The Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association begins this week (17th-21st November).The hybrid format includes asynchronous, ‘view-on-demand’ library of podcasts and videos, synchronous ‘virtual sessions’, live broadcast sessions from Baltimore, and non-broadcast in-person events for attendees. A little of something for everyone? AAGE members are, as usual, well represtented at the conference, but not […]
Tag: COVID19
Meet the 2020 AAGE Margaret Clark Award Co-Winners
What do we do when the two top papers both excel in originality, rigor and outstanding writing? We award them both! The co-winners of the 2020 Margaret Clark Award for best student paper were Francesco Diodati of the University Milano Biccoca and Yan Zhang of Case Western University. Our congratulations to both of you! AAGE’s […]
It takes two to tango
By Miriam Verhage, Lucia Thielman, Lieke de Kock, Jolanda Lindenberg This blog post is based on a phone-based qualitative interview project in the Netherlands. During April 2020, we interviewed 59 seniors about their experiences during the COVID-19 crisis and their views on the portrayal of senior adults in the national media. The participants were between […]
Aging and Social Justice: A slow-motion virtual conference
By Celeste Pang, University of Toronto As we have all seen, COVID-19 has been a tip of an iceberg, exposing deep layers of social stratification and inequities. From the mass deaths in long-term care and nursing homes and exposure of the working conditions of care workers, to Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the violent responses […]
In and outside the nursing home: On the (im)possibilities of meaningful contact while being held apart
By Natashe Lemos Dekker, Laura Vermeulen, and Jeannette Pols Weer n dag zonder jou te voelen. De alzheimer-kelk moet helemaal leeg Maanden los van elkaar; corona ons kruis, heeft elkaar doen verlaten Nog nooit zo-lang gescheiden; nog nooit zo dicht bij de dood Nooit-zo voelde ik de kracht van aanraken, nu het er niet […]
On Vulnerability, Resilience, and Age: Older Americans Reflect on the Pandemic
By Sarah Lamb, with Ji Chen, Claire Ogden, Tirtza Schramm, and Lin Xinbei Every morning, Americans wake up to fresh news of the heavy toll the coronavirus pandemic is exerting upon vulnerable older people—from the likelihood of developing a more severe form of Covid-19, to the risks of isolation and mental health problems as they […]
How is the pandemic affecting people with dementia? A case study
By Dena Shenk, PhD and Andrea Freidus, PhD, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina Charlotte Our team is completing a rapid appraisal study of the perceptions of frontline long-term care (LTC) workers in a southern state about care during the COVID-19 pandemic. One specific area of heightened concern is caring for people with dementia in […]
Those Who Come Early
Generations in Japan are fragmented. Society lacks structures to create solidarities between them (which is a very Western, and thus foreign idea anyway). Is it naïve to think the brutal fact of a higher COVID-19 mortality rate for the aged might inspire sympathy rather than division? The criticism aimed at seniors queueing at drugstores has been just one of the everyday side-effects of COVID-19, one that naturalizes moral judgements against older bodies in public spaces.
Of grandparents, memories and the pandemic
While growing up in a small town in the eastern state of Bengal (India), our summer vacations would be spent in Kolkata at the maternal grandparents’ home. My grandfather would tell us haunting stories of poverty, hunger and death in the most quotidian manner. In doing so, he sought to make the spontaneity and unpredictability of life “knowable”.
COVID-19: Bringing the social back in
An understanding of COVID-19’s social impact is especially important, both for increasing the effectiveness of interventions and for mitigating the consequences for particular groups.