The workshop Dementia in Data? organized by Prof. Roberta Maierhofer and Nicole Haring from the Center for Inter-American Studies at the University of Graz brought together scholars, practitioners, students, and interested parties at the Center for Inter-American Studies on April 28, 2023 to address issues of dementia research in times of digitalization and datafication. As a hybrid workshop, 30 people from around the world participated. Dr. Heike Hartung of the University of Graz discussed in her workshop the question of literary representation of dementia in interaction with cultural narratives and political texts of prevention and treatment of dementia. Prof. Annette Leibing of the Université de Montreal (Canada) presented her research as an anthropologist and raised important questions of the different discourses in the North American, South American and European contexts, thus building an Inter-American bridge to the topic. Finally, Dr Andelka Zecevic of the University of Belgrade (Serbia) presented her research as a mathematician on artificial intelligence in relation to dementia, and hence completed the interdisciplinary workshop with a topical discussion that addressed AI software, such as ChatGPT.
The workshop day ended with a book presentation of two works, Gender and Age/Aging in Popular Culture (eds. Nicole Haring, Roberta Maierhofer, Barbara Ratzenböck, transcript Bielefeld) and Ageing Masculinities, Alzheimer's & Dementia Narratives (eds. Heike Hartung, Rüdiger Kunow, Matthew Sweney, Bloomsbury). Dr. Katharina Fürholzer of the University of Rostock presented her chapter in the second mentioned volume before the workshop group ended the evening with a joint dinner.
The workshop was part of the Aging in Data project (www.agingindata.ca) and a cooperation between the Center for Inter-American Studies the Albert Schweitzer Institute for Geriatrics and Gerontology of Geriatric Health Centres of the City of Graz, and Smart Living -AAL Center Esther.