Dr. Grenier joined McMaster in 2011 as Associate Professor in Health, Aging and Society, Gilbrea Chair in Aging and Mental Health, and Director of the Gilbrea Centre for the Study of Aging. Prior to this, she worked in the School of Social Work at McGill University (2004-2011). She is an honorary fellow of the Centre for Social Gerontology at Keele University (UK) and an affiliated researcher of the Centre de recherche et d'expertise de gérontologie sociale (CREGES) and the Centre Affilie Universitaire of the CSSS Cavendish in Montreal, Quebec.
Dr. Grenier's work explores the social constructs of aging and challenges taken-for-granted assumptions related to late life. Dr. Grenier's research focuses on the interface of public policies, organizational practices, and older people's lived experience. Her work focuses on conceptual questions in social and critical gerontology, models used to frame and address aging in Western societies, and the subjective interpretations of ageing and late life. She has collected older people's narratives with regards to late life transitions, impairment, and 'frailty' and continues to explore how these narratives can inform contemporary planning efforts. The tensions between biomedical/functional models and the social and interpretive aspects of aging are a central component of her work.
Ongoing research interests and projects in development include:
- bridging gaps between concepts, research, and practice in social gerontology;
- exploring the intersections of aging and homelessness in Montreal, Quebec;
- developing an international network of scholars advancing critical perspectives on the study of aging;
- understanding the contradictions regarding late life, frailty and risk;
- exploring the degree to which older people's experience 'fit' with expected transitions and age-based models of care;
- collecting the narratives of older people from varying social locations;
- collaborating in professional training and knowledge exchange activities.
