ABSTRACT
19Today I assume the role of advocate for the humanities. In terms of our conference agenda, I will be addressing this question: how can or should our primary subjects – the study of ageing and old age – affect the disciplinary identity of gerontology? This issue of disciplinarity and identity – what is gerontology, and what is a gerontologist – has been a defining issue of my career. Because I was formally trained in rhetoric and linguistics and informally trained myself in gerontology, I have always felt the need to carve out a place for my work in this field, which has been so much identified with medicine and the social sciences.
