SEE Aging Graz 2025
25 to 27 September 2025, University of Graz
An international conference dedicated to “Transforming Representations of Aging in Southeast European Literature and Film” was held at the University of Graz, Austria, from 25 to 27 September 2025.
The conference was organized by Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl and Tatjana Petzer from the Department of Slavic Studies and Ulla Kriebernegg from the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Aging and Care (CIRAC) within the framework of the project Transforming Anxieties of Ageing in Southeastern Europe, which is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
The Organizing Committee: Ulla Kriebernegg, Tatjana Petzer (1st/2nd from left) and Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl (1st right) with Dean of Studies Margit Reitbauer (2nd from right)
The aim of the conference was, on the one hand, to discuss how cultural representations of aging and old age have evolved over time through literature, film, theater, and visual arts, and, on the other hand, to examine the transformative potential of those representations in shaping individual attitudes, cultural mindsets, and social practices. The conference centered, in line with the project, on Southeast European literatures and film, particularly the South Slavic (Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovenian) as well as Albanian and Romanian contexts. Within nine panel sessions, twenty-five speakers presented their research on aging and old age as connected to various topics, from education, social change, gender, queerness, memory, tradition, and care to transhumanism and the digital transformation. Members of the Transforming Anxieties of Ageing project team served as panel chairs and discussants and, with their diverse disciplinary backgrounds, fostered interdisciplinary exchange.
The conference program was enriched by a reading performance by students of Slavic Studies at the University of Graz. They read excerpts from Georgi Gospodinov’s latest book Death and the Gardener (2024) and Dubravka Ugrešić’s novel Baba Yaga Laid an Egg (2008). A highlight of the first conference day was the screening of an author reading with Slavenka Drakulić who, in a talk with Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl and Tatjana Petzer, discussed how her writing reflects and critiques the society we live in, closing with an excerpt from her recent short story collection What We Do Not Talk About (2024).
Conference attendees and guests had successful days of inspiring exchange, networking, and furthering aging studies in the Southeast European context. The organizers were especially happy about the participation of team members of the AGE-C project (Age and Gender in European Cinema), also funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
Ulla Kriebernegg (left) and Dagmar Gramshammer-Hohl (right) with members of the AGE-C project team
More impressions from the conference:
(all images © University of Graz)
The conference was funded by:
