Christine Verbruggen

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Christine Verbruggen is a doctoral FWO fellow (2019-2024) under supervision of prof. Patrick Devlieger (KU Leuven) and prof. Annette Leibing (Université de Montréal). She holds a master’s degree in Contemporary History (2005) and a master’s degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology (2018), both from KU Leuven. In her master’s thesis research on dwelling and world-building of elderly with the diagnosis of dementia (2018), she developed an anthropological critique on the limitations of a now hegemonic personhood approach on dementia and has opened up to seeing otherwise marginalized relations in this situation, such as friendship and othering among residents, the matter-reality of a deceased mother and the intra-activity of wheelchairs.

Her doctoral research extends this focus on living with dementia as a situated process of ongoing transformation and relational differentiation and looks into processes of mutual (dis)integration in and around the milieu of a daycare centre for persons with dementia in Belgium. Questions central to her research are: who moves, how is one moving, what is moving someone and what motivates consensus/dissensus among different actors about the who, the how, and the why of movements? Attuned to the complexities of a vibrant field through witnessing and following, she draws on insights from STS, affect studies, and posthumanisms to document how life comes to matter for different people with dementia, while they move in and out of spheres of recognition, in and out of social identities, and in and out of aging bodies. Anchored in the pragmatics of dwelling and caring with dementia through pro-active participation and responsive to the current socio-political discourses of inclusion, de-institutionalisation and ‘dementia-friendliness,’ she explores the speculative potential of a sensibility to the uncanny for mundane and symmetrical encounters (with dementia).

She is also book review, portfolio section and debate editor of Anthropology and Aging (2019 – present) and an active member of AGENET, EASA’s Age and Generations Network.

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