Nicole Dalmer appointed Acting Director of Gilbrea Centre

Congratulation to Nicole Dalmer, assistant professor in Health, Aging and Society, who has been appointed acting director of the Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging.

Housed in the Faculty of Social Sciences, the Gilbrea Centre aims to improve all aspects of the lives of older adults in the community and in long-term care by linking research, education, policy and practice with local, national and global initiatives.

We caught up with Dalmer to talk about her research, what excites her about this position, and what she does in her free time.

Tell us about your research.

I’m admittedly a bit of a dabbler. My work typically takes up an interdisciplinary, critical gerontological approach to broadly explore the meanings, expectations, and values of connections (both with/to people and with/to technologies) in later life. I examine the impact of social and digital infrastructures on feelings of connectedness in later life while reflecting on questions of social status and social inequality that surround and shape aging and technology debates. My research has been published in The Gerontologist, Ageing & Society, Qualitative Health Research, and Journal of Aging Studies. Since starting at McMaster in 2020, I’ve been awarded the Canadian Association on Gerontology New Investigator Award (2022), the Canadian Association for Information Science Emerging Leader Award (2023), and the McMaster University Faculty of Social Sciences Early Career Researcher Award (2022).

Tell us about your academic and professional background.

I’m a bit of an odd duck and have had quite the meandering path. I had thought I was going to be a neurosurgeon and so I completed a BSc in neuroscience from the University of Alberta. I soon realized this was not the path for me. I wrote the LSAT (twice!) thinking I would go into health law. Nope. Eventually I completed an MLIS (University of Alberta) and PhD (The University of Western Ontario) in Library and Information Science. From there, I went to Trent University and completed a postdoc in Sociology.  I started as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Aging and Society at McMaster in July 2020 and have been here ever since!

What excites you most about this position?

I’ve been fortunate enough to serve as an Associate Director of the Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging since 2021 and am honoured to now step into the Acting Director role. The Gilbrea Centre is such an important Centre on campus as it serves as an interdisciplinary hub of critical, social, and cultural gerontological research, teaching and community engagement. I’m especially keen to continue to collaborate with the dynamic team of researchers, student members, and older adult members who are contributing to realizing the mission of the Centre: improving all aspects of the lives of older adults in the community and in long-term care by linking research, education, policy and practice with local, national and global initiatives.

What research projects are you currently working on?

I have a few projects on the go. For example, as part of a larger Partnership Grant (Aging in Data), with my colleague Dr. Cal Biruk, we are conducting walking interviews with older adults in their homes to better understand older adults’ understandings of data and the role that place plays in their engagement with data. With Dr. Saara Greene, we have been exploring the use of creative research methods as a means to better understand the facilitators and barriers in accessing cannabis-related information and support that respond to the everyday lived experiences of older women. Recently, I was named one of the inaugural Global Fellows in End-of-Life Care – as part of this project I’m drawing on my own background in library and information science to look at older adults’ information practices related to end-of-life care. This project asks: how is end-of-life care information made available, searched, and exchanged among older adult communities? My hope is that findings from this study can inform the design and development of accessible information about this topic.

Outside of academia, what do you like to do?

I quite love finding new coffee shops to try out (I love coffee!). I enjoy both walks and naps and over the past year I’ve taken up a new joy: Sunday early morning, chilly swims in Lake Ontario (I most recently dipped January 3^rd).