“Insights through Digital Storytelling: What Older Adults’ Stories Teach Us about Aging” - Lecture by Dr. Linda Caissie

7:00 PM
Brian Mulroney Hall Room 101

STU Gerontology professor Linda Caissie will deliver this year’s Dr. John McKendy Memorial Lecture on Narrative on Thursday, November 6 at 7:00 PM in Brian Mulroney Hall, Room 101.

In her lecture, “Insights through Digital Storytelling: What Older Adults’ Stories Teach Us about Aging,” Dr. Caissie will explore what we can learn from the life stories of older adults as told through digital storytelling. Drawing on a collaborative study under the auspices of CIRN, student interns partnered with older adults to co-create digital life stories. The older adults chose the themes and experiences they wished to share, producing narratives that highlight memory, identity, resilience, and intergenerational connection.

Situated within the field of narrative gerontology, this work views digital storytelling as both a method of sharing life narratives and a practice of meaning-making in later life. These stories reveal deeply personal histories while also offering broader insights into aging, including how older adults narratively construct identity, challenge ageist stereotypes, and engage in intergenerational dialogue. 

“Digital storytelling has the potential of enriching our understanding of later life while providing older adults a creative means of self-expression and connection,” she said.  “In a society where older adults’ voices are often marginalized, digital storytelling can provide a platform for them to author their own stories in their own voices.”

Linda Caissie is an Associate Professor in the Department of Gerontology at St. Thomas University, where she has been teaching since 2005. She holds degrees from the University of New Brunswick (BA, MA) and the University of Waterloo (PhD).   Throughout her academic journey, she has always followed her passion for gerontology.  She has published in the area of the narrative construction of gender and aging, fall prevention in long-term care, and women and retirement. 

Her research interests include narrative gerontology, women and aging, ageism, and the social construction of aging in the media. Currently, she is engaged in two main research projects: examining the stories of older adults and their companion animals through digital storytelling (in collaboration with Dr. Clive Baldwin, STU Social Work), and exploring the meaning of retirement for baby boomer women (in collaboration with Dr. Deborah K. van den Hoonaard, STU Professor Emerita, and Dr. Amanda Benjamin, UNB Education).