ETRG Life Sciences: Workshop on Cultural Approaches to Aging with Prof. Roberta Maierhofer

Prof. Roberta Maierhofer is Professor of (Inter-)American Studies at the University of Graz, Austria, and a leading expert of aging studies in Europe. She is co-editor of the book series entitled ‘Aging Studies’ published by transcript, and is a member of the Aging and Ageism Caucus of the National Women’s Studies Association and the Modern Language Association (USA). She is also a founding member of the European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS) and a member of the Humanities and Arts Committee of the Gerontolological Society of America. Her research focuses on American Literature and Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Transatlantic Cooperation in Education, and Age/Aging Studies. In her publication, Salty Old Women: Gender and Aging in American Culture, she developed a theoretical approach to gender and aging (anocriticism), and she has published widely in the field of cultural gerontology.

The event is intended to give members of the GCSC the chance to meet Prof. Maierhofer and ask her questions about her research and methodology. Members of the GCSC will also be able to attend the lecture which Prof. Maierhofer is giving as part of the GGS series 'Kulturen und Perspektiven des Alter(n)s' in the afternoon on 10 November (Seminargebäude II, Room 012, 16-18h). They will then have the opportunity to raise questions relating to their own research in a smaller and more informal setting during this Workshop. Topics might include: the concept of aging within the study of culture, methodological considerations and biases respecting the concept of aging (e.g. in the selection of ‘copy texts’ for scholarly editions, many of which used the earliest version published in the author’s lifetime), interdisciplinary approaches to the study of aging within society, the method of ‘anocriticism’.