Gender Matters: Aging, Care, and Migration
What does a gender- and intersectionality-sensitive perspective on age(ing), care and migration mean for understanding the narratives of older migrant women?
The aim of the project "Gender Matters: Aging, Care, and Migration", which is part of the Elisabeth List Fellowship at the University of Graz, is to think about the entanglements of age(ing), care and migration, viewing them through the critical lens of gender and intersectionality research and to relate them to each other. The feminist-critical (care) ethicists and aging studies scholars Prof. Dr.Helen Kohlen, Prof. Dr.Ulla Kriebernegg, Mag.a Anna-Christina Kainradl MA, and Dr. Stefan Schweigler, MA and apply them to the understanding of narratives of age(ing) of women (60+) with a migration background and experience.
Project duration: July 2022-February 2024
International workshops
Since autumn 2022, the project team has organized three two-day workshops for PhD students and everyone interested in the topic with international keynote speakers and workshop participants.
- Approaches to the concept of care (in cooperation with the Department of History's section on Cultural and Gender History) in December 2022
- Intersectionality, Aging and Care in May 2023 and
- Re-thinking Methods of Intersectional Research in June 2023.
The workshops included keynotes by Mark Schweda (University of Oldenburg), Vera Caine (University of Alberta, Canada), Merle Weßel (University of Oldenburg) and Sally Chivers (Trent University, Canada).
Care Age Cinema: Putting Aging and Care on Screen
In cooperation with the Centre for South East European Studies (CSEES), Eva-Maria Trinkaus (CIRAC) and the Filmzentrum im Rechbauerkino, Graz, the project team organized six evenings of film screenings in the series CareAgeCinema. The series brought together films from different nations and genres, which took a differentiated look at the motifs of age(ing) and care and/or nursing, and could be viewed free of charge. The subsequent panel discussions took the form of a dialog between scholars, the audience and experts from care practice and activism. As a science-to-public event, the series aimed to critically and reflectively shape a social discourse on representations of age(ing) and care.
Two dissertations completed!
Two dissertations were written as part of the project: Anna Kainradl was researching perspectives on aging research for an intersectional ethics analysis, while Stefan Schweigler looked at media practices of care in LGBTIQA+ communities. Local and international lecturing on their doctoral work has been a permanent component of their research and networking activities. Also, they actively and innovatively represent CIRAC at the University of Graz and internationally: During the course of the project, presentations led Anna and Stefan to Bonn, Frankfurt/Main, Vienna, Berlin, Oldenburg, Prague and Zurich.
