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Past Event

Ageing playfully: play for community connection and wellbeing in old age



About the Speaker

Dr Carrie RyanDepartment of Anthropology, University College London

Carrie's anthropological research is informed by her extensive work experience as an Activities Director in nursing homes and retirement communities in the United States. These experiences led her to research end-of-life care decision making during her MPhil degree and to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in a Continuing Care Retirement Community in Los Angeles for nearly two years during her DPhil. Carrie is turning her doctoral research into her first monograph, which explores how social practices in the retirement community - from communal eating, to daily activities like bingo, to resident governance, to friendship - helped older residents find meaning in their ageing trajectories and shaped their biosocial health and wellbeing. Carrie is also currently writing articles on the biosocial impact of older people's loneliness in care homes during covid-19, the politics of facial hair grooming in adult social care, and the importance of play to ageing wellbeing.

Inspired by her research on the importance of bingo in ageing care, Carrie has recently turned her research attention to the impact of play and games on ageing wellbeing. She has developed a Grand Challenges and Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) funded, global, interdisciplinary research network called the Ageing Playfully Network, which gathers scholars and private and public sector actors interested in the place of play and games in old age. The Network aims to examine why games and play are neglected topics in ageing research and calls for a 'ludic turn' in the anthropology of ageing and in gerontology. 

Please note that this is a Hybrid event. We welcome colleagues to 66 Banbury Road or on line via Zoom: 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86171614682


This event is part of a seminar series:

Trinity 2023 Seminar Series | Caring communities: configuring local support for healthy ageing in place

Building on current work at the Institute, this series explores how the health and wellbeing of older people may be supported through networks of caring relationships and locally-based assets. The speakers highlight a range of contextual factors that might facilitate healthy ageing in place, defined as living well in one’s chosen home and minimizing transitions to higher-intensity care ne...


Event Details

01 June 2023 14:00 - 15:00


Location

Online & 66 Banbury Rd