Sandra is the President of the Research Committee on Ageing of the International Sociological Association (ISAs RC-11), President of the Social-Behavioural Section of the International Association of Gerontology & Geriatrics – European Region (IAGG-ER), and co-convenes the Gerontological Society of America’s Interest Group on International Ageing and Migration. She was elected into the (Swedish) Royal Society of Sciences in 2016, has been a GSA Fellow since 2017 and is Editor-in-Chief for Ageing & Society since 2020. Her latest book 'Ethnicity & Old Age: Expanding our Imagination' (Policy Press, 2019) was awarded the 2021 Richard M. Kalish Innovative Publication Book Award by the Gerontological Society of America. She is co-editor of Critical Gerontology for Social Workers (Policy Press, 2022), and the Handbook of Migration & Ageing (Edward Edgar Publishing, 2022).

Plenary Title:

Ethnicity, race and migrancy: advancing the gerontological imagination in theoretically-astute ways.

Brief Abstract of Plenary Session:

The globalization of international migration is dramatically increasing the ethnic and racial diversity that can be found in the older segments of our populations. This is why we need to take stock of where research on ageing and old age that draws attention to ethnicity and race is at, and where it needs to head. This keynote address relies on a scoping review to argue that the current theoretical deficit that characterizes this scholarship needs to be addressed. By drawing attention to the topics that have received attention (and the ones that have yet to be addressed), as well by critically appraising how this scholarship makes sense of ethnicity and race, this presentation will argue that the deficit is prompted by the fact that advancements in scholarship on ethnicity and race, racialization and racism have yet to inform gerontological research. Thus, even though the essentialist perspective has long been abandoned by ethnicity and race scholars, gerontologists continue to make sense of these identification grounds in essentialist ways. By bringing attention to how scholarly interest on the intersection between ethnicity/ race and ageing/ old age was originally generated, and by alluding to what characterises the past two decades of research, this presentation will critically appraise the obstacles that this scholarship faces while urging gerontologists to turn their analytical gaze onto the underlying assumptions that guide enquiries about ethnicity and race. The presentation will argue that a racialization-informed and injustice-aware research agenda is needed if we are to advance the gerontological imagination on these identification grounds.