June 26 – Some ‘Age-Friendly’ Advice?: Ableism, Austerity, and New Stories of ‘Active Aging’ 🗓

This talk comes from a larger research project that asks how gender and culture matter in creating age-friendly environments. Understanding that austerity thought warps age advice, making it anything but friendly, I will explore the WHO Age-Friendly framework as a form of 21st century advice literature. The research situates the focus on “active aging” within neoliberal processes and discourses of responsibilization. I will illustrate how humanities perspectives meaningfully challenge that model and o er promising paths to critical work on equity and diversity within the Age-Friendly movement.

Sally Chivers is Full Professor of English and Gender & Women’s Studies at Trent University, Canada, where she teaches about illness, disability, and aging in literature, film and popular culture. She is the author of The Silvering Screen: Old Age and Disability in Cinema (2011) and From Old Woman to Older Women: Contemporary Culture and Women’s Narratives (2003), and the co-editor of Care Home Stories: Aging, Disability and Long-Term Residential Care (2017) and The Problem Body: Projecting Disability and Film (2010). Her ongoing research focuses on the gerontological humanities, care systems, and media studies of age, gender and disability based on the belief that there are new and better stories to tell about aging, disability and care.

You can download the poster for this talk here.