| DR9: | NIL MERAL |
| Project Title: | HomeAge |
| Host: | Open University of the Netherlands |
| Primary Supervisor: | Prof. Dr. Alexander Peine (Open University of The Netherlands, Netherlands) |
| Supervisor/mentors: | Supervisor/mentors: Dr. Henk Herman Nap (Vilans, The Netherlands, Prof. Dr. Anu Siren (Tampere University, Finland), Dr. Catharina Van Leersum (Open University of The Netherlands, Netherlands) |
I am gerontologist by training. My PhD topic focuses on representations of the diversity of ageing and ageing populations during the co-creation of gerontechnology that are promoted to support ageing-in-place. Apart from my academic trajectory, I hold a project manager role at TheGeronTechnologist.com to create e-learning content for AgeTech Academy and the community.
In my spare time, I am the EU bubble representer of Senex: Association for Ageing Studies for early career researchers (located in Antalya, Turkey), and I am an active member at communication team of Socio-Gerontechnology Network and HOMeAGE-DN to promote on-going projects to outsiders on social media channels. It is a privilege to be part of these such communities to be able to connect the dots in gerontechnology(aka AgeTech) space.
Right before this doctoral researcher role, I graduated from research master in Gerontological Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, in Belgium. My thesis was about exploring the digital experiences of 50+ years old Turkish individuals in Belgium. Previously, I completed my bachelor degree dissertation in Gerontology at Akdeniz University in Turkey about creating a smart phone based app content for Alzheimers’ informal caregivers in Turkish. During this undergraduate programme, I had a chance to follow a semester of exchange programme at Oberlin University in Tokyo, Japan and one academic year at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences with Erasmus exchange in Zwolle, the Netherlands. These experiences has supported me to develop an interest and awareness to the diversity of life styles, its’ impact to gerontechnology, and human rights of ageing population. Therefore, after the graduation, I worked as a junior non-key expert to collect data from Turkish newspapers, and to report old people’s right abuses and ageism during the COVID19 pandemic in Turkey.
My main motivation is raising awareness about topics which are related with human rights of older individuals and especially in gerontechnology. I have been discovering different ways to communicate and build a meaningful network with my fresh academic skills and knowledge.
Please feel free to reach me out to exchange conversation regarding to gerontechnology.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilmeral,
Open University page: https://www.ou.nl/web/open-universiteit/zoek-medewerker#!user/nm2
