Dear Readers,

Welcome to the second issue of the newsletter of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC).

A lot has happened in the past six months: We have welcomed new co-workers and visiting researchers, acquired a new project, and further established aging and care as research topics.

In this issue, we would also like to inform you about our recent, ongoing, and future research projects and ideas, as well as interesting collaborations. In addition, we would like to invite you to some upcoming events and present opportunities for further participation in our Center.  Let's start an exciting new semester together!

We hope you enjoy reading and thinking with us.

Ulla Kriebernegg and Klaus Wegleitner

Directors of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care

P.S.: Thank you for your support so far by subscribing to our newsletter. We look forward to receiving your comments, which you can send to cirac@uni-graz.at.

Wenn Sie den Newsletter lieber auf Deutsch lesen möchten, klicken Sie bitte hier.

NEWS

Ulla Kriebernegg Elected to the Board of Directors of the Gerontological Society of America

The CIRAC is proud to announce the election of Ulla Kriebernegg to the Board of Directors of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). The GSA is the oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization in the United States dedicated to research, education, and practice in the field of aging, with more than 5,500 members worldwide. Ulla Kriebernegg will officially assume her new position on January 01, 2025.

More information can be found here

 

Ulla Kriebernegg was also named the GSA 2024 Fellow

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) has named Ulla Kriebernegg as newest fellow. This fellow status represents the highest category of GSA membership and is rewarded for outstanding contributions to the field of gerontology including research, teaching, practice, and notable participation in the Society.  Ulla Kriebernegg will be formally recognized as a new fellow during GSA’s 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held from November 13 to 16 2024 in Seattle, Washington. CIRAC members Eva-Maria Trinkaus and Anna-Christina Kainradl will also attend the conference. All three researchers will present several papers.

More information about the GSA 2024 Fellows can be found here

Eva-Maria Trinkaus has been elected to become the new president of the European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS).

The CIRAC has another successful election result to report: Eva-Maria Trinkaus has been elected president of the European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS). A scholar of aging in American literature and cultural studies, she has been a member of ENAS since 2015 and a board member since 2019. She co-organized the ENAS/NANAS Bucharest Aging 2022 conference as well as various workshops and network events. She will represent the network in the upcoming two-year presidential term.

Website of the European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS).

Lebensgroß partnership in EU-CoWork

The EU-funded project "EU-CoWork: Developing Compassionate Workplaces" is investigating how compassionate workplaces can be created. As a part of this project CIRAC is delighted to announce a partnership with Lebensgroß for implementing and evaluating development processes to support employees dealing with serious illness, care responsibilities, loss, dying, death and grief.

Click here for project website.

Welcome, Florence Borggrefe!

Florence Borggrefe, a doctoral student in the Research Focus Group "Aesthetics" at Zurich University of the Arts, joins us as a visiting scholar during the winter semester 2024. Her research connects theories of artistic and aesthetic actions to discourses of care ethics and aging studies. She is a member of the swissuniversities’ doctoral program "Epistemologies of Aesthetic Practices" and a recipient of the German National Academic Foundation’s doctoral scholarship. We look forward to her talk on October 17 (details below).

Welcome, Kristina Kreimer!

Kristina Kreimer joined the CIRAC team in June 2024 and will work for four years as a researcher in the project "EU-CoWork Developing Compassionate Workplaces in Europe". She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and in Romance philology and a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Graz. As part of her dissertation, she wants to focus on vulnerability within (compassionate) workplaces and, more generally, the interplay between empirical research and sociological theory.

Welcome, Laura Hochsteiner!

Laura Hochsteiner is a doctoral student in English/American Studies, who focuses on disability studies and will join us at CIRAC on October 1, 2024. As part of the European Joint Master's Program in English and American Studies, which she completed with distinction at the University of Graz and Ca'Foscari University of Venice, she attended courses on Aging Studies and Care. Laura Hochsteiner will join our team for four years as a pre-doctoral university assistant.

Welcome, Dr. Jason Danely!

Department of Religious Studies and CIRAC will co-host Dr. Jason Danely, Reader in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He conducts research on Japan’s ageing society, including the role of mortuary rituals, the experiences of unpaid carers of older family members, and most recently, the obstacles to resettlement of formerly incarcerated older adults.

He will be giving a lecture on October 16, 2024. See details below.

 

Welcome, Àngels Llurda Marí!

Àngels Llurda Marí is a full-time PhD student at the University of Lleida, Catalunya, working under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Maricel Oró and Dr. Isabel Santaulària. Her thesis aims at exploring old age masculinities in contemporary short story writings. She is currently working on the representation of caring masculinities in literature as positive and egalitarian models of masculine identities in later life. The inclusion of care within the aging framework of her study has led her to CIRAC’s research work, under the guidance of Ulla Kriebernegg, as an opportunity to gain valuable insights on care and aging studies. She will conduct research in the framework of Erasmus+.

Welcome, Pavlína Studená!

