Dr Michaela Schrage-Früh and Gabrielle Fath (MLAL) attended the 6th International Conference of ENAS (European Network in Aging Studies)

Dr Michaela Schrage-Früh (MLAL) and Gabrielle Fath, School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics, attended the 6th Conference of ENAS (European Network in Aging Studies). The international conference with the theme “Aging, Old Age, and Intergenerational Relationships through Narrative and Practice: Challenging Ageism” took place at the University of Lleida, Spain, from 9th-11th April 2025. 

Michaela’s presentation focused on “Women’s Healing and Growth Through Intergenerational Friendships and Older Role Models in Twenty-First-Century Fiction”, while Gabrielle presented a paper entitled “Ageing without Traditional Kinship: Older Women and Intergenerational Transmission in Post-war Irish and Scottish Short Fiction”. Conference participants included more than 200 international scholars in cultural and social ageing studies and the three days provided numerous opportunities for networking and research exchange.

At the conference Gabrielle was also awarded the highly competitive ENAS award for best Master thesis in ageing studies for her thesis entitled “‘A Pack of Old Women’: Ageing Women and Community in Three Twentieth-Century Scottish Novels. A Study of The Weatherhouse (1930), Nan Shepherd, The Bull Calves (1947), Naomi Mitchison and Memento Mori, (1959), Muriel Spark” (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 2023), which was supervised by Dr Philippe Laplace (Université Franche-Comté). Gabrielle's PhD thesis, funded by the GOI postgraduate scholarship programme (2023-2026), is co-supervised by Michaela and Philippe.