June 3, 2016 | Morning Research Cafe and Film Screening with Barbara Ratzenböck

On Friday, June 3, 2016 Barbara Ratzenböck, doctoral candidate at the Center for Inter-

American Studies of the University of Graz, gave a guest lecture at Trent University co-

hosted by the Intersections Feminist Seminar Series & the Trent Centre for Aging and

Society. The talk examined the potential and challenges of walking interviews in small

domestic spaces as a method to explore the information and communication technology

(ICT) experiences of older women 1 . Particularly, the talk addressed the question of how

interaction with the media objects of the home shapes these research conversations.

Drawing from examples from the walking interview material, the talk discussed how this

method and the interaction with media objects on-site encourage different ways of

expressing experiences – for example showing instead of telling – and thus help to create

multifaceted accounts of the complex entanglements with media and ICTs of older women.

The guest lecture was followed by a discussion with faculty and students attending.

The following day, Barbara Ratzenböck shared “Shifting Perspectives,” a short documentary

created by film maker Pavel Mezihorak, Aging Studies and Inter-American Studies scholar

Roberta Maierhofer, and herself with the Trent community. “Shifting Perspectives” takes a

look behind the scenes of Graz International Summer School, an intensive interdisciplinary

summer program taking place every July in Southern Styria, Austria. The film addresses

questions of diversity by inviting summer school participants to reflect on their personal

experiences regarding change, time, and identities in their life course. Thereby, conceptions

of individual and collective identities are being contrasted and put into dialogue, and shifting

perspectives is not only being talked about in abstract terms, but becomes very personal.

After the screening, Barbara Ratzenböck and summer school alumna Melissa Baldwin who

also contributed to the film in terms of a musical performance engaged in a lively question

and answer session about the film and the summer program with the audience.

1 This research belongs to the “Cultural Narratives of Age and Aging” project supported by

funds from Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, Anniversary

Fund, project number: 15849)