top of page
MMG lecturing at Graz, Austria

Speeches

***​​​
​2025-2020
***

  • "American Eldercide and Ageism Today," Needham Free Library, October 19, 2025. 

    • Lecture and discussion.​

    • Ageism. Compound agism. Eldercide. Medicaid. History. Nursing Facilities.

    • ​

  • "American Eldercide: How I Wrote It, Why I Wrote It. Inspiration and Empathy Amid the Evils of an Ageist Era." NANAS (North American Network of Aging/Age Studies) and University of British Columbia Edward S. H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging, October 10, 2025.   YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtOVo26X3SM                             

               Reading and Discussion.   

               Writing. Ethics. Eldercide. Ageism. Compound Ageism.                     Empathy. Activism. Nursing Facilities. COVID. History. 

         

  • "American Eldercide: Woe in US Nursing Facilities, in the COVID Era and Five Years Later." National Association of Social Workers-MA’s Virtual Conference 2025, "Perilous Times: Advocating for Older Adults & People with Disabilities," June 12, 2025.  https://www.naswma.org/page/periloustimesconf2025

Keynote Workshop. â€‹â€‹
Ageism. Age. Disability. COVID. Nursing Facilities. Trump. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
​

  • “What Still Needs Doing to Save Lives in Nursing Facilities: An Open Letter to the Great and General Court, as the New Session Begins,” Speech at Massachusetts State House, February 25, 2025.

Speech.
Nursing Facilities. Public health care policy.
 

  • “Ageism as a Hate Crime,” Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Task Force on Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias, November 14, 2024.

         Zoom lecture with Q and A.
         Ageism. Hate Crimes.
​​

Zoom lecture with Q and A.
Nursing facilities. Ageism. American Eldercide. Nursing facilities.
​

  • Host and organizer: “Overcoming Ageism,”  Radcliffe ’62 60th college reunion, with panelists Robin Abrahams ("Miss Conduct" columnist at the Boston Globe) and Jenn Burton, Tufts professor and one of Five Sisters Productions, June 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tky6za4ttuM. â€‹â€‹

​​

  • “60th Reunion - Panel on Aging” Part 1 and Part 2, Harvard Alumni Association, August 11, 2022.

Videotaped panel, and discussion, in two parts.
Ageism. 
​

Videotaped lecture.
Ageism. 
​

  • “Shocked but not Surprised: Ageism and Eldercide in the Covid-19 Era,” Keynote, 50th anniversary conference of the Canadian Association on Gerontology, October 21, 2021. Invited by chair Brad Meisner. 

Keynote. Audio: audio1275524296.m4a
Ageism. Eldercide. COVID Era.
​

  • “Eldercide and Youth Supremacy: Ageism in Year One of the COVID Era,” Keynote, Opening of Centre on Ageing and Inequalities, University of Newcastle. With Liat Ayalon. Invited by director Tom Scharf. May 18, 2021.

Keynote. 
American Eldercide. Cult of youth. 
​

  • “Middle Ageism,” Lecture, Monmouth University, West Long Branch, N.J. No date.

Zoom lecture. 
Middle Ageism. Economics of the life course.
​

  • “Instead. . . . How Ageism Worsened in the Pandemic: A society sickens morally when it thinks of some of its members as doomed,” Dallas Cullen Memorial Lecture 2020, Women’s and Gender Studies, U of Alberta, Edmonton, October 1, 2020. Introductions by Lise Gotell and Anne Thomas. Also delivered to the Columbia Seminar on Women and Society, December 2020. Taken from American Eldercide. The lecture is recommended on the Website of Our Bodies, Ourselves. https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/health-info/how-ageism-worsened-in-the-covid-19-pandemic/

Cullen Keynote lecture and video: https://youtu.be/49b656cchEA
Eldercide. Ageism. COVID-19 pandemic. US. 
​

  • Keynote: “Ageism Today: Fear Ageism, not Aging,” 2020 Symposium of Aging, 4th Annual Conference, St. John’s on the Lake, Milwaukee, WI, March 9, 2020, uploaded May 8, 2020. https://vimeo.com/398453093/4781fbf1ab. Introducer: Anne Basting.

Keynote, conference and video. 
Ageism. Ending Ageism.​​
​
***
2019-2010
***

  • “Fight Ageism, not Aging,” Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging’s 2019, Aging Well Conference, Independence, Ohio, August 21, 2019. 

Keynote. 
Ageism. Book talk. Ending Ageism.
​

  • “Ageism.” University of Miami, Oxford, Ohio, April 4-5, 2019, plus Library talk to members of the Village. 

Keynote.
Ageism. Book talk. Ending Ageism.
​

  • “Letters Between Two Good Friends, about Caring for a Husband with a Cognitive Impairment,” “Ageing, Illness, Care in Literary and Cultural Narratives,” “Dementia” conference at University of Huddersfield, UK, 5th September, 2019.  

