ACT Annual Meeting held in Bucharest, Romania

From September 24 to 27, 2015, the Ageing, Communication, Technologies (ACT) project held its annual meeting in Bucharest, Romania. The meeting was hosted by co-reasearcher Loredana Ivan at the National University of Political and Administrative Studies, College of Communication and Public Relations. The annual meeting provides all ACT members a chance to provide results of their ongoing ACT-funded research, to create collaborations and foster discussions on ageing and technology. The meeting also provides an opportunity for updates to be shared about the activities of ACT, from the three summer schools held in the past year, to the work of the working groups and ACT research clusters. The meeting immediately followed the Qualitative Research in Communication Conference, giving researchers the opportunity to also present their work in that setting.

ACT co-sponsors Qualitative Research Conference in Bucharest

ACT has co-sponsored the Qualitative Research in Communication Conference, held in Bucharest from September 23 to 25, 2015. The conference brought together international scholars, including several ACT researchers. There were notably two ACT keynotes: Eugène Loos, Kim Sawchuk. Julia Twigg also presented the “ACT Keynote Address.” More information about the conference, including the full conference programme, is available here.

“Old in the Game: Age and Aging in Hip-Hop” Video of Murray Forman speaking at the University of Graz

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Murray Forman, ACT researcher and Associate Professor in Media and Screen Studies at Northeastern University presented on his research on March 17 at ACT partner institution the University of Graz.

While hip-hop is commonly associated in many mainstream contexts with youth practices and tastes, it has been a long time indeed since it could easily be defined as a facet of youth culture; generational turbulence abounds within contemporary hip-hop. Professor Forman critically examines the ways in which the past (as lore, tradition, and legacy) is constructed and understood in contemporary hip-hop and illuminates the manner in which individuals of different ages interact with one another according to multiple factors relating to experience and familiarity, rules, laws, and wider cultural norms as well as established hip-hop conventions. By focusing on an alternative cartography of age and aging he offers new perspectives on the character and representation of hip-hop elderscapes.

WAM summer school welcomes applicants

The 2016 edition of the Centre for Women, Ageing, Media (WAM) Summer School will be held at the University of Gloucestershire on June 23rd and 24th.

ACT co-applicant Barbara Marshall will lead the keynote presentation/workshop. The School welcomes applications from new researchers and from PhD students. ACT is sponsoring the School and will offer some funding from students. The deadline for applications is May 31, 2015 and the call for applications is available here.

ACT connects to new COST-Action project on Ageism

The COST-Action project on ageism, funded by the EU and led by Liat Ayalon, held its first meeting on April 27 and 28 in Dublin, Ireland. ACT members Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, Eugène Loos, Loredana Ivan and Maria Soubati are part of the COST-Action and Eugène Loos leads, with his colleague Monika Wilinska, the subgroup on Ageism and Media. Kim Sawchuk, Shannon Hebblethwaite and Constance Lafontaine also attended the meeting, and it was decided that the COST-Action project on Ageism and ACT, two newly-funded and significant research projects on ageing, would connect and collaborate in the future.

Groupe Harmonie joins ACT as Community Partner

We are delighted to announce the inclusion of Groupe Harmonie as an official partner in the ACT project. Groupe Harmonie is a non-profit organization that works with elders with addiction issues in Montreal. ACT has been working with Groupe Harmonie since 2014 and together we have been organizing digital literacy workshops in local low-income housing buildings for seniors as part of the InterACTion project.