Karen Riggs

Karen Riggs is Director of the Game Research and Immersive Design at Ohio University's College of Communication. Her research and teaching interests are on the digital divide and culture with an emphasis on aging. Riggs's published research includes two books, Granny at Work: Aging and New Technology on the Job in America (Routledge: 2004) and Mature Audiences: Aging in the Lives of Elders (Rutgers University Press: 1998). Both books examine aging and technology at the cultural crossroads of gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, and other cultural categories. They are concerned with production, content, and consumption of media and technology. Granny at Work explores old age especially as a feminist political issue, drawing on the work of critical gerontologists' insistence that the aging of the planet's population has far-reaching consequences for women, who are relatively likely to live alone, live in poverty, and assume the role of caregiver to younger and older relatives. Riggs's current project is a cultural critique of marketing to Baby Boomers, from the cases of erectile dysfunction drugs and anti-aging cosmeceuticals to the appeal to Boomers for funerals that capture a mood fit for the Me Generation.Part of the Gender and Technology Speaker Series 2006.