ERA Committee

Chair of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Heather Mulkey

Heather Mulkey is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Southampton.  Her MSc in Gerontology explored End-of-Life Decision-Making.  She was subsequently awarded a Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship to pursue PhD studies.  Her doctoral work employs Qualitative Longitudinal Research to understand Late Life Decision-Making.  She has presented her work at The BSG Conference and the British Society of Population Studies Conference.  She is currently a Teaching Fellow at the University of Southampton where she is a co-convenor of the Ageing, Health and Well-being module. 

She previously worked in marketing and recruitment for international schools in the UK, Switzerland and the Middle East and has previous experience in financial management, public relations and communications in the United States.  She also holds Master of Arts degrees in Music and Creative Writing. 

Incoming Chair of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Arlind Reuter

I am a final year PhD student at Open Lab, Newcastle University. Using participatory action research, I explore the intersection of ageing and digitalisation within a civic context, looking at how older adults can make use of digital and community media as part of their civic participation. My research is informed by my interdisciplinary background in Social Gerontology, Psychology and Human-Computer Interaction. As an outcome of my project, I am a co-founder of the award-winning Later Life Audio and Radio Co-operative (LLARC), a growing international network of older radio producers, age-friendly radio stations, third sector organisations, local authorities and researchers. The LLARC aims to strengthen the visibility of older adults as content creators and promotes diverse talk-based content on age & ageing.

Outgoing Chair of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Matthew Lariviere

Dr Matthew Lariviere is Lecturer in Social Policy in the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol. Matthew is a social anthropologist whose research explores and anticipates emergent relationalities, materialities, and subjectivities through digital technology and AI within care and ageing futures. From 2018 – 2021, he held an ESRC Innovation Fellowship in the Centre for International Research on Care, Labour and Equalities at the University of Sheffield. In 2020, the N8 Research Partnership recognised Matthew with a New Research Pioneer Award for his research on emergent technologies to support ageing in place.

Deeply committed to interdisciplinary and non-academic engagement, Matthew has presented his work to academics, policy and practice partners, and the public across the UK, Europe, Australia, and North America. He is the Chair and EU representative for IDIH Global's Inclusive Living Expert Group, an international consortium and fora for digital technology and healthy ageing, and a Co-Convenor of the European Association of Social Anthropologists’ Age and Generations Network.

Since January 2020, Matthew has been the Reviews Editor for the International Journal of Care and Caring. He regularly reviews for multiple peer-reviewed journals on topics related to ageing, digital health, and care.

Matthew is an elected Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.

m.lariviere@sheffield.ac.uk

Treasurer of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Alison Benzimra

Alison Benzimra is the Foundation Manager of the Whiteley Foundation for Ageing Well. In her role, she manages a variety of qualitative and quantitative research projects with several academic institutions. She completed her MPhil in Inclusive Innovation at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Her research explored the experiences of older beneficiaries of pension fund schemes and private healthcare companies for the development of a comprehensive healthy ageing programme. Alison’s research interests include the synergy between healthy life expectancy and socio-economic status and innovative business models in the provision of care and support in the social care context. Alison is passionate about capacity building and strengthening the connections between policymakers, practitioners and researchers within the ageing sector.

Secretary of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Lucy Smout Szablewska

Lucy Smout Szablewska is a social researcher interested in the everyday politics of ageing over the life course, and in bridging the gap between research and policy-making.  She is currently working as a part-time postdoctoral research assistant on two research projects on visual art and public health in the Department of Geography at Durham University. 

During her earlier career she worked as an English language teacher and project co-ordinator in Greece and Zimbabwe,  and since 1994 in a variety of formal and freelance roles in the communications and social enterprise sectors in North East England.

Between 2012 - 2019 she undertook a part-time PhD in the Department of Geography, Durham University. It examined the linked lives of Polish worker-carers in North East England and their families in Poland, and makes the case for understanding the significance of population ageing and valuing the role of unpaid care labour in migration research.

She became interested in ageing during her doctoral research - and also enjoyed talking to other early career researchers. The ERA committee is a really nice opportunity to further both those interests, support the BSG and challenge herself to do new things - such as live-tweeting ERA events.  

Mentor Coordinator of Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Miranda Quinney

Miranda is a final year PhD student at the University of South Wales. Her area of interest is the wellbeing of older adults with a particular focus on sustainable interventions. Her academic study follows a varied career which includes biographical storytelling , teaching and training. She plans to combine elements of her experience as a practitioner with the knowledge gained from academia in a  new role with the Mental Health Foundation.

As a mature learner, Miranda has experienced mentorship from the perspective of both mentor and mentee and brings this to the ERA mentor-co-ordinator post.

Mentor Co-ordinator for Emerging Researchers Into Ageing Group (ERA):

Dr Lisa Davison

Dr Lisa Davison holds MSc and PhD degrees in Gerontology which they completed at the University of Southampton. They currently work as a Quantitative Research Fellow on the Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing (DesHCA) project, which is an innovative and ambitious UKRI-funded research project based at the University of Stirling.

Their previous research has focused on the relationships between caregiving, loneliness, health, and wellbeing using English data, and between migration and pensions using a range of European data. Lisa’s current quantitative work focuses on exploring a variety of data sources, to analyse the risk profile of individuals in relation to future home adaptations and understanding how those adaptations impact health and wellbeing.