PhD researcher at Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing (and Erasmus University Rotterdam and Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute)
My name is Lara Fizaine and I joined ENIEC in 2024, just in time for the annual meeting in Nijmegen. I am currently in the last year of my PhD on the topic of diversity policies and practices in care for older adults in the Netherlands. My research is part of a bigger project called Dilemmas of doing Diversity (DiDi), which looks at diversity policies and practices in Dutch municipalities from the 1950s to the present day. Before joining the DiDi project, I researched older queer adults’ experiences of aging, kinship and care in Amsterdam for my master’s thesis in anthropology. This motivated me to dive deeper into the topic of diversity in aging: care for older adults is framed as a public service everyone has a right to access if they need it in welfare states, but for many marginalised groups the reality can be quite different. Having also studied social policy in the past, I was interested in approaching this issue as a policy problem.
When my supervisor Nina Conkova introduced me to ENIEC last year, I saw it as a great opportunity to meet people working on this topic also outside of academia. That is exactly what I found in Nijmegen, where I met many enthusiastic professionals from different countries and backgrounds who all had a lot to share about diversity in care. I was a little overwhelmed by all the new names and faces, but I hope I will have the chance to see many of you again in Frankfurt and get to know you a bit better!
