Professor Julia Twigg, of the University of Kent, has been recognised for outstanding achievement by the British Society of Gerontology (BSG) for her research on how people feel and behave as they age.
Professor Twigg, of the University’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, was awarded the BSG Outstanding Achievement Award 2016 at the society’s annual meeting in July.
Her research focuses on the way people feel and behave as they age, with particular reference to clothing. Over the last decade she has undertaken three research projects exploring the role of dress in the constitution of age as it affects different groups of people.
The first of these looked at women and dress, and was published as the book Fashion and Age: Dress, the Body and Later Life (Bloomsbury). The second, undertaken with Dr Christina Buse, of the University of York, considered people with dementia and their dress. The third, currently underway, extends the analysis to older men.
All three studies are concerned with the ways in which dress and age intersect and the role of clothing has in the expression of social identities.
Established in 2007, the award is made annually to an individual or organisation that, in the opinion of the judges, has made a ‘significant and lasting contribution’ to the scientific study of ageing in Britain.