Listening through change: How sensory loss (re)shapes everyday life, identity, and connection in later life
How can close attention to lived experience deepen our understanding of aging, sensory change, and everyday well-being? In this talk, Signe Lund Mathiesen will discuss her interdisciplinary research across sensory science, gerontology, psychology, and qualitative inquiry. Her work combines experimental and in-depth qualitative methods to examine how sensory and situational contexts shape meaningful activities, identity, and social participation. Examples will include her research on how older adults with vision loss adapt from print reading to audiobook listening, as well as a developing micro-phenomenological study of within-situation disengagement: the subtle moments when older adults with hearing loss mentally withdraw from conversations as factors such as background noise, competing speakers, sustained listening effort, and fatigue make participation increasingly difficult. These projects illustrate an approach that centres older adults’ lived experiences and community priorities in research on accessibility, well-being, and participation in later life.
Signe Lund Mathiesen
Dr. Signe Lund Mathiesen is a postdoctoral fellow in the Auditory Aging Lab at the Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Academy for Research and Education. Her academic background spans Art History, Musicology, and Food Science, and she completed her PhD at Aarhus University, examining how sound and music shape eating experiences and behaviour. Her interdisciplinary research investigates how sensory, situational, and social environments influence everyday experience, health, and well-being, with particular attention to aging and sensory loss. Drawing on qualitative, quantitative, and experimental methods, her current projects include research on narrative listening after vision loss and conversational participation among older adults with hearing loss. She is interested in knowledge mobilization and accessible visual communication, and has collaborated with community organizations, healthcare partners, and people with lived experience throughout her research.
Thursday, September 24, 2026
1:00 – 2:00 pm
Room 222
Institute for Life Course and Aging
Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work
246 Bloor St. West
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V4