McKenzie Salon Series: To Imagine Aging: Chronic Illness in an Age of Innovation and Precarity

Major chronic illnesses faced by people today – diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS – previously were acute conditions that came with a near-term death sentence. Modern medical technologies, including pharmaceuticals and devices, have helped to transform those illnesses into chronic conditions.

Even so, some of the largest issues of concern today make everyone’s life more precarious: climate change, overpopulation, food scarcity, migration, income inequality, infectious disease, and war. My current research project explores the question of how to imagine growing old in a time of concurrent technological innovation and shared precarity?

Presenter

David S. Martins teaches courses in written argument, science writing, rhetoric of science, and rhetoric of health and medicine. His current scholarship integrates autobiography, academic research, and qualitative methods to address questions of how, given the enormous challenges facing everyone, does one think about, make sense of, and aging with diabetes. Formerly the founding Director of RIT’s University Writing Program his publications include two edited collections: Writing on the Wall: Writing Education and Resistance to Isolationism (2023), and Transnational Writing Program Administration (2015), which won the CCCC/NCTE 2017 Outstanding Book Award.

Respondent

Daniel King MD, FACP is a board certified Internist and Geriatrician with the University of Rochester and with Highland Hospital. He was originally attracted to Geriatrics during his residency training because he enjoyed the stories that his patients had to tell. When asked to describe “Geriatrics” to his patients he often tells them that he is a specialist in the types of transitions that occur as we age and how best to approach them.

About the McKenzie Salon Series
Organized and presented by the College of Liberal Arts, the McKenzie Salon Series is open to the public and brings together faculty, students, and staff to discuss research and current events. The presentations and comments are followed by discussion with the audience and an informal reception. 

**Presentations start at 4:00 pm, with the first half hour providing opportunity to socialize.**