives on the Menopause - Programme (PDF)
Workshop: Exploring the Potential for Industry - Academia Collaboration in Social Science Research on Smart Ageing Care
20 May 2024 | Online
This workshop showcased industry-academia collaboration in social science research on smart ageing care and provide a platform for attendees to explore potential collaborations within and beyond the workshop
Speakers: Dr Chao Fang (XJTLU Visiting Fellow, University of Liverpool), Mr Binbin Chen (CEO, Beijing Guangrong Innovative Technology Co.), Ms Yanda Cui (CTO, Beijing Guangrong Innovative Technology Co.).
Taking upon ourselves the entirety of our human state, imagining what it is to be old
14 May 2024 | HS436 and Tencent Meeting, XJTLU
According to Simone de Beauvoir, the old are the Other in society and indeed, in a contemporary society which resists, denies, and increasingly tries to find 'cures' for ageing, this is more the case perhaps than ever.
Professor Susan Pickard discussed for the Centre for Culture, Communication, and Society, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
Fear of ageing is really a fear of the unknown - and modern society is making things worse
26 April 2024 | X-Bar, XJTLU
For the first time in human history, we have entered an era in which reaching old age is taken for granted. Yet, despite this longer life expectancy, many people today view ageing as something negative and frightening.
Dr Chao Fang discusses for the Centre for Culture, Communication, and Society, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
Centre for Ageing and the Life Course Seminar Series
17 April 2024 | Seminar Room 1, University of Liverpool Management School
Talk 1
Title: “Having a senior moment” in film and TV: The Women Over 50 Film Festival fighting ageism and celebrating older women in cinemas, community venues and elder-care residential homes.
Speaker: Ms Nuala O’Sullivan, Founder and Director of the Women Over 50 Film Festival (WOFFF)
Talk 2
Title: Problematising the Problem of the Older Worker
Speaker: Professor Martin Hyde, Professor of Management, School of Business, University of Leicester
CALC February Seminar: "We are good neighbours, but we are not carers!" Conflicted ideas about frailty and (in)dependence in retirement community residents
14 February 2024 | Hybrid | Lecture Theatre 3, Rendall Building, University of Liverpool
Speaker: Dr Sam Carr, Department of Education and Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath
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, focussed on the theme of 'Death and Sexuality', was a hybrid event co-organised by the Centre for Ageing and the Life Course and the British Sociological Association.
Clinical, Sociological, and Cultural Dimensions of Frailty: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue
14 - 16 November 2023 | Fondation Brocher, Geneva
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."
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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