Beyond the Jargon

Thomas recently completed his Master’s in Sociology. He and I have been working on a project related to older adults and the use of technology to support aging in place and healthy aging. The name of the project is Knowledge Implementation for Scale-up, Spread and Sustainability of Assistive Technology (KISSS-AT) MSFHR Implementation Science Team Grant, here at the University of Victoria. In this episode, Thomas and I had a great conversation and explored questions regarding terminologies beyond the jargon such as What is sociology? What is microsociology? How is the concept of “institutions” conceptualized in sociology? What is Gerontechnology? What are assistive technologies?

We wish to express our gratitude to the late Dr Karen Kobayashi, whose vision and leadership and legacy for this research is foundational.

Show Notes

Thomas recently completed his Master’s in Sociology. He and I have been working on a project related to older adults and the use of technology to support aging in place and healthy aging.  The name of the project is Knowledge Implementation for Scale-up, Spread and Sustainability of Assistive Technology (KISSS-AT) MSFHR Implementation Science Team Grant, here at the University of Victoria. In this episode, Thomas shares his academic journey and brings lots of insights from an interdisciplinary perspective, indeed Thomas characterized his journey as an artistic one.

Thomas has diversified his research interests and found a way to be more philosophical, psychological, sociological to better understand the world. His Master’s thesis covers themes about the dynamics of violence, relationships,  and the proximity to death. He is currently working on a manuscript about stereotype threat. In this episode,  Thomas and I had a great conversation and explored questions regarding terminologies beyond the jargon such as: What is sociology? What is microsociology? How is the concept of “institutions” conceptualized in sociology? What is Gerontechnology? What are assistive technologies?


Acknowledgements:
 
We wish to express our gratitude to the late Dr Karen Kobayashi, whose vision and leadership and legacy for this research is foundational. Karen was a Professor in the Department of Sociology, and a Research Fellow with the Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health at the University of Victoria. As a social gerontologist and researcher, she often used life course and intersectionality approaches to draw attention to equity perspectives. Throughout her career she championed and supported critical, responsive, and accountable scholarship and knowledge mobilization. Her own research reflected her deep values of collaboration, active engagement, respect, and giving back to communities.

Deep gratitude to our key community stakeholders and research team colleagues, Robin Syme, Denise Cloutier, Simon Carroll and our project coordinator, Dr. Gord Miller.

We wish to thank the Michael Smith Foundation for providing the funding for this research project.


Thomas' ResearchGate Profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Mallette

Knowledge Implementation for Scale-up, Spread and Sustainability of Assistive Technology (KISSS-AT) https://onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca/kisssat/

CanAssist: https://www.canassist.ca/

Supporting Healthy Aging through the Scale-Up, Spread, and Sustainability of Assistive Technology Implementation: A Rapid Realist Review of Participatory Co-Design for Assistive Technology with Older Adults: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/23337214211023269

Karen Kobayashi Memorial Scholarship: https://extrweb.uvic.ca/donate/kobayashi-scholarship

What is Beyond the Jargon?

The University of Victoria is home to a handful of hardworking graduate students doing trailblazing work in their field. In this series, CFUV correspondents sit down with UVic graduate students to learn more about the work they do in a conversational setting.