Time capsule letters written by HLTD51 students, “What is it to grow old?” (to be opened again in Week 12)

Welcome to the course blog for Aging and the Arts (HLTD51). This senior undergraduate Health Humanities seminar was designed by Prof. Andrea Charise and runs from September-December 2018 at the University of Toronto Scarborough.

Starting in September 2018, our blog will be updated on a weekly basis with content generated by HLTD51 students as part of our coursework. There you’ll find a range of critical, reflective, and creative posts and podcasts generated by HLTD51 students’ engagements 1) the representation of older age in the arts, and 2) the role of arts-based therapies, creative engagement, and humanities-informed research initiatives involving older people and/or the aging process.

Posts will reflect our interest in questions like:

  • What does a humanistic perspective add to our understanding of growing older, and how can these insights be implemented at the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels of personal conduct, health research and policy?
  • How might the rigorously creative (re)imagination of aging, older age, and caregiving provide enhanced resources that enable us to challenge prevalent, and largely negative, personal and cultural narratives of growing older?
  • What might it mean to grow old in what has been called the world’s most multicultural city?

This blog will be of interest to students (at the pre-health and health/medical professional level), educators, researchers, and anyone interested in the growth of Age Studies and Health Humanities more generally in Canada. (Okay but . . . what is Health Humanities? Glad you asked. Check out SCOPE: The Health Humanities Learning Lab for an overview of this emergent interdisciplinary field.)