Member Spotlight

Q&A with Ingrid Arnet Connidis, PhD from London, Ontario, Canada.

Q: Why did you become a member and how does GSA assist with your professional development?
A: I became a member in 1984.  I had heard from colleagues and friends that GSA was a must for someone studying aging and I wanted to expand my horizons and meet people in the field.

Q: How did you get interested in the field of aging?
A: As a student, I was interested in a range of subjects that all related well to aging. These included demography, medical sociology (as we called it then), and deviance and criminal justice (perhaps not what you’d expect but the treatment of ‘the old’ was a great example of the social construction of age and of how some age groups – even those we hope to join – are viewed as deviant in their violation of social expectations and biases – youth, power, good health, productivity through work). My PhD supervisor encouraged me to apply for a Post-doc in aging that was offered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in the early ‘80s to encourage more Canadians to study aging. So, within a couple of years of obtaining my PhD in criminology and deviance, I switched my focus to aging. It violated the typical career advice one would get (I had to build up a network of colleagues from scratch and GSA was very helpful for that), but it was a great fit and I’m very glad that I made the switch.

Q: What are your key responsibilities?
A: I’ve spent most of my career as a professor balancing teaching (undergraduate and graduate in a range of courses but mostly in aging now), research, and administration (department and university committees; professional service). I had a stint as Director of the Interdisciplinary Group on Aging, an early attempt at our university to encourage cross-disciplinary research and educational initiatives which I found quite rewarding. One can only feel lucky to be a university professor in Canada.

Q: What has been your most memorable experience in gerontology and aging research?
A: Perhaps in some ways, whatever I’m working on currently seems like the most memorable experience in research. Don’t we all have a tendency to look to what’s coming next rather than looking back on what we’ve already done? But, let me try to answer that question. I have vivid memories of interviews with some of the many people who have been gracious enough to take part in my research projects over the years. They make me a strong believer in how much you can learn from the experiences of others, sometimes on the topics that you planned to learn about and often on life more generally. I still use recipes that I was offered when doing an interview, hear the laughter in a voice when someone was remembering his childhood, feel the pain and courage and optimism in the story of losing a spouse, enjoy the hug of a ‘research subject’ as I left her home after a long interview, taste the orange juice that had gone rancid (but I was too young and polite to do anything but keep drinking it and continue the interview), marvel at the openness of reflections and confessions. These are the many small but human moments that happen when you talk with people as a researcher.

Then there are great career moments. One that stands out for me is the wonderful term that I spent at Oregon State University as the Visiting Petersen Scholar in Gerontology and Family Studies in 2001, a rewarding opportunity to do research and spend time with terrific colleagues, so well orchestrated by Alexis Walker. Another is receiving the 2004 GSA Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award with Julie McMullin for our work on sociological ambivalence (Journal of Marriage and Family, 2002). It was an honor to be nominated and chosen by respected colleagues and it was the culmination of a very valuable learning experience.

Q: How do you feel GSA serves the field of gerontology and aging research?
A: The ways in which GSA serves the field of gerontology and aging research make it an important organization to join. The journals that GSA publishes are a must-read for anyone doing research on aging, especially so since the expansion to a more international focus. And, although I don’t make it every year (November isn’t an easy month to be away from work and I belong to NCFR as well and they also meet in November), the annual meeting has been invaluable as a way to meet people in the field, develop and cement longstanding ties with colleagues and friends, talk about current research challenges, and go to interesting sessions. As a sociologist, I have found the leaders and members of the BSS section a warm and welcoming group and attending the section’s gathering is a top priority. I also value going to keynote addresses that are outside my usual areas of expertise or research and learning something new.

Q: Do you have any tips for emerging gerontologists?
A: I guess it would be a version of the tip that I’ve been giving my students for decades: find something that you really love to do, that you find personally interesting. Then work hard at it. If you love it, the work will feel like fun (at least a lot of the time) and will be satisfying. At this stage of my career and life, I’m seeking more balance but there is a lot of excitement and reward in the earlier stages of throwing yourself into a career that you find rewarding.

Q: Tell us a little about your most recent activities/accomplishments?
A: I’m at the stage of my professional life when I can spend a little more time reflecting and feel a little less pressure to publish my work in academic journals in order to build my CV. I feel very lucky to be in this position. I recently wrote a second edition of my book, Family Ties & Aging (Pine Forge Press), and it ended up being more of a revision than I (or the publisher!) had planned on but I enjoyed the chance to explore such a broad but interconnected range of topics. I am currently working on interview data from multigenerational families and am especially interested in the family lives of gay and lesbian adults – not in ‘their’ families, but in ‘our’ families; and in sibling ties and step ties over time. So many interests, so little time! I would like to write less like an academic, to figure out the balance between being academically sound but accessible to the many people who find the work that we do interesting. Who isn’t personally interested in aging and family relationships?
 
Q: Have you had an important mentor in your career? If so, how did it make a difference?
A: I don’t have a traditional career mentor in the field of aging, perhaps in part because I switched areas early in my career. But I have many important influences in my life and career. I have an interesting and stimulating family – parents, siblings, husband, and children – and that’s a great start for an academic life. And I have a terrific network of colleagues, some of whom are among my closest friends now. What can be better than a conversation that spans research, family life, current hobbies, favorite restaurants, travel trips, health concerns, and book and movie recommendations? And thanks in part to organizations like GSA, I am able to stay connected with colleagues and friends from around the world. Nothing beats talking over an idea with a group of bright people and I’m lucky to have a number of bright people in my life and opportunities to meet with them. And sometimes one is influenced from afar. For many years, I was a quiet observer of Matilda White Riley when she attended conferences and we were in sessions together, mostly as members of the audience. Watching her active participation well into her old age has stood as a great example to me even though we never did more than smile at each other as we passed in the hallway.