Public Lectures
Our CASS public lecture series is open to the public to engage and attract external practitioners and academics.
The monthly events attract a meaningful number of practitioners to engage in debate around topical sociological issues.*
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Our CASS public lecture series is open to the public to engage and attract external practitioners and academics.
The monthly events attract a meaningful number of practitioners to engage in debate around topical sociological issues.*
Explore the upcoming public lectures we're holding in 2023 and 2024.
Speaker: Jacqui Merchant
Date and time: 26 June, 12-2pm
Location: Sir Tom Cowie Campus (WV121, Wearside View) and on MS Teams
A gap in knowledge exists in the experiential understanding of midlife which this presentation intends to address. Using biographical narrative interviews with 14 women in the North East of England, this working PhD thesis will present preliminary findings which contribute towards knowledge of lived experiences of midlife, specifically regarding vulnerability factors that can impact on psychosocial wellbeing. A multi-layered approach will be taken in understanding mental wellbeing and health in women that seeks to understand the multiple factors that shape people’s lives, placing individual and family development in cultural and historical contexts and which acknowledges the impact of time of place. Biopsychosocial aspects of health are also inherent to a lifecourse approach and what it means to experience midlife in the current social context, considering significant social change as well as the persistence of inequalities and how these impact upon wellbeing.
McQuaide (1998) wrote that the cultural narrative provided for women at midlife is either medical and menopause-orientated or socially devaluing, (e.g., “empty nest”). Without alternative images, these demoralising cultural stereotypes can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Blanchflower et al (2008) have found that mental distress tends to reach a maximum in middle age, and influences include income, education, and marriage. Hence, this presentation intends to address this gap in knowledge which is often dismissed as hormonal and treated with anti-depressant or hormone replacement medication, rather than the psychosocial focus. Preliminary findings of research will be presented, and the opportunity for discussion of positive adaptation to midlife is welcomed.
*Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the public lectures are those of the speakers.