About the seminar
Ageism is a major but oft-overlooked social determinant of health. In fact, it is widely accepted among scholars that ageism is one of the least acknowledged forms of inequality, though few empirical attempts have been made to substantiate this claim. This seminar will present findings from a study which quantifies discourse dedicated to ageism, sexism, and racism on Twitter over a 15-year period from 2007 to 2022. The seminar will also explore innovative approaches to studying ageism, including methods for examining historical narratives of aging over the past 200 years, contemporary media portrayals of older adults, and strategies to reframe perceptions of aging.
About the presenter
Dr. Reuben Ng is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. His research interests are in ageism, age stereotypes, and quantitative social sciences. His work has achieved international media coverage at prominent news outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Forbes, BBC, and CNN. He is the first from Asia to be honored with the prestigious Harkness Fellowship since its inception in 1925鈥攁 鈥渞everse Rhodes鈥 for innovators in health policy. In 2023, he won the Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation Award in Behavioral and Social Gerontology from the Gerontological Society of America. In 2024, he was the first social scientist to win the Health in Aging Foundation New Investigator Award from the American Geriatrics Society.