Embodying the Life Course: Relating Past, Present and Future Bodies Workshop
Wednesday, November 21st 2012, 10am-5pm
Collingwood College, Durham, UK
Organisers: Rachel Colls, Kathrin Hörschelmann (Department of Geography, University of Durham) and Bethan Evans (Department of Geography, University of Liverpool)
Keynotes by:
- Professor Robyn Longhurst (University of Waikato, New Zealand), “Using Skype for intergenerational maternal encounters: bodies, spaces and screens”
- Professor Tracey Skelton (University of Singapore) ‘Oooh Miss that was lovely – can I hug you?”: Intergenerationality and embodied encounters through research practices with young Pasifika women in Auckland
Paper presentations by:
- Dr Anna Tarrant (Open University, UK), “Masculinities, ageing and the embodiment of contemporary grandfatherhood”
- Dr Christine Jones (University of Durham, UK), “Displaying family: the transmission of kinship after adoption”
- Dr Katie Thomson, Professor Sarah Curtis and Dr Chris Dunn (University of Durham, UK), School-based Interventions for Increasing Physical Activity and Well-Being: The MOVE project’s design and conceptual framework.
- Dr Bethan Evans (University of Liverpool, UK), Dr Rachel Colls (University of Durham) and Dr Kathrin Hörschelmann (University of Durham, UK, and Leibnitz-Institute for Regional Studies, Leipzig, Germany), “Embodied encounters: relating past, present and future bodies between generations”
This is an interdisciplinary workshop that will consider how life courses can be understood as embodied and how bodies of different ages relate through intergenerational encounters. The workshop will explore new conceptual perspectives and methodological approaches to research on embodiment, age and wellbeing by considering how bodies are performed and experienced between generations and persons of different ages. Specifically this will involve considering the benefits of bringing an intergenerational perspective to debates on relationality, embodiment, age and wellbeing across the social sciences (Hopkins and Pain 2007; Prout 2000; Vanderbeck, 2007). The workshop will also explore the multiple ways in which embodied intergenerational encounters ‘matter’. This will include considering, for example: the ways in which genetic discourses are mobilised in intergenerational encounters; how remembered past bodies shape self-perception; how anticipated future bodies might mediate individuals’ sense of wellbeing; and the role of particular spaces and places in the facilitation of intergenerational encounters. Ethical and methodological issues of researching embodiment from an intergenerational perspective will also be discussed.
To attend the workshop, please write to Rachel Colls or Kathrin Hörschelmann by 12th October 2012. Please note that places are limited. The workshop fee is £30 (waged) or £15 (unwaged/student). We would appreciate advance payment by cheque (payable to “Durham University”), but will be able to take payment by cheque or in cash on the day. Please send cheques to Rachel Colls, Department of Geography, University of Durham, Science Site, South Road, DH1 3LE, U.K.