Pavlína Studená is pursuing a PhD in "Literatures in English" at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University in Brno, where her research examines the portrayal of aging in contemporary Canadian fiction. Her dissertation focuses on how authors, through the lens of aging female characters, use irony to challenge disturbed power dynamics and confront sociocultural stereotypes. She was particularly drawn to CIRAC by Ulla Kriebernegg's inspiring work in the field, and is look forward to meeting the CIRAC team and gaining insights from their interdisciplinary expertise as she slightly expand beyond the boundaries of literary criticism.

PROJECT IN THE SPOTLIGHT

New Aging in Data Project Funding: "Redesigning Speculative Methods for Imagining Ageing Futures in Datafied Societies (SpecAge)"

Aging in Data will support a one year exploration to develop a speculative and co-creative design method for imagining alternative aging futures in datafied societies. Ulla Kriebernegg, Juliane Jarke (Professor, University of Graz, Sociology), and Helen Manchester (Professor, University of Bristol, School of Education) will engage older adults in reading speculative and science fiction, developing card games, and imagine alternative futures around care and community, equity and inclusion through workshop discussions in Graz and Bristol.

The project started in September 2024 and will last until September 2025 including workshops in Bristol and Graz, as well as creative weekend brunch meetings.

Link to the website

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Announcement of Special Issue: "Cultural Gerontology"

Ulla Kriebernegg, Franz Kolland and Vera Gallistl (both from Karl Landsteiner Private University for Health Research) edited a special issue of the Journal for Gerontology and Geriatrics (volume 57, issue 4), titled "Cultural Gerontology". This issue focuses on the construction and correlation of vulnerability and old age from a cultural-gerontological perspective.

Click here to see the articles of this special issue.

 

Publication "Cultural Gerontological Prolegomena"

This article, published in the Journal for Gerontology and Geriatrics in July 2024 introduces cultural gerontology as an interdisciplinary field providing cultural perspectives on aging and other topics strongly associated with old age, such as vulnerability. Co-authors: Ulla Kriebernegg, Franz Kolland and Vera Gallistl.

Click here to read the article.

 

Publication as part of the "EU-CoWork Developing Compassionate Workplaces in Europe" project

As part of the project “EU-CoWork Developing Compassionate Workplaces in Europe”, a first article was published in the open access journal Palliative Care & Social Practice: "Developing and evaluating Compassionate Workplace Programs to promote health and wellbeing around serious illness, dying and loss in the workplace (EU-CoWork): a transdisciplinary, cross-national research project".

Click here to read the publication.

 

Publication "Perspectives on vulnerability from the narratives of older migrants"

Older migrants are considered a vulnerable population group in many respects. Marginalization and social exclusion lead to unequal opportunities for social participation. In "Perspectives on vulnerability from the narratives of older migrants" Anna Kainradl discusses the results of an explorative intersectional ethical analysis of care narratives of older migrants in the light of research on aging. By making ambivalent narrative and action strategies visible and linking them to narratives of intergenerational care relationships, care-ethical interpretations of vulnerability and characterizations of vulnerability can be shown in their significance.

Click here to read it.

EVENTS

On the edge of life: The importance of philosophical reflection in palliative care and hospice work

We warmly invite you to this online event to learn about our work related to the hospice and palliative care community on the occasion of the World Philosophy Day, celebrated on the third Thursday of November. This day was designated by UNESCO for the purposes of raising awareness about the social importance of philosophy. Our project, Philosophical Practice in Palliative Care and Hospice Work: The Role of Philosophical Reflection in Shaping Care Culture and Understanding Dying, supports the same mission. We are excited to share insights from our work which is especially important for the hospice and palliative care community.

Date: Thursday, November 21, 2024.

Time: 7 - 9 pm.

Place: Online.

You can download the flyer for the event here.

Registration: Please reserve a place via Eventbrite. Click on this link.

Read more

Philosophizing at last: An online workshop series for palliative care and hospice work

In our online workshops, we’ll explore how Philosophical Practice and Palliative Care can complement and enrich each other. After a keynote speech, we’ll engage in philosophical discussions with you about issues that arise directly within the context of Palliative Care and Hospice.

You can look forward to workshops and lectures from: Patrick Schuchter, Stefanie Rieger, Sandra Radinger, Klaus Wegleitner, Omar Ibrahim, Désirée Amschl-Strablegg, Judith Tech and many more.

Dates: Thursday, March 6, 2025. Thursday, March 13, 2025. Thursday, March 20, 2025. Thursday, March 27, 2025.

Online Workshops: from 5 - 6:30 pm. Lectures: from 7 - 9 pm.

Place: Online.

You can download the flyer for the event here.

Registration: Please reserve your place via Eventbrite. Click on this link.

