Prof Aagje Swinnen (A.M.C.)
Research profile
Swinnen’s areas of expertise are critical age(ing) studies and critical dementia studies. Her main research topics include:
- Expert readings of age ideologies (and their intersections) in literature, photography, and film
- Lay readings of literature about later life, the normalized life course, and loneliness
- The meaning of participatory arts activities (specifically spoken word-based activities, such as the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, TimeSlips, and Shared Reading) in dementia care settings
- The way professional artists understand and give meaning to creativity in the later stages of their career
- The development of more age just universities
Research projects
Current externally funded projects:
NWO Social Sciences Humanities Division, Open Competition M
Re-Imagining Burnout and the Cultural Narrative of Productive Adulthood through Literature (Sep 2025–Sep 2028), as co-applicant with Prof. Dr. Sarah de Mul (Open University, NL), partners: De Culturele Apotheek & NOBCO
Dutch Cultural Participation Fund, Program Creating Culture Together (Samen Cultuur Maken)
Vertelgeluk: Verhalen en gedichten als oppeppers voor mensen die leven met dementie (Sep 2024–2026), as partner in the project of Akke Visser and Marije Wilmink from De Culturele Apotheek
Key publications
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Lipscomb, V. B., & Swinnen, A. (Eds.) (2024). The Palgrave Handbook of Literature and Aging. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-50917-9More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A. (2023). Towards a postcritical turn in literary aging studies? Older women’s responses to Dimitri Verhulst’s novella Madame Verona Comes Down the Hill. Poetics Today, 44(1-2), 232-285.More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A. (2023). A seasoned, female Robinson Crusoe: Ageing, solitude, and resilience in Louise en hiver. In S. Falcus, H. Hartung, & R. Medina (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook to Ageing in Contemporary Literature and Film (pp. 413-426). Bloomsbury Publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350204362.ch-033More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A. (2023). Poetry and Dementia: Imagining and Shaping More Just Futures. In O. V. Lehmann, & O. Synnes (Eds.), A Poetic Language of Ageing (pp. 27-42). Bloomsbury.More information about this publication
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Bijsterveld, K., & Swinnen, A. (Eds.) (2023). Interdisciplinarity in the Scholarly Life Cycle: Learning by Example in Humanities and Social Science Research. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11108-2More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A., & De Vuyst, S. (2025). “For ladies, 35 is check-out time”: An anocritical approach to the sitcom Girls5eva. Journal of Aging Studies, 74, Article 101326. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2025.101326More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A. (2019). Reading ageism in “geezer and grump lit”: Responses to The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83, ¼. Journal of Aging Studies, 50, Article 100794. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2019.100794More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A., & de Medeiros, K. (2018). “Play” and people living with dementia: A humanities-based inquiry of TimeSlips and the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. Gerontologist, 58(2), 261-269. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnw196More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A. (2018). 'Writing to make ageing new': Dutch poets' understandings of late-life creativity. Ageing & Society, 38(3), 543-567. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X16001197More information about this publication
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Swinnen, A. (2018). Mumbling Beauty: Louise Bourgeois: Portraits of the artist as a much older woman. Feminist Media Studies, 18(1), 122-137. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1409995More information about this publication