Reimagining Aging as Possibility Instead of ‘Crisis’
Dr. Sandy Grande continues Trent University’s Community Speaker Series as the 2022 Katz Distinguished Visiting Scholar
October 18, 2022
The 2022 Stephen Katz Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Interdisciplinary Aging Studies explored the aging, death and settler imperatives that frame aging and death as crisis.
“What if instead of crisis we imagine global aging as a condition of possibility?” said Professor Grande, who teaches Political Science and Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Connecticut. “What if we consider the rising tide of older adults as portal or conceptual opening that forces a fundamental reconsideration of central dichotomies and contradictions of a settler society built of the exigencies of capital?”
Dr. Sandy Grande’s lecture, The Indigenous Elsewhere of Aging: Elder Epistemologies for Decolonial Futures, held at Gzowski College on Thursday, October 6, considered how the lives, knowledge and care of Indigenous Elders help to structure conditions for societal renewal.
Introducing Prof. Grande, Professor Emeritus Dr. Stephen Katz stated, “Sandy’s elsewheres are alive with spiritual and relational presence and entangle Indigenous ways of being against deadening myths and erasures of settler science, government, and economy.”
The Stephen Katz Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Interdisciplinary Aging Studies is a fundamental touchstone of the Trent Centre for Aging & Society (TCAS) annual operations, said Dr. Elizabeth Russell, TCAS director and associate professor.
“Bringing world-class speakers to Trent to share their cutting-edge research with the TCAS membership and the Trent and Peterborough communities is a critical role of the Katz program, and this year, we were honoured to continue TCAS' focus on Indigenous aging,” Professor Russell said. “Professor Grande’s insights were profound, personal, and grounded in her scholarship that intersects between critical aging studies and the experiences of Indigenous older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are grateful to Professor Grande for taking the time to come to Trent and share her important work with us.”
The lecture, made possible through generous donors as well as the work and planning of TCAS coordinator Amber Colibaba, recognizes the excellence of a contemporary scholar of interdisciplinary aging studies and was created to introduce Trent students to leading speakers in humanities and social sciences and significantly build on the University's reputation for interdisciplinary programs.
The full recording of Dr. Sandy Grande’s lecture is available here.