Dr Amy Culley to exhibit at British Academy Summer Showcase

15 June 2022

An Associate Professor from the University of Lincoln will be showcasing her work on the subject of ageing at The British Academy Summer Showcase this weekend. Dr Amy Culley from the School of English and Journalism will be speaking as part of the ‘What does growing older mean to us?’ exhibit alongside colleagues from Loughborough […]

An Associate Professor from the University of Lincoln will be showcasing her work on the subject of ageing at The British Academy Summer Showcase this weekend.

Dr Amy Culley from the School of English and Journalism will be speaking as part of the ‘What does growing older mean to us?’ exhibit alongside colleagues from Loughborough and Keele Universities.

Amy was successful in her application for the Summer Showcase, following on from being awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship in 2019 for the research project – ‘Narratives of Old Age: Women’s Late Life Writing 1800-1850’

The research recovers narratives of older age in journals, correspondence, memoirs, and biographies by early nineteenth-century women in both manuscript and print. These sources provide rare insights into women’s ageing in a period in which gender and old age is currently under-researched and that has important legacies for contemporary conceptions of later life.

Dr Amy Culley said:

“I am delighted to be participating in this exciting event and to have the opportunity to talk about my research with visitors to the exhibition. Everyone has a story to tell about growing older.

“Our exhibit shows how this experience was viewed in the past and the ways our own cultural attitudes have been influenced by the stories we have inherited. As part of the exhibition, participants will enter a listening space to experience contemporary recordings of diaries and letters from the early nineteenth century discovered in the archives that reflect on the experience of growing older.

“The recordings have been made by members of the Lincoln Older Readers’ 21st Century Literature Book Group which was founded in 2014. We are using these archival materials to provoke a conversation about our own attitudes to older age and how we might collectively re-imagine and write new stories of ageing.

“I’m looking forward to hearing from people of all ages who will be sharing their own stories about what growing older means to them.”

The event is taking place on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 June from 9am until 5pm at the British Academy, London SW1Y 5AH.

It is free to attend, but tickets must be booked in advance by visiting here Summer Showcase 2022 programme and exhibits | The British Academy