The ARK Ageing Programme was established in 2013, to support engagement between the age and academic sectors.
Since then, we have increased knowledge of ageing and public awareness of key policy challenges through a range of innovative and inter-disciplinary projects, including:
- services for isolated older men,
- representation of old age in news media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic
- potential of age-friendly practice
- the Lively Project
- dementia in the minds of characters and readers
We established the Northern Ireland branch of the British Society of Gerontology, and are active members of Framing Ageing, a trans-disciplinary international network of gerontologists, geriatricians and arts and humanities scholars. Four of our PhD students graduated and now work as academics or professional researchers.
Our current projects, publications and activities are listed throughout the ARK site. Our earlier website provides information on our work from 2013 to 2022.
Since then, the ARK ageing programme has been particularly successful in securing funding for interdisciplinary research on ageing. For example, following on from our successful collaboration with the QUB School of Arts, English and Languages on Dementia in the Minds of Characters and Readers, we are developing More than Lovely Girls – an oral and cultural history of the Housewife of the Year competition which ran in Ireland between 1967 and 1996.
We have also been involved with the Dunhill Medical Trust's Doctoral Training Programme with QUB School of Pharmacy and Centre for Public Health. These interdisciplinary PhD studentships will further our understanding of the importance of medicines in the lives of older people.
For further information, please contact Gemma Carney, g.carney@qub.ac.uk