“Too Many Birthdays”? Models for Successful Aging Among Danville’s Senior Citizens

Anthropology

Drury, Hannah

Ensign-George, Alice

Gonzalez, Lisbegnalis

Hammonds, Jessye

Johnson, Luke

Johnson, Olivia

Kunwar, Anukriti

Lam, Maddie

Low, Daniel

Martinez, Giselle

Noel, Ethan

Parra, Aranxa

Roldan, Jezebel

Salyers, Jessica

Sunseri, Maggie

Shenton, Jamie (Mentor)

English

This roundtable presents ongoing research of students in ANT 301: Qualitative Field Methods. Students are partnering with two eldercare facilities in Danville, KY, one residential and one non-residential. This research aims to understand fulfillment in old age: What are the dimensions of emotional, social, and spiritual fulfillment among the elderly in our society? How do institutions devoted to the elderly facilitate this fulfillment? What are the models for aging our society has developed, and in what ways do they confirm or contradict the lived experiences of the elderly? Though multi-sited research involving two different institutions that offer different kinds of living, learning, and social opportunities, students are exploring these questions in a variety of ways: gendered and racialized experiences of aging; social versus medical models for aging; independence and interdependence; creativity; goal-setting; grief and loss; exercise; love and relationships; among others.