Research
Cultivate, Enhance, Engage
Leveraging its strategic location in one of Canada’s most rapidly aging communities and its interdisciplinary strengths in Social Sciences and Humanities research, Trent University has prioritized the Trent Centre for Aging & Society as a key academic research, knowledge mobilization and community engagement initiative. The Centre's research mandate is to:
- Cultivate new areas of scholarship in aging studies.
- Enhance Trent's existing capacity in the study of aging and old age.
- Support community engagement that is responsive to the challenges and opportunities facing older people and aging communities.
Funding
The Trent Centre for Aging & Society is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Institutional Grant (SIG).
Strategic Initiatives
Ageing+Technologies+Communications (ACT)
Based out of Concordia University, Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT) is a multi-methodological research project that brings together researchers and institutional and community partners to address the transformation of the experiences of ageing with the proliferation of new forms of mediated communications in networked societies. ACT is comprised of researchers, students, and community and institutional partners from around the world including Trent Centre for Aging and Society faculty Dr. Stephen Katz and Dr. Barbara Marshall.
Sharing Dance for Active Seniors
In partnership with Canada's National Ballet School, Baycrest Heath Sciences, and Brandon University, Dr. Mark Skinner (Trent) and Dr. Rachel Herron (Brandon) are the co-principle investigators of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Alzheimer's Society of Canada funded ($477,178 over four years) project titled: "Improving Social Inclusion for Canadians with Dementia and Carers through Sharing Dance." The project aims to study innovative ways of improving social inclusion for Canadians living with dementia. Ranked first in the national funding competition, Prof. Skinner’s project was commended by CIHR for its emphasis on older people and their caregivers in rural areas.
After an initial "dress rehearsal," the first quantified study begins in Peterborough in autumn 2017 and the next phase moves to Brandon, Manitoba in winter 2018.
Bodies in Translation
Dr. Nadine Changfoot and Dr. Sally Chivers have joined a research team of nearly two-dozen university and community partners across Canada who were recently awarded the number one ranked $2.5 million Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant (2017-2024) to challenge misconceptions about disability and marginalized communities.
The project entitled “Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology and Access to Life,” will be led by Dr. Carla Rice, Canada research chair in care, gender and relationships at the University of Guelph and Dr. Eliza Chandler of Ryerson University in Critical Disability Studies. Dr. Nadine Changfoot, chair of Political Studies at Trent, is the Trent research lead. In Peterborough, the project will produce short multimedia videos made by older and intergenerational community members including artists, healthcare providers, and aging and disability advocates who experience the intersections of aging, disability and multiple differences, including gender, race, sexuality, and class.
Dr. Sally Chivers, a faculty member in the English Literature department, will also contribute to the project. She will be involved in multimedia workshops making her own videos alongside Dr. Changfoot. The Trent Centre of Aging & Society, of which both researchers are members, will support the workshops. Peterborough community partners in the project include GreenUP, Peterborough Council on Aging, Mysterious Entity Theatre, and the ReFrame Film Festival.
History of Canadian Aging Studies Archive
Facilitated by TCAS, Trent University's iconic Bata Library is now home to the archives of the Canadian Association on Gerontology, a resource that traces the development of the field of gerontology in Canada.