From the Editors: An Introduction 
 

Tannistha Samanta    Amy Clotworthy 

FLAME University, India     University of Copenhagen, Denmark 
tannistha.samanta@flame.edu.in  amy@sund.ku.dk 
 
     

Anthropology & Aging, Vol 42, No 2 (2021), pp. 1-2 

ISSN 2374-2267 (online) DOI 10.5195/aa.2021.382 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 

 
This journal is published by the University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh as 

part of its 

D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program, and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press. 



Samanta & Clotworthy | 1 

 

 

Anthropology & Aging  

Vol 42 No 2 (2021) ISSN 2374-2267 (online) DOI 10.5195/aa.2021.382 http://anthro-age.pitt.edu 

From the Editors: An Introduction 
 

Tannistha Samanta    Amy Clotworthy 

FLAME University, India     University of Copenhagen, Denmark 
tannistha.samanta@flame.edu.in  amy@sund.ku.dk 
 
 

 
 

Since 1979, Anthropology & Aging (A&A) has demonstrated a strong commitment to publishing research 

that examines the plural ways of aging across cultural contexts. According to the journal’s Focus and 

Scope: 

 
Anthropology & Aging considers articles that expand and enrich our understanding of aging and 

the life course by utilizing the ideas and techniques of anthropological inquiry. We welcome 

submissions from scholars and professionals at all levels that showcase the diversity of research 

and writing within this field. We particularly welcome articles based on empirical research with 

a strong theoretical foundation that speaks to current topics and conversations going on within 

the broader fields of anthropology, sociology, social work, medicine, geriatrics, public policy, 

population studies, human development, and aging studies. 

 

This scope is not small. As such, we were honored and humbled when the leadership of the Association 

for Anthropology, Gerontology and the Life Course (AAGE) asked us to take over as co-Editors in 

February 2021. Not only are we able to work with a fantastic team ⁠—including our Book Reviews Editor, 

Christine Verbruggen, and Editorial Assistants, Janis Woodward and Brandan Culbert—we are also 

incredibly privileged to collaborate with a range of esteemed Editorial Board members, authors, 

students, and peer reviewers who are engaged in the exploration and understanding of aging within 

and across the diversity of human cultures.  

 

As new Editors, we intend to take this opportunity to build on AAGE and A&A’s combined 

commitment to the multidisciplinary study of sociocultural gerontology while weaving anthropological 

imagination as the world rapidly ages. It has been heartening for us to receive submissions from a range 

of countries where authors interrogate, challenge traditional hierarchies of gender and generation, and 

go beyond the pathological bias of disease and debility. To this effect, we are committed to supporting 

the research conducted by early-career scholars whose work expands the intellectual ambitions of the 

anthropological “enterprise” of aging in a variety of ways: e.g., by combating age-related cultural 

stereotypes in countries where any discussion around “age” is relatively new, and by encouraging our 

colleagues who specialize in engineering, planning, and the biomedical fields to complement thick 

description and subsequently reinvent the “applied” dimension of anthropology.  

 

We are also acutely aware of the global inequalities of academic knowledge production with regard to 

the uneven gap in citations between scholars from the global South and North as well as the 

idiosyncratic and stylistic demands of scientific writing, which remains a challenge for non-English 

speakers . To address these inequalities and the academic underrepresentation of certain regions, we 

plan to exercise the utmost care and caution when delivering peer-review decisions on ethnographic 

work that comes from these regions. Additionally, by being fully aware of the geopolitics of knowledge, 

we intend to reach out to reviewers who have demonstrated intellectual engagement with such “local” 

particularities. Overall, our goal is to ultimately create transregional and transnational circuits of 

knowledge that highlight multiple perspectives, histories, and regions. 

http://anthro-age.pitt.edu/
mailto:amy@sund.ku.dk
https://anthro-age.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/anthro-age/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope
https://anthro-age.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/anthro-age/about/editorialPolicies#focusAndScope


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Anthropology & Aging  

Vol 42 No 2 (2021) ISSN 2374-2267 (online) DOI 10.5195/aa.2021.382 http://anthro-age.pitt.edu 

To propel this goal forward, we are in the process of creating two new features on our website that will 

reflect our personal values: an ethics statement, which outlines our pledge to build a supportive and 

transparent scholarly community; and a diversity and inclusivity statement, which describes our aim 

to expand the breadth of A&A’s representation. Our editorial worldview is that we are responsible for 

the journal’s integrity and reputation, and that diversity strengthens knowledge creation. Thus, we are 

committed to fostering diversity, inclusivity, transparency, and equity within our internal practices as 

well as in our scientific publishing efforts. For our upcoming issues, we welcome contributions that 

offer practice-oriented, theory-driven, and ethnographically rich perspectives on people’s experiences 

of aging and the life course. Our sustained commitment to support this goal is evident from the diversity 

of authors, peer reviewers, Editorial Board members, and leadership currently associated with A&A.  

Going forward, we will be inviting scholars who reflect our core values and commitment to diversity 

to join the journal’s Editorial Board. Furthermore, we are introducing fundamental changes to the 

journal’s structure. For instance, among other things, we are increasingly interested in encouraging 

student engagement with the journal. Our new section, “Aging Talks,” launched as part of this issue, is 

illustrative of such an effort. In fact, we also envision the journal becoming an important resource for 

the teaching community. This is particularly pertinent as we continue to navigate the collective trauma 

of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has challenged our ways of knowing, learning, and meaning-

making. We are firm believers in the power of anthropological story-telling, and we look forward to 

publishing work from scholars across the globe that allows for a creative resignification of theory, 

method, and analysis. We hope that articles published in A&A will begin to serve as a socially-

meaningful, people-centered teaching resource that can contribute to opening up pedagogical dialogues 

between the global South and North.  

For future initiatives, we have a long list of ideas that we believe will enable us to harness the critical 

questioning that anthropology so generously affords. To provide a teaser: there is a plan (at a very 

nascent stage) to introduce a new section curating certain themes from prior issues of A&A—themes 

that are conceptually innovative and theoretically challenging—while facilitating a dialogic discourse 

among emerging scholars. Furthermore, we will be expanding from two issues to three beginning in 

2022; this decision was made in the hope that the content of each issue would be more concise and 

coherent. But more significantly, this also allows us to move away from the dichotomy of Fall/Spring 

issues, which reflect a normative Western worldview. We are also exploring ways to make the journal 

more accessible to readers with disabilities. 

In our respective research specializations, we focus on the interdisciplinary crossroads of family 

sociology and gerontology, and how health and social policies targeting older people influence the 

sociocultural dynamics of later life. With this broad perspective, we intend to use our time as Editors to 

foster productive change and to develop Anthropology & Aging into a journal that is as rich, vibrant, and 

diverse as the topics—and people—on which it focuses. We would be remiss if we did not take this 

moment to also thank our reviewers whose commitment, dedication, and generosity allows A&A to 

maintain its quality and diversity. To all of our readers and authors: we appreciate your continued 

support of the journal, and we are especially grateful for your patience and understanding as we 

experience some inevitable “growing pains.”  

 

We are both open and available to any questions, comments, and suggestions regarding the current and 

future direction of the journal. We look forward to hearing from you, and to working together with you 

to strengthen A&A and our shared scholarly community.  

http://anthro-age.pitt.edu/