Aging, Ageism, and Embodiment

Catalog description

What is the experience of "growing old" in America, and how does it differ based on one's sex, gender, sexuality, race or ethnicity, and socioeconomic or disability status? What lies behind America's anti-aging culture and the growth of anti-aging medicine? How does ageism manifest, and how does it affect our aging and our health? In this course, we will consider the social, cultural, scientific, medical, and personal meanings of aging, and how these meanings, as well as the embodied experience of aging in America, are influenced by multiple forms of ageism. We will interrogate the assumptions and stereotypes about age that circulate through mainstream American culture and medicine and how these shape interpersonal and institutional practices. How might we begin to recognize, respond to, and change ageism, and thus our own inevitable experiences of aging? The course requires participation and attendance, papers, and for graduate students an additional presentation. No prerequisites are required. Offered as BETH 309 and BETH 409 . Counts as a CAS Global & Cultural Diversity course.