Extraordinary Forms of Aging: Life Narratives of Centenarians and Children with Progeria

While aging and the life-course appear to be normalized processes, the complex construction of age at the intersection of biology, society, and culture remains opaque. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of age(ing) by exploring its construction through the analysis of extraordinary cases. Focusing on life narratives of centenarians and children with progeria, Julia Velten analyzes the way in which these people experience age(ing) and shows how these experiences can contribute to our understanding of age. Situated at the intersection of aging studies and medical humanities, the study explores what extraordinary age(ing) can tell us about aging processes in general.

Julia Velten, born in 1989, works as an assistant professor at the Obama Institute for Transnational American Studies at Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität in Mainz. She received her doctorate from there in 2021. She was a member of the DFG Research Group »Un/doing Differences: Practices of Human Differentiation« from 2016-2019 and was hosted as visiting PhD student at the Trent Centre for Aging and Society in 2017. Her research focuses on aging, medical humanities, and indigenous studies.