Education:
Ph.D. Anthropology
Collaborative Specialization in Sexual Diversity Studies
University of Toronto
M.A. Anthropology
Collaborative Specialization in Aging & the Life Course
University of Toronto
B.A. Honours in Anthropology
Minor in Art History
McGill University
Research Interests:
Aging; disability; care; consent and capacity; gender and sexuality; ethics; ethnography; public anthropology; arts-based methods
Current Research:
I am a sociocultural and medical anthropologist and ethnographer. Through my research and collaborations, I work to advance critical conversations about questions of aging, disability, gender and sexuality, and wellbeing and “care”, broadly understood. Grounded in a commitment to examining and challenging ageism, ableism, and other normative social dynamics that shape everyday lives, my research engages in close interdisciplinary conversation with critical disability studies, critical gerontology, and queer and trans studies.
My current postdoctoral research Stranger Than Family: Guardianship and Ethics of Substitution for People Living with Dementia Going it Alone, is funded by the Alzheimer Society Research Program. This research focuses on how ideas of capacity, consent, and substitute decision-making affect people facing dementia who are “going it alone”. This work builds on key findings and questions from my doctoral research which, through ethnography, examined the social dynamics and norms shaping the lives of LGBTQ older adults residing in long-term care homes and in non-institutional settings in Toronto, Canada.
Concurrent to graduate studies, over the last ten years I have led and collaborated on a range inter- and multi-disciplinary projects that consider issues of access and equity in relation to health and aging. This includes work on palliative care, dementia and unpaid care, elder abuse prevention, and intergenerational storytelling. At the University of Toronto Scarborough, I helped to establish a new Centre for Global Disability Studies. The Centre serves as a catalyst to bring together critical disability scholars and support transdisciplinary, transnational, and anticolonial approaches: https://globaldisabilitystudies.ca/about/
Since 2020 I have worked in the research department of a national non-profit, leading research and knowledge mobilization focused on 2SLGBTQI health, aging and housing issues. To learn more about my research, teaching, and public engagement please visit: https://celestepang.ca/