This project aims to extend the evolving body of work on the co-construction of ageing and material-cultural practices around the body, by interrogating how middle-aged women (40 years and above), including those in the peri- and post-menopausal stages, become entangled in the intricate web of power structures within socio-material contexts, particularly concerning fertility treatments such as the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART). By understanding the lived experiences of women who are considering or have undergone ART treatments (beyond the legally allowed upper age limit) in order to actualise their reproductive aspirations, this research project explores if ART reshape the subjective experience of time and temporalities. This is significant since technology disrupts the linear narrative of the reproductive life course. Further, it complicates prevailing feminist conceptions of abjection and transgression, as older bodies enter the contentious terrain of patriarchal motherhood. It is in these combinations of older social bodies and new technologies that this project asks: how does the nexus of age and technologies advance our understanding of the politics of ageing in the socio-technical era?
Assoc. Prof. Tannistha Samanta
FLAME University (India) | Sociology
Tannistha Samanta is a sociologist and an ageing studies scholar by training. She received her Master’s degree and PhD from the Department of Sociology, University of Maryland College Park (USA). Her most active line of research is in the intersecting fields of health and ageing (with a focus on India) where she examines questions related to intergenerational relationships, social capital, consumer cultures, older adult sexualities, and theory development in ageing. In another line of inquiry, she examines the sexual and reproductive health of women through the intersecting lenses of the body and the market. Her research has been supported by several research grants and international fellowships including the United Nations Population Fund UNFPA (India); the School of Medicine of the University of California, San Diego (USA); and Global Liberal Arts Alliance (MI, USA). She was recently invited as a Mercator Fellow (summer 2024) by the University of Tübingen and Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany.
Tannistha Samanta is currently Associate Editor for the Journal of Aging Studies (Elsevier) and serves on the editorial boards of the journals The Sociological Review (SAGE) and Social Theory & Health (Palgrave Macmillan). From a political-intellectual standpoint, she remains committed to supporting and building an emerging community of young researchers from the Global South. She engages in a range of publics contributing by-lines to mainstream and alternative media outlets. Her op-eds and interviews have appeared in Forbes, Scroll.in and the BBC.
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© Aliona Kardash
Prof. Cornelius Schubert
TU Dortmund University | Sociology of Science and Technology
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© Aliona Kardash
Prof. Cornelius Schubert
TU Dortmund University | Sociology of Science and Technology
Cornelius Schubert is Professor of Sociology of Science and Technology at the Department of Social Sciences, TU Dortmund University. Previously, he was Associate Professor for Digitalized Innovation in the Section of Science, Technology, and Policy Studies (STePS) at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. He holds a PhD in sociology from TU Berlin and was visiting professor at Technische Universität Berlin, Augsburg University, and the Universidade Federal do Paraná, Brazil. Since October 2024, he is Dean of the Department of Social Sciences at TU Dortmund University.
Cornelius Schubert specialises in science and technology studies, critical studies of innovation, and qualitative methods. His fields of research include healthcare, chip manufacturing, and social innovation. He is interested in inter- and transdisciplinary research practices and processes of co-creation, the relations of bodies and technologies as well as the advancement of methods at the intersection of digital technologies and qualitative research. He currently chairs the board of the German Society for Science and Technology Studies and is a member of the board of the Section for Science and Technology Studies in the German Sociological Association.
Website
https://wt.sowi.tu-dortmund.de/en/chair/team/prof-dr-cornelius-schubert/