The European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS) is an International
Association facilitating sustainable international and
multi-disciplinary collaboration among researchers interested in the study of cultural aging. ENAS was inaugurated in 2011, registered as an association in 2013 and now welcomes individual and institutional members worldwide. Please
refer to our website http://www.agingstudies.eufor information about membership. The European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS) received three-year funding from The
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) in 2010 within the framework of the project "Live to be a Hundred: The Cultural Fascination with Longevity." The Network included the Center for Gender and Diversity, University of Maastricht, Netherlands, the Center for Inter-American Studies, University of Graz, Austria, the German Aging Studies Group, Germany, the Grup Dedal-Lit, University of Lleida, Catalunya, Spain, the National Institute for the Study of Ageing and Later Life (NISAL), Linköping University, Sweden, and the Women, Ageing and Media Research Group (WAM), UK, as institutional members. The associated partners from the USA were the National Women's Studies Association (Aging and Ageism Caucus) and the Modern Language Association (Age Studies Discussion Group). The Book series Aging Studies Europe became part of ENAS activities. At the Cultural Gerontology Conference 2008 in Lleida, ENAS was invited to continue the tradition of the Cultural Gerontology Group by hosting the next conference. Within the frame of the NWO project, ENAS's first conference as the 7th International Symposium on
Cultural Gerontology took place in Maastricht in 2011. International symposia on cultural gerontology had previously been organized by the Danish Institute of Gerontology (Copenhagen 1997), the German Institute for Research on Old Age (Berlin 1999), the Swedish Gerontological Society (Visby 2001), the University of Tampere (Tampere 2003), the Open University (Milton Keynes 2005), and the Grup Dedal-Lit (Lleida 2008). In 2013, the European Network in Aging Studies was established as a formal international association with the possibility of individual membership with seat in Graz. In the same year, a transatlantic partner institution, the North American Network in Aging Studies (NANAS), was founded. With this further institutionalization of Age and Aging Studies research collaboration, ENAS and NANAS continue to facilitate sustainable cooperation among existing and new partners. At the 2nd ENAS Conference and the 8th International Symposium on Cultural Gerontology in Galway in April 2014, ENAS as an association was officially launched. The 3rd Conference of the European Network in Aging Studies and the 9th International Symposium on Cultural Gerontology will be devoted to the topic "Cultural Narratives, Processes and Strategies in Representations of Age and Aging," and take place at the University of Graz from April 27-30, 2017. The third ENAS conference was organized in collaboration with NANAS and took place in Trent, Canada, 2019. The fourth conference in Bucharest is postponed till 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
