Gloria Gutman

Diversity within Diversity: An Emerging Theme in Gerontological Research with Important Implications for Policy and Practice 

For much of her career, Gloria Gutman has championed the point that older adults are not a homogeneous group. Up until recently, it was taboo to include questions about gender identity and sexual orientation among socio-demographic descriptors of research participants. Since 2015, Dr. Gutman has conducted a series of studies with LGBT older adults, a traditionally marginalized group, and with older adults from Canada’s two largest visible minorities: South Asian and Chinese. Some analyses have compared these groups with the predominant white heterosexual Canadian older adult population explicating intersectionality within aging studies. An emergent theme in her research and in other recent research that she will weave together in this 18th Ellen Gee Memorial lecture, is diversity within diversity. The recent COVID-19 pandemic offers new insights into these nuanced causes and consequences of differential response within and between sub-populations to pandemics and other disasters.

Speaker:

Gloria Gutman, PhD developed the Gerontology Research Centre and Department of Gerontology at Simon Fraser University (SFU) and was director of both from 1982-2005. Currently, she’s a Research Associate and Professor Emerita at SFU. Her awards and honours include Order of British Columbia, LLD (honoris causa- Western University), Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal and Order of Canada for her work “as an international authority in the field of gerontology”. She is author/editor of 23 books. Her research interests include seniors’ housing, long-term care, health promotion, gerontechnology, prevention of elder abuse, advance care planning, and disaster mitigation.

Please find the recording of the lecture through this link.

Please find the presentation slides here.