Representations of homosexual aging in the Gerontology production: a comparative study between Brazil, United States and England

• Grant number: 17/23665-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: March 01, 2018
• End date: August 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Richard Miskolci Escudeiro
• Grantee: João Paulo Ferreira da Silva Gugliotti
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 19/10677-4 - (Bio)markers of ageing in gerontology knowledge: between the global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the (re)pathologisation of homosexuality, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

From the late 1960s, research in gerontology began to deal with topics related to male homosexuality. In different areas of knowledge, from biomedicine to social psychology, "positive" markers of old age appeared, whose meanings were based on binary discourses about life, social relations and self, constituting heteronormative representations dealing with the idea of futurity, mainly by the emphasis on monogamy, marriage, reproduction and nuclear family. However, from the late 1960s to the present, what were the markers of old age produced? Under which intelligibilities and scientific representations did the perspective of masculine homosexual aging crystallize? How, genealogically, was the entry and spread of gerontology in these three countries? Although we speak from different contexts, our sociological hypothesis is that the gerontological productions in the three countries were formed by common knowledge, converging old-age representations based on biomedical sciences. Thus, the general objective of this research is to analyze critically and historically the representations of homosexual aging produced in gerontology from the North American, English and Brazilian literature, from the late 1960s to the present. To do so, we will based on the method of systematic literature review, collecting articles and theses in national and international databases, as well as semi-structured interviews with researchers in the three contexts. As a specific objective: (a) to map and interpret age markers consertively, keeping a permanent dialogue with academic production within the established period frame, (b) locating academic production geographically, portraying the lineages and theoretical assimilations at different times, the places which the literatures emerge, their respective institutions, areas/subareas of knowledge and research centers; (c) to articulate the reflection about scientific production on broader social and political issues, namely: the proliferation of segmented models in commercial media, liberation movements and homosexual visibility, as well as the achievement of rights and recognition in recent decades, even as in relation to the AIDS epidemic.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FERREIRA, JOAO PAULO; MISKOLCI, RICHARD. Homosexuality and biomarkers of aging in the production of gerontological knowledge by American, British, and Brazilian authors. Cadernos de Saúde Pública, v. 36, n. 3, 2020. (17/23665-9, 19/10677-4)

JOÃO PAULO FERREIRA; RICHARD MISKOLCI. “Reservatórios de doenças venéreas”, “MSM/HSH” e “PWA”: continuidades, rupturas e temporalidades na produção de bioidentidades no contexto da epidemia de AIDS. Ciênc. saúde coletiva, v. 27, n. 9, p. 3461-3474, 2022-08-15. (19/10677-4, 17/23665-9)