Old/Age

Because responses to the COVID-19 pandemic seem to reinforce understandings of older adults as naturally vulnerable and in decline, contributors to this special issue examine the histories and politics of old age. Topics include denaturalizing discourses about the “elderly” as a problem population; how age and aging emerged as a site of historical contestation and a field of power in negotiations over freedom, property, and elder care; the central role of work in ideas about age and the life course; and struggles defined around age and generation. The issue closes with a series of portraits and life stories of the joys and struggles of transgender and gender-nonconforming older adults.

Contributors: Amanda Ciafone, Jess T. Dugan, Vanessa Fabbre, Corinne T. Field, Rachel Gelfand, Lauren Jae Gutterman, Stephen Katz, Amelia Kennedy, Henrique Espada Lima, Laura Renata Martin, Devin McGeehan Muchmore, Maya C. Sandler, Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, Pat Thane, Gabriel Winant, Ben Zdencanovic