Event: ACT project meeting 2018

Event: ACT project meeting 2018

Daniel Blanche-Tarragó

A year passed since the last meeting of the project in Ottawa, Canada, so this time Dr Wendy Martin at Brunel University (United Kingdom) hosted the annual gathering in 2018. This time the annual meeting was preceded by a special conference titled “Ageing, the Digital and Everyday Life“, which included presentations by ageing scholars Kim Sawchuk (Concordia University), Shannon Hebblethwaite (Concordia University), Barbara Marshall (Trent University), and Chris Gilleard (University College London) as well as by members of the thriving network on socio-gerontechnology Alexander Peine (Utrecht University) and Helen Manchester (University of Bristol). The conference was a single day event celebrated on Friday, October 26 at the facilities of Brunel University in Uxbridge and was open to the broader public previous registration. The conference was also followed through live streaming and allowed the participation of digital audiences via Twitter.

Following, between October 27 and 29, the regular annual ACT meeting took place. This time, the keynote speech was carried out by scholar Alexander Peine delivering a presentation titled “Socio-gerontechnology: The emerging dialogue between Age Studies and Science and Technology Studies (STS)“. A round of questions and answers followed, giving way to discussions on the possibilities of the intersection of ageing, and science and technology studies for future research.

Most members of the ACT project had the change to present their current work to update the network, foster discussions, and pave the way for potential future collaborations in the remaining years of the project. In closing, Marguerite Kephart, who represents the non-governmental organization RECAA (Respecting Elders Communities against Abuse) at the General Board of the project, presented a short documentary titled “Madhu’s Saris“, in which Madhu Nambiar shares how her saris (a typical female garment in India) are attached to different stories in her life.

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Image by Christian Fregnan on Unsplash.