From Maxwell Perspective...

Serving a Field That Is Interdisciplinary by Nature, the Aging Studies Institute Will Help Students Cross Lines

Last summer, design students from SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts spent six weeks in Hong Kong at an international workshop on design and aging, accompanied by design professors who are also faculty affiliates of the Aging Studies Institute.

Gerontology might not be a typical emphasis in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, but it demonstrates how aging studies transcends disciplinary boundaries.

The myriad opportunities for students to study topics related to aging cross the spectrum of academic disciplines at Syracuse. That is the power of the Aging Studies Institute, which serves as an umbrella for faculty members and students from across campus.

Maria Brown, for example, enrolled in SU's School of Social Work because of personal experience. Caring for her elderly parents revealed shortcomings in the health care system. After earning a master's in geriatric social work, she wanted to affect the health care system through research. So she enrolled in Maxwell, earned a master's in sociology, certificates in both gerontology (begun while she was a social work student) and women's and gender studies, and then a doctorate in social science. Last fall, she joined the School of Social Work as a professor of practice.

"As a student, having access to the different faculty affiliates and earning the certificate in gerontology prepared me for collaborations with academics from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds," says Brown.

The ASI also helps coordinate an 18-credit undergraduate minor in gerontology, offered through the School of Social Work, that draws from social work, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and nutrition. Work is under way to soon offer a new master's level certificate.

The ASI, says sociologist and faculty affiliate Christine Himes, will be a boon for student interest in the field. "Having this center will raise our visibility," she says, "Students will begin to identify Syracuse as a place that focuses on aging research."

— Reneé Gearhart Levy  

Renée Gearhart Levy is a freelance writer, specializing in higher education, based in Fayetteville, N.Y.

This article appeared in the spring 2012 print edition of Maxwell Perspective; © 2012 Maxwell School of Syracuse University.