March 2024
The Centre supports the establishment of an ageing research network for social scientists, based in Ireland, from Asia
Dr Catherine Elliott O'Dare (Assistant Professor in Social Policy at the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College Dublin) welcomed four researchers (Dr Maria Pierce, Ms Varee Chaitaveepporn and two JaSt members) all from UCD School of Social Policy, Social Work and Social Justice, and hosted the very first UCD-TCD joint meeting for PhD students in Ageing Research (Social Sciences) on 21 March in Trinity College Dublin.
The idea proposed by Dr Kodate at last year’s Irish Gerontological Society Annual Conference in Galway came to materialise when Dr Elliott O'Dare asked Centre Director, Dr Kodate to give a lecture for her ‘Ageing Societies’ module for the 3rd/4th year Social Policy students. His lecture title was ‘Robotics-aided care, is there such a thing?!’.
@ Trinity College Dublin
The two PhD students (supervised by Dr Kodate and Dr Pierce) met with Ms Jianing Zhu and Ms Wenyu Li (co-supervised by Dr Elliott O'Dare and Dr Catherine Conlon, TCD). All four PhD students come from Asia (China, Japan and Thailand) and we had lively discussions with regard to the way people have been addressing issues relating to ageing societies, including how assistive technology has been used, in different countries (Ireland and Asia, in particular).
Led by Assoc. Prof. Sarah Donnelly and Dr Pierce, there have been several meetings to discuss a wider network of researchers engaged in ageing research within the university and beyond. This Asian Chapter will be a very important part of the broader research network.