Other keynote speakers: Sally Chivers (Trent University, Canada), Amelia DeFalco (University of Leeds, UK). The first version of the book, Confidences.
Keynote (invited). Skype. 
Epistolary fiction. Cognitive impairment. Gender.
​

  • Panelist. “The Belatedness of Ageism in Contemporary Cultural Discourse,” on the panel, “The Status of Ageism,” with Paul Higgs and Stephen Katz, May 28, 2019, NANAS/ENAS Joint Conference, “Take Back Aging: Power, Critique, Imagination,” May 28 - 31, 2019, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada. 

Talk.
Ageism. Culture. Essay from TC&S.
​

  •  “Ageism,” OAGE (Ohio Association of Gerontology Education) conference, Miami University of Ohio, Thursday, April 4, 2019. 

Keynote. Book talk.
Ageism. 
​

  • “On Ageism: Top Ten Topics for Journalists,” Address to the Journalists in Aging Fellows, Gerontological Society of America, Boston, November 16, 2018.

Lecture.
Ageism. Media.   
​

  • “Senexa: Historicizing the Aging Self”: conference on “Living a Good Life in Older Age,” funded by the Norwegian Research Council, University of Warwick, July 5-6, 2018. Elizabeth Barry, convener, Associate Professor (Reader) in Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL United Kingdom  http://www.uib.no/en/project/ageing (Ageism studies 15). 

Keynote. 
History. Age studies. 
​

  • “Bummer: Boomer Women, Work and Love: Ageism’s Contradictions and Complicities.”  Emily Fox Kales and Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Women’s Studies Research Center, Brandeis, October 16, 2018. 

Lecture. 
Ageism. Boomers. Middle Ageism. Workforce. 
​

  • “Ending Ageism,” Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, November 27, 2018.

Lecture. Book talk.
Ageism.
​

  • Panelist, On Lora Brody’s “‘The Reunion Project’: A Community View,” WSRC, Liberman-Miller Lecture Hall, 12:30pm – 2:00pm, March 20, 2018.

Lecture
Ageism. Visual ageism. Photography. Older women.
​

  • Discussion leader, “Ageism,” Lunch and Learn series, Tufts, March 2018.

Lecture. Book talk.
Ageism.
​

  • Lecturer and Discussion Leader, “The Reunion Project,” Brookline Center for Aging, sponsored by Brookline Center for Aging and Goddard House, April 2018.

Lecture. 
Photography. Older women.
​

  • Lecture and discussion, “Ending Ageism,” Newbury Court, February 22, 2018.

Lecture. 
Book talk. 
​

  • “Ageism.” Newton Free Library Lecture, October 11, 2017, with Ellen Meyers, cosponsored by Newton Department of Senior Services (Ilana Seidman).

Lecture.
Ending Ageism. 
​

Keynote. Book talk.
Ending Ageism.
​

Plenary talk. 
Chapter of Ending Ageism.
​

Keynote. 
Book talk. Agewise.
​
***
2009-2000
***

  • “Exits from Decline,” Center for Gender and Diversity 10th Anniversary Conference, Maastricht University, Netherlands, March 2009. 

Keynote.
Decline. Progress. Social change. Ageism.
​

  • “Is that Hate Speech Meant for ME?” Panelist, New England Popular Culture Association, U-Mass, Dartmouth, October 31, 2008. 

Panelist.
Ageism as Hate Speech. 
 

  •  “Preparing for the Next Catastrophe: What Americans Need to Know about Geriatric Psychiatry in the Wake of Katrina,” American Association of Geriatric Psychiatrists, New Orleans March 3, 2007. 

Panelist.
Hurricane Katrina. Ageism and sexism. Geriatric Psychiatry. Public policy preparations.
​

  •  “What, Menopause Again! After the Hormone Debacle,” WSRC, Brandeis, Dec. 12, 2006.

Lecture. Longer version of “Menopause 2006: After the Hormone Debacle.” WAM! Conference, Simmons, April 1, 2006. 
Menopause discourse. Hormones. History of Science. Dysfunction industries.
​

  • “Losing Lear, Finding Ageism.” Lecture at the Presidential Symposium, Gerontological Society of America, Dallas, November 18, 2006. 

Lecture.
Shakespeare productions. King Lear. Ageism. Re-reading. Life course developments.
​

  • “Our Best and Longest-Running Story: Sartre and Heilbrun,” international conference on Gender-Age-Storytelling, University of Greiswald, Germany, September 4-6, 2006.  

Lecture (invited keynote).
Narrative. Progress. Decline. Sartre. Heilbrun.
​

  • “Top Ten Reasons for Changing American Age Culture,” American Embassy, British Council, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Berlin, September 2006. 

Lecture (invited keynote). 
Age culture. Ageism. 
​

  • “Becoming Equally Adults Together: Postmaternal Women Making Changes in  Relations with their Adult Offspring,” Lecture at WSRC, Brandeis University, May 25, 2006. 

Lecture.
Postmaternity. Mothers and adult offspring. Life course development.
​

  • “How Not to be Aged by Culture,” Ford Hall Forum, April 2006. 

Lecture (invited).
Aged by culture. Ageism. 
​

  • “My Mother and I Fall Down,” Conference on “In/Dependency: Age, Welfare, Disability,” U of Milwaukee, April 7, 2006. 

