Digital Aging
Meet Our Teams
The Trent Team
The Trent team is involved across both the More Years Better Lives, and the Digital Culture and Quantified Aging projects
Barbara Marshall
Principal Investigator
Trent University
Barbara L. Marshall is Professor of Sociology and Distinguished Research Award recipient at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada. She has written widely on feminist theory, sexuality and the body, and with her colleague Stephen Katz, has co-authored a series of papers exploring aging, embodiment and sexuality. Her publications have appeared in a range of academic journals and edited collections and her most recent book is a co-edited collection (with A. Kampf and A. Peterson), Aging Men, Masculinities and Modern Medicine (Routledge 2013).
Alongside the projects on aging, technology and digital culture described on this website, she continues toexplore intersections of critical age studies with feminist theory, queer theory and disability studies, and researches relations of age and gender in Canada’s favourite winter sport – curling!
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Stephen Katz
Co-Investigator
Trent University
Stephen Katz is Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology and Distinguished Research Award recipient at Trent University, and a founding member of the Trent Centre for Aging & Society. His work has focused on a variety of areas such as aging bodies, critical gerontology, bio politics and sexuality, cognitive impairment, and health technologies in which he has written numerous journal articles and book chapters, many with colleague Barbara L. Marshall. Stephen is also an author and has written a number of books which include Disciplining Old Age (1996), Cultural Aging (2005), and Ageing in Everyday Life (ed, 2018). His current research involves partnerships and collaborations on funded projects related to quantified aging and digital technologies, as well as a new book on Self, Mind and Body in Later Life.
Digital Culture and Quantified Aging Team
Isabel Pedersen
Co-Applicant
Ontario Tech University
Dr. Isabel Pedersen, Canada Research Chair in Digital Life, Media, and Culture, is exploring how embodied technology may change how we act, interact with others, participate in cultures, and understand our identities. She is interested in critical gerontology and the complex impact that personal technologies, such as social robots, may have on identities, cultures, politics, and value systems in global contexts. She is especially interested in how personal digital devices (from brain-computers to social robots) are being developed, how the ideas for these embodied computers are developed, and how the concepts become celebrated and familiar to people in the contexts of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of things, and big data analytics before we have a chance to understand their likely impact on our lives, culture, politics, art and social practices.
Kirsten Ellison
Postdoctoral Fellow
Trent University
Dr. Kirsten Ellison is a postdoctoral fellow for the Digital Culture and Quantified Aging project. Her dissertation, “Molecular imaginaries of aging and age intervention,” was completed in the University of Calgary’s graduate program in Communication, Media and Film. As a communications scholar, her doctoral work probes the representational modes through which molecular understandings of aging and the body are popularized for mass consumption, looking specifically at the use of image and metaphor. Broadly, her research has examined the intersections of health, science and technology in popular culture and she brings with her a decade of experience in visual and linguistic analysis. Her independent and collaborative work has appeared in the Journal of Aging Studies, British Food Journal, Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, and The International Journal of Cultural Studies. Kirsten will be involved in all areas of the project as well as the development and expansion of the collection, "Aging, Technology and Culture", in UOIT's digital humanities archive, The Fabric of Digital Life.
Wendy Martin
Collaborator
Brunel University London, UK
Dr Wendy Martin is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Health and Life Sciences, Brunel University London, UK. Her research focuses on ageing, embodiment and daily life and the use of visual and material methods in ageing research. She was Principal Investigator for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK) research project Photographing Everyday Life: Ageing, Lived Experiences, Time and Space, is Co-Investigator for the 7 year Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) international partnership Ageing, Communication, Technologies (ACT): experiencing a digital world in later life, is Collaborator for the 5 year SSHRC Insight Grant Digital Culture and Quantified Aging, and is Co-Investigator on an Interdisciplinary award from Brunel University London on Objects of desire and of despair: analysis and design of assistive technology for life transitions. Wendy is Co-Convenor of the British Sociological Association (BSA) Ageing, Body and Society study group, a member of the Executive Committee of the British Society of Gerontology (BSG), Co-Editor of the Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology (2015), Co-Editor of a special issue entitled Ageing, Body and Society: Key Themes, Critical Perspectives (2018) in the Journal of Aging Studies, is a member of the Editorial Board of the Sociological Research Online journal and an Associate Board member of the Sociology Journal.
Sharon Caldwell
Research Assistant
Sharon is a research assistant and head archivist for the Fabric of Digital Life project with the Digital Culture and Media Lab (Decimal) at UOIT, under the direction of Dr. Isabel Pedersen. She holds a Library and Information Technician Diploma from Algonquin College and a Gender Studies (B.A.) Degree from Trent University. In her work, Sharon collects, curates, and catalogues digital artifacts related to embodied technologies, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), and robotics. She has created a Digital Culture and Quantified Aging archival collection in order to document and track current wearables, social robots, and internet of things (IoT) platforms that relate to seniors and health.
More Years Better Lives Team
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Nicole Dalmer
Co-Investigator
McMaster University
Dr. Nicole Dalmer is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Aging and Society at McMaster University. With a background in Library and Information Science, Nicole’s SSHRC funded-work resides at the intersection of information and care, studying how aging in place contexts, assumptions surrounding digital literacies, and evolving family responsibilities shape who is able and who is expected to be informed in care relationships. Other ongoing projects include an international collaboration examining the impact of digital infrastructures on feelings of connectedness in later life as well as an investigation into the role of community infrastructures (including public libraries) in mitigating older adults’ experiences of social isolation.
Megan Graham
Postdoctoral Fellow
Trent University
Dr. Megan Graham is a postdoctoral fellow with the "Being Connected at Home” project. She completed her dissertation, “Performing veteranhood through the creative arts: An ethnographic study of recognition and sociality among veterans living in a Canadian seniors’ Village,” with the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. Her work mobilizes critical analytic frameworks from medical anthropology and phenomenology, to explore issues of aging in relation to biomedicalization, securitization, and the biopolitics of care. Megan's research is interdisciplinary in theory and practice, drawing upon disciplines such as sound studies, music, and creative arts therapies, to think about older adults’ experiences. Her work has been published in Ageing & Society, Journal of Applied Gerontology, Dementia, Arts & Health, Music Therapy Perspectives, Sound Studies, and Building Acoustics.