AMC events

Disrupting narratives of ageing through art and media

AMC/CGD joint colloquium. Wednesday 21 May, 15.30-17.30, Spiegelzaal.

Organized by Sara De Vuyst

This AMC/CGD colloquium explores how we can disrupt dominant notions of ageing through art and media. It will focus on the potential of visual, ethnographic and artistic approaches to rethink narratives that portray ageing as a linear and irreversible path of decline and loss of pleasure. How can we create spaces of interaction between research, media and art to destabilise limited notions of ageing? How can we transform them into more inclusive interpretations?

This colloquium brings together three presentations that will explore the relationship between aesthetics, narratives and ageing in different ways. It will be followed by a discussion and Q&A moderated by Aagje Swinnen and Sara De Vuyst.

Femke De Sutter is a PhD researcher at Ghent University and visiting scholar at FASoS. She will present her project ‘The Belgian Silvering Screen’, which examines the representation of ageing and older people in Belgian cinema (1945-2022) and questions prevailing narratives about ageing by rewriting film scenes with older adults.

De Ambulanten is an artist collective consisting of Rasa Alksnyte, Ann Weckx and Justine Maxelon. They aim to open up the image of old age, dementia and care through artistic interventions. They will present their ‘Toolbox for care’, a long-term artistic project focussing on art and participation with residents and staff in care homes, building bridges between care and art.

Julia M. Free is a director, writer and photographer working in both Belgium and the Netherlands. Her work revolves around themes of identity, community and social change. She directed the VRT-CANVAS documentary series GAY & GREY, which follows lesbian couples in their 70s. Their decades-long partnerships and enduring commitment to each other make them pioneers in the search for identity and belonging in society.

Eurocentrism: A Discussion Panel 

AMC/GTD joint colloquium. Wednesday 19 March, 15.30-17.30, GG76, room 1.02.

Main speakers: Assem Dandashly, Camilo Erlichman, Faisal Hamadah, Christin Höne, and Sophie Withaeckx. The panel is going to be moderated by Brigitte Le Normand (from GTD) and Ferenc Laczó (from AMC). 

The changing place and diverse roles of Europe and Europeans in global history and contemporary times have been the subject of numerous, at times polemical debates. The meanings and consequences of Eurocentrism – a concept whose implications appear to be crucially important to numerous scholars based at FASoS – have been at the heart of many of those exchanges. We believe that those varied meanings and the manifold implications of the phenomenon would deserve to be examined in a more sustained manner at our faculty – and that this is in fact one of our urgent tasks. To foster such an examination, we intend to conduct original exchanges across various research programs, departments, and disciplines. This opening panel will address the following main questions:

• What meanings are assigned to the concept “Eurocentrism” in your discipline(s)?
• In what ways have Eurocentric perspectives been critiqued?
• What implications do these discussions and critiques of Eurocentrism have for your own research and teaching activities at FASoS?
• How could discussions and criticisms of Eurocentrism from various disciplines and fields of study be brought into a more fruitful dialogue with each other, at our faculty and beyond?