An Age-Old Question: What Does it Mean to Get Older?

Memory Lane Café is a student led group offering a supportive and welcoming environment for members of the community living with dementia and their family/carers. They run weekly sessions, which give visitors the opportunity to have a chat and a cuppa, as well as an activity to encourage cognitive stimulation, communication and/or creativity.

The idea that we become more infirm as we age, that we are more likely to struggle with bodily dysregulation or disability, can be a source of considerable anxiety. During the English Reformation, ideas surrounding ageing and infirmity were reforged, creating new perceptions and representations of illness and disability. Combining critical disability studies to examine the Books of Homilies, a text created to instruct and inform its audience on religious models of behaviour, sheds light on how disability was represented, and how infirmity existed not solely in relation to ageing, but was experienced by all in the face of God.

A showcase of research materials that focus on how the ageing body, and physical decline, was understood and experienced historically compared to the modern day. The particular focus is on observation practices and coping strategies in seventeenth-century England.

Pre-modern approaches and responses to physical decline were underpinned by a distinctive logic pertaining to the workings of the body. Human beings were conceived as ‘ensouled’, their bodies comprised of humours and fluxes, and bodily processes were fundamentally linked to the motions of the heavenly spheres. In this context, coping strategies incorporated religious exercises into the therapeutic process. Moreover, bedside attendants sought to discern divine messages and spiritual truths through observable phenomena of the sick and dying body.

Just like today, early modern people exhibited a profound preoccupation with physical decline. They lived in their bodies as we live in ours, but the meanings they assigned to this phenomenon were very different. The showcase demonstrates that bodily events are deeply cultural phenomena, powerfully mediated by historical context.

How does loneliness occur, and impact health as we age? Come & explore ways to tackle isolation in over 50s in Coventry, and how you could make a new intergenerational best friend.

HOPE Coventry's Good Neighbours project has befriended & supported over 3800 over 50s since 2016. Linking older people to volunteer befrienders of all ages, and 630+ community groups, for flourishing two-way friendships.

We are living better for longer than ever before. Scientists, artists and entrepreneurs are hitting their stride later in life. Pop culture, from movies to modelling to the media, is carving out more room for people past the first flush of youth. Bottom line: there has never been a better time in history to grow older. Drawing on the latest science, personal experience and case studies from around the world, Carl inspires audiences to embrace aging as both a privilege and an adventure.

Hear from Professor Philip Taylor:

As people live longer, many of us are being asked to work longer too. This talk explores what longer working lives mean in practice — the opportunities and the challenges. Drawing on research into retirement, ageism, job quality, and later-life careers, I’ll show why age alone doesn’t define ability, and how a mix of structural, personal, and cultural factors shape choices. The focus will be on how workplaces and policies can be redesigned to make longer working lives fairer, more flexible, and more rewarding.

Hear from Dr Luke Hodson:

In this talk, the beauty of everyday life will be discussed, and the impact that daily, 'normal' activities can have on our wellbeing, and ultimately contribute to successful aging across the lifespan.

Hear from Dr Cathy Slack:

Age is the biggest risk factor for a range of different diseases. By better understanding the biology of how and why ageing occurs, we can uncover what drives the changes that lead to poor health. I will explain how research using a simple model - the fruit fly - is leading to important knowledge about the biology of human ageing which we hope will one day lead to therapeutic approaches to help people stay healthier for longer.

Please note: This talk will include reference to ill-health and the use of an insect model in biomedical research.