Jaylene Liang
Department of Political Science
Concordia University
Jaylene Liang, a postdoctoral researcher at Concordia University, will present research from her doctoral dissertation which examines the phenomenon of experiencing post-retirement life in the context of social change among a sample of Chinese urban retirees. She will reveal how human agency can be rediscovered, claimed, and practiced to shape how life in retirement is lived and constructed, despite a rigidly planned earlier life trajectory. She will discuss reminiscence as the mechanism of meaning-making, the resources and constraints that condition human agency in making choices and adaptations, and their selective attitude toward activity, relationship, and media/technology. This presentation has implications for cross-cultural aging and life course studies and for designing and implementing intervention programs to improve the quality of life of older Chinese.
Jiayin (Jaylene) Liang has a B.A. in Philosophy (with a minor in business administration) and an M.A. in Western Philosophy from Beijing Normal University in China. She received her Ph.D. in social gerontology from the Department of Sociology and Gerontology at Miami University, Ohio. Jaylene Liang obtained the Canada Research Chair post-doctoral fellowship for 2014-2015. Her research interests include cross-cultural health, aging and leisure studies, theoretical foundations of gerontology, long-term care in China, and qualitative research methods.