Ageing, Communication, Technologies (ACT) is pleased to host Dr. Anne Martin-Matthews, Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia and former Director of the CIHR Institute of Aging on Dr. Martin-Matthews will present her talk “Cultural Representations of Widowhood: Insights from Social Media”.
She will discuss her current research on cultural representations of widowhood in later life, first considering ‘ways of knowing’ about widowhood in more traditional research literatures. Representations of widowhood in social media, in contrast, (appear to) place more emphasis on widowhood that is off-time, dis-enfranchised, and associated with a foregrounding of a declared status. Blogs, Instagram and Reddit AMAs also imply both empowerment and challenging of stereotypes, but suggest less reliable sources of the account.