Lecture.
Disability. Mother and daughter relations. Interdependence. Revised for Agewise.
 
​​

  • “The Politics of the Life Course,” Cambridge Center for Adult Education, October 7; Boston Public Library October 21, 2004.  

Lecture.
US Economy. Politics. Middle ageism. Life-course economics. Seniority.
​​

  • “The American Dream as Life-Course Narrative,” Age Studies panel, founding meeting of the Cultural Studies Association, Pittsburgh, PA, June 7, 2003.

Panelist.
US Economy. Politics. Life-course narrative. Life-course economics. Middle ageism. Seniority. 
​

  • “Acting Age on Stage.” Colloquium Series, Women’s Studies, Brandeis, February 2002. Revised for Aged by Culture.

Lecture. 
Playing age. Theater. Acting younger. Acting older. Acting one’s age. Default body. Performance. Theory.
​

  • “Wicked Powerful: The Postmaternal in Contemporary Film and Psychoanalytic Theory,” Colloquium, Women and Society, Columbia University, January 2001. 

Lecture.
​

  • Conference on Feminists Theorize the Body, Susan Squier and Evan Watkins. Penn State University, Fall 1997. 

Lecture. 
Psychoanalysis. Feminism. Theory. Film. Power. Gender. Postmaternity. Matrophobia. 
 

  • “The Contrived War between ‘The Boomers’ and ‘The Xers,’” Miller/Com Lecture, Center for Advanced Studies, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), February 2000; earlier given as lectures to Northeastern American Studies Association; Simmons Cultural Studies Program.

Lectures.
Named age cohorts. Baby Boomers. Generation X. Discourse.
​
***
1999-1990
***

  • “From Life Story-telling Toward Age Autobiography.” Paper presented to Conference on Later Life, Obermann Center, University of Iowa, July 1999.

Lecture.
Age autobiography. Life writing. Theory. Social issues. Memoir.
​

  • "On Doing Age Theory." Simmons College, Spring 1995. Colloquium, Northeastern University, April 1994. For Declining to Decline.

Lectures.
Age theory. 
​

  • "Inventing the ‘Postmaternal’ Woman, 1898-1927: Idle, Unwanted, and Out of a Job?” Colloquium on Politics, Literature and the Arts, Harvard Center for Literary and Cultural Studies, November 1991. Colloquium at Northeastern University, April 1992. Revised for Feminist Studies.

Lectures. 
Postmaternal. Stereotypes. US history. Women.
​

  • “Inventing the Midlife Woman: Sex-Starved and Doomed to Disappointment,” Visiting Scholar Lecture at Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe, April 1991; Lecture to the Society of Institute Fellows (SOIF), Bunting Institute, November 1991.

Lectures. 
Midlife women. Sexuality. Fiction. Sexuality. Life-course narratives.
 

  • "’Idle, Useless, and out of a Job’: The Cultural Invention of the "Postmaternal" Woman, 1898-1927,” Lecture to the Colloquium on Politics, Literature and the Arts, Harvard Center for Literary and Cultural Studies, November 1991. 

Lecture. Intended for a book.
Postmaternal Phenomenon. Postmaternity. Work. Sex roles. 
​​​

  • "Younger Women/Older Women: Another Problematic Construction of Difference," convocation speech given at Chatham College, September 1989; speech to Women's Center, UC-Santa Barbara, November 1990.

Lecture. 
Age relations among women. 
​

  • “Midlife Revisionism and the Ideologies of Aging in Literature,” Keynote, 175th anniversary of the North American Review, Iowa.  Also given at the Center for the Humanities, UC-Santa Barbara, November 1990. 

Lecture. Same talk as given at Claremont McKenna, 1989, possibly with that title.
​

  • Keynote address, 175th anniversary of the North American Review, October 1990; lecture, Center for the Humanities, UC-Santa Barbara, November 1990 (conference on Aging and Dying); talk to Women’s Studies’ UC-Santa Barbara, November 1990; lecture, Gould Center for the Humanities, Claremont McKenna, November 1989. 

Keynote.
​
***
1989-1980
***

  • "Midlife/ Fiction/ Ideology," Address to the MacArthur Foundation Network on Successful Midlife Development, September 1989. 

Lecture. Possibly first use of “age ideology.”
​

  • “Rethinking the Body and Aging: A Guide for Cultural Combat,” Lecture, Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, Claremont McKenna College, November 9, 1989. 

Lecture. Video was available from Claremont.
Midlife. Ideology. Literature. 
​

  • “Wishing and the Movement of Time” Bunting Institute Colloquium, January 28, 1989.

Lecture on the Invention of the Midlife, including Joseph (Hebrew Bible), my Bunting year, 1986-87. 
Midlife. Hebrew Bible.

MMG at Massachusetts State House, 2025

The photo, from a Channel 5 TV report, shows MMG (at the Massachusetts State House on February 25,2025, talking to aides and legislators, about the bills that DignityAllianceMA is proposing for residents of nursing homes and people with disabilities), as she says "Life and death is in your hands."

bottom of page