Graz International Summer School Seggau – Seminar “When I’m 64” – Aging Masculinities and a Datified World

“The Graz International Summer School Seggau – Seminar “When I’m 64” – Aging Masculinities and a Datified World” introduces the emergent field of Critical Age Studies with a particular emphasis on gender and aging among men. Among the issues under analysis are: representations of men in relation to anti-aging discourse and anti-aging advertising; aspects of style and identity among aging men; the social assessment of “age appropriate” and “age inappropriate” attitudes and behaviors; and case studies engaging masculinity, age, and celebrity in the realms of popular music and hip-hop culture. Further, the seminar will explore empirical research on age, gender, and media technology use, focussing on the relevance of generations and gender – especially aging masculinities – for everyday engagement with the digital world.

In order to develop strategies and methods to meet the challenges of our times, this summer school engages in academic contemplation and interdisciplinary exchange about our datafied world. Such investigations offer us the opportunity of developing disruptive intellectual approaches and ideas, as we can gain insights into the many forces that make us believe that the challenges we face are essential, natural, or inevitable.

This seminar on aging is housed within the Graz University Summer School Seggau (GUSEGG), which takes place every year at the castle of Seggau, south of Graz near the Slovene border, where approximately 80 students from 30 countries discuss global developments and challenges from international and interdisciplinary perspective. The summer school 2022, contains an AiD seminar module on “’When I’m 64’ – Aging Masculinities and a Datified World” taught by Dr. Barbara Ratzenböck (University of Graz) and Prof. Murray Forman, Ph.D (Northeastern University), which provides a special platform for co-teaching, and also offers opportunities for students from the AiD consortium to study in a short-term program in an international environment in Central Europe.