One of the most important characteristics of contemporary societies has been the emergence of the visual and the virtual. Age itself has become a visual phenomenon - whereby the older people, women in particular, have become more strongly defined by their appearance. As Kathleen Woodward has famously stated in her book Figuring Age (1999), older women are both invisible - in that they are not seen - and hyper visible - in that they are all that is seen. In response to demographic shifts, the experience of old age and its visual constitution becomes more often than not the focus of inquiry shared by gerontology and cinema studies.
Cultural gerontology as a burgeoning scientific field attempts to recuperate the individuality of older lives explored through literature, film and other forms of art. With its emphasis on mediatisation, individuation and the politics of everyday (older) life, cultural gerontology may bridge the gap between gerontology and cinema studies despite the initial differences in the research interests, theorising and methodologies of the two fields. Prof. Dr. Bettina Kleiner, Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger, Dr. Miranda Leontowitsch and Dr. Asja Makarević will engage with this and other ensuing questions in this opening panel discussion.
Prof. Dr. Vinzenz Hediger is a professor of cinema studies at Goethe Universität Frankfurt. He is the co-director of the research center „ConTrust – Conflict and Trust in Political Life“ and of the DFG-funded Research Training Program „Konfigurationen des Films“. His latest publication entails Accidental Archivism. Shaping Cinema’s Future with Remnants of the Past (edited with Stefanie Schulte Strathaus; Lüneburg: meson press 2023).
Prof. Dr. Bettina Kleiner is a Professor of the science of Education at the Goethe University Frankfurt. She is an expert in the areas of school, gender and sexuality as well as of postcolonial feminist perspectives on education and pedagogy. She is author of subjekt bildung heteronormativität and co-editor of the volume Trans* und Inter*Geschlechtlichkeit in Erziehung und Bildung.
© Klaus Ditté
Dr. Miranda Leontowitsch is a senior researcher at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. She has a background in social work and sociology and her research focusses on intersections of ageing and gender, care relationships, queer ageing, and ageing in the digital age. She uses a range of qualitative research methods and has a particular interest in participatory approaches.
© Nina Kusturica
Dr. Asja Makarević currently works as a post-doctoral fellow in the research programme “AGE-C Aging and Gender in European Cinema” at Goethe University, Frankfurt, where she obtained her PhD degree. Prior to embarking on an academic career, between 2009 and 2017, Asja programmed Talents Sarajevo, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s networking and training platform for emerging film professionals from Southeast Europe and Southern Caucasus.
The Cornelia Goethe Colloquia are an open discussion forum for interdisciplinary women's and gender studies. Interested parties are cordially invited!