Read more

How applicable are theories of care? An interdisciplinary field of discourse in focus

In a cooperation between the CIRAC and the research area "Perception: Episteme, Aesthetics, Politics" at the Faculty of Humanities and the cluster "Aging, Demography & Care" in the research network "Heterogeneity and Cohesion" at the University of Graz, the research focus "Aesthetics" at the Zurich University of the Arts and the Institute for Theatre, Film and Media Studies at the University of Vienna  a lecture and an interdisciplinary workshop will be organized.  Both will provide an opportunity for pre- and post-doctoral students to critically approach the field and examine concepts of care from a personal and interdisciplinary perspective.

The workshop on October 18, 20204 is dedicated to care theories and their application to various fields of research in the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies.

It will include a talk by Prof. Dr. Helen Kohlen (Rheinische-Westfälische-Technische-Hochschule Aachen, Germany), discussions of The Care Manifesto, followed by responses by the workshop participants.

Note that the event will be in German and spaces are limited – please register via email to CIRAC@uni-graz.at until October 15.

Click here for the flyer.

Lecture "Ästhetik der Fürsorge": Florence Borggrefe (Züricher Hochschule der Künste and Visiting Scholar at CIRAC)
17 Oktober 2024, 18.00, SR 67.01, Center for Continuing Education

Workshop "Care Theories"
18 October 2024, 10.00–15.00, SR 67.01 Center for Continuing Education

Lecture: "The Spiritual Life of Japan's Super-Aged Society"

Dr. Jason Danely from Oxford Brookes University, UK, will give a lecture titled "The Spiritual Life of Japan’s Super-Aged Society" on October 16, 2024. He will present his field work in Japan and focus on spiritual matters in connection to aging, caring and dying.

This event is a cooperation between the Department of Religious Studies (Prof. Dr. Franz Winter) and CIRAC (Ulla Kriebernegg).

October 16, 2024 13:30  - 15:00  HS 01.15 (Main building)

More information can be found here.

You can download the event flyer here.

3rd SORGENETZ Care Symposium in cooperation with CIRAC

CIRAC is proud to be a central cooperation partner of the 3rd SORGENETZ Care Symposium "From Caring Communities to Caring Society!" on November 27/28 2024 in Vienna. The symposium offers a variety of insights into the international practice of caring communities and future issues related to the organization of care and good coexistence. The aim of the symposium is to enrich the Caring Communities movement in German-speaking countries with new impulses and sustainable networking lines.

The CIRAC team will also discuss its inter- and transdisciplinary projects Caring Living Labs Graz - Gut Leben im Alter and CareACT in Communities with international colleagues.

Date: November 27/28, 2024.

Time: 10 am - 7 pm (November 27). 8:30 am - 3:15 pm (November 28).

Place: Ankersaal der Brotfabrik, Vienna.

All information about the program and registration can be found at www.sorgenetz.at.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAST MONTHS

Endometriosis (R)Evolution: Lecture Series online

The successful international conference Endometriosis (R)Evolution: Making the Invisible Visible has inspired the publication of three selected lectures and short films online. The keynote lecture from the conference, The Hysteria Project by Rachael Jablo, can already be found on UniTube. The short film "Not Normal" by Allison Rich, which was premiered at the conference, will be uploaded to the same UniTube channel later this month. The final installment will be online in October: the publication of art film "Netherness: Creatively Aligning with & Expressing Endo Experiences" which is a visual representation of Dr. Kate March’s doctoral dissertation, which was also premiered at the conference in May.

Conference website

"...it is nice to be able to talk to the neighbor…"

CareACT project has entered its final phase!

Centering on three participatory, theater-educational events, the project invited participants from Graz communities and neighborhoods to exchange ideas around the questions of good community living, aging, and caring for one another, were discussed.

 

In collaboration with the Sozialmedizinische Zentrum (SMZ) Liebenau, InterACT – a professional theater and cultural initiative – CIRAC researchers used participatory and interactive theater formats to encourage the sharing of stories, dialogue, and networking between citizens, activists, and local associations. The last act was held at the Forum Theater on September 18, 2024, where professional InterACT actors and interested citizens worked together to develop scenes dealing with community, isolation and loneliness, exclusion, civil courage, social participation, prejudice, and stigma.

Project website

VW Project’s meeting at Hannover

Ulla Kriebernegg and Ulf Brunnbauer presented their project "Transforming Anxieties in Southeastern Europe. Political, Social, and Cultural Narratives of Demographic Change" at the VW Foundation project meeting where leaders of projects funded by the foundation during the last four years met in Hannover. The meeting brought together international and interdisciplinary scholars working on current research questions relating to diverse aging-related issues.

Project website

Strenghening interprofessional collaboration. Cooperation with the "Pflegedrehscheibe" at the Stadt Graz

As part of the cooperation between the "Caring Living Labs" project and the "Pflegedrehscheinbe" at the City of Graz, the first step was to focus on the Gries district. In a workshop, the experiences and knowledge of local experts in questions of care and nursing in difficult situations characterized  often by intersectional discrimination were discussed. The local experts emphasized the need for concrete further cooperation and for bringing together different professional perspectives in their work.

Project website