College News

Each term, Emmanuel welcomes Visiting Fellows to the College from across academic disciplines to work with Fellows, enjoy college life and explore interdisciplinary connections across our community.

This Lent Term, we’ve been delighted to welcome Professor Bill Randall, who studied with us in 1976, as Derek Brewer Visiting Fellow. He is Emeritus Professor of Gerontology at St Thomas’ University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, where he has helped to pioneer a unique field of study known as  “narrative gerontology”.  His research and writing explore the complexity of biographical (vs biological) ageing,  changes in autobiographical memory over the lifespan, and the nature of narrative resilience in later life..

His conference (March 19-20, 2024) explores the theme of later life as a journey of consciously growing old instead of passively getting old; as a time of discovery and not just decline. It will explore the possibility of changing the narrative of later life from the sad, slow tragedy in terms of which it is often perceived to, instead, an adventure, one which can lead in a variety of directions (outward, backward, inward, forward). The overarching aim of the event is to foster conversation concerning – and in a sense to test out – such a counter-intuitive vision.

Topics to be discussed include learning, spirituality, and creativity in later life; the role of gender and culture in shaping ageing; ageing and civic engagement; and the place of literature, theatre and poetry in fostering continued development, even amid dementia and at the end of life. While speakers will represent a range of disciplines including psychology, sociology, religious studies, literature, medicine and psychotherapy, the event is geared not only to researchers or practitioners but also to older adults themselves.

Apply for tickets on his website: https://www.williamlrandall.com/ageing-conference-march-2024.html, and a special early bird rate is available until Sunday 10 March.

• Back to All News Posts