The Department of Sociology and Anthropology’s Colloquium Committee is pleased to invite you to the next event in our colloquium series: Celeste Pang presents Being “unbefriended”: Troubling capacity, consent, and cis-heteronormativity in substitute decision-making laws and practices.

Abstract: “Elder orphans”, the “unbefriended”, the “legally alone”: These are various terms used to describe older adults who are living alone and who, when deemed to lack or have lost capacity do not have close familiar others to turn to. This includes with the onset of dementia, when medico-legal questions of capacity and capacity to consent, care and housing, and the appointment of a substitute decision-maker become particularly pertinent, especially for those not obviously embedded in a nuclear family. These are also imaginaries, reflecting a particular type of social figure and social anxiety about exceeding able-bodied, able-minded, and cis-hetero norms. Drawing on findings from ethnographic fieldwork among LGBTQ+ older adults and qualitative interviews and legal case analysis, this presentation will examine the ableist and cisheterosexist norms embedded in Canadian substitute decision-making laws and dementia care practices and pose alternative understandings of what it could mean to be “befriended”.

Bio: Celeste Pang is an Assistant Professor in Women’s and Gender at Mount Royal University where she is also co-lead of the QriTical: queer + trans research hub. Celeste’s research engages closely with critical disability studies, critical gerontology, and queer and trans studies to examine social issues related to aging, disability, and care access and equity. Prior to joining MRU Celeste was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto and worked for three years in a community-based research department.