Learning From Your Neighbours

Intersecting lives: Sharing my research journey investigating resilience in older women living in rural Australia.

In this informal discussion, Pam will share her research journey investigating resilience in two groups of older women living on their own in a small town in rural Australia. Her interactions with the older, long-term local women, and late middle-aged ‘newcomers’ will touch on the women’s life circumstances, their identities and roles in the community, and the relations and dynamics between the groups. She will conclude by reflecting on how these experiences were expressed as resilience by the women. Participants will be invited to consider related issues such as: Is resilience always positive? Is there a limit/’threshold’ to resilience?

Dr. Pamela Irwin. Pam Irwin graduated with a DPhil (PhD) in Sociology from the University of Oxford in 2016. She maintains her involvement with the University as a Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing. While her thesis/dissertation focused on older women, she has also published research on older men, and continues to be interested in issues around resilience, ageing, gender, and rurality.

Registration is required.