Update from ACT at the Graz International Summer School Seggau

By Eva-Maria Trinkaus

The Graz International Summer School Seggau (GUSEGG) 2017 has started on July 2nd and through the long-standing cooperation with ACT, this year’s summer school is again host to one ACT module that focuses on aging in the framework of technologies. Line Grenier, who taught the first week of the module, has handed over to David Madden who will teach the second week, focusing on ageing and music, and ageing and material culture. This year, the module hosts 13 students from 12 different universities and 9 disciplines, and focuses on the “’art of aging in its intersections with the proliferation of computer-mediated communications and networked societies,” as described by the seminar professors.

In the lecture of the first week, Line Grenier shared her perspectives on aging and “The working force of concepts: critical reflections on ‘memory’ and its travels.” Grenier emphasized further emphasized the in-class topic of the seminar, and focused on the importance of memory in her lecture, addressing aspects such as memory loss, regaining memory through neuroscientific methods, and the nature of memory as a process that travels through space and time. David Madden will continue to delve into concepts related to age studies in week two, and also provide focus on the production of audio-based media capsules.

Call for student applications: GUSEGG

ACT is sponsoring a module on ageing, communication and technologies as part of the Graz International Summer School Seggau (GUSEGG), to be held in July 2017 and organized by the University of Graz.
This year the module focusses on (Re)configuring Age and Ageing: Critical Mediations in Critical Times, and is taught by ACT researchers Line Grenier and David Madden. ACT will partially fund up to five graduate students to attend the school, and specifically cover costs pertaining to tuition and boarding. You can learn more about the GUSEGG here, and the module on ageing here. More information about ACT’s involvement in the school from 2015 (including a great video “trailer” produced during the summer school) can be found here.

This opportunity is open to ACT-affiliated students who have not had the chance to participate in the school. Interested students need to apply to ACT. Applications should be sent to application@actproject.ca by April 12, 2017 and should include:

1) a 500-word letter on the student’s motivation to attend Graz International Summer School Seggau 2017 and why the topic of the lectures and seminar model is of value to them. The student should especially explain how their research fits within ACT and how they will benefit from courses in the module of (Re)configuring Age and Ageing: Critical Mediations in Critical Times.

2) A C.V.

3) The ACT student support form signed by a co-applicant or collaborator (form attached)

Successful candidates will be asked to provide more information to the GUSEGG, including academic transcripts and a copy of their passports.