Galway Writing Workshop

This past weekend, from August 30 to September 2, we gathered in Galway at the Ardilaun Hotel for the workshop “Ageing & Climate Change in German Culture.” We eased into conversation over dinner, each of us sharing fragments of our research interests and what brought us to this interdisciplinary space. Later, we enjoyed a windswept walk along the Atlantic in Salthill, which set the tone for the days ahead: the weather itself seemed to insist on the urgency of our conversations about ageing, vulnerability, and ecological change.

On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we opened with a round of reflections: colleagues joined us through Teams as we asked ourselves, What draws us to this work? This field? These concepts? Why? That question lingered as we began our first close reading together, turning to Margaret Atwood’s “Torching the Dusties.” The story provided us with a robust framework to explore concepts related to climate change and aging. We asked: How is the experience of aging represented in the context of ecological crisis? How does the text portray memory in the face of environmental degradation? What does the text suggest about the temporalities of aging and ecological collapse—how do they overlap or conflict? The discussion circled around questions of care—familial, social, and ecological—and around narratives of vulnerability: How do stories of ageing bodies in decline parallel or complicate narratives of a vulnerable planet? How is resilience represented, and how do older protagonists resist dominant discourses of helplessness? Atwood’s text gave us a way to think about agency, autonomy, gender, and memory all at once, and to ask: What ethical questions arise when climate change and aging meet on the page?

After a pause for coffee and a walk, we shifted into conceptual mapping. Using sticky notes and markers, we clustered ideas around terms such as slowness, decline, endurance, resilience, care, memory, intergenerational time, relationality, and extinction. Looking at our visual maps, we could see not only the intersections but also the tensions between ageing studies and ecocriticism. Which clusters built on one another, and which resisted connection? What was foregrounded, and what was missing? The process helped us recognize where our two fields might truly meet. The afternoon was devoted to finishing these conceptual maps. 

By late afternoon, we turned toward the future: sketching out ideas for an edited volume. We asked ourselves who we might co-author with, what concepts resonated across our free writes, and what kinds of contributions might best serve the project—critical essays, hybrid works, creative-critical blends. Dinner that evening in Salthill carried the conversation forward; we spoke about past projects, influential texts, and the kinds of dream collaborations that keep us moving forward in this field.

Monday deepened the writing focus. We began with a second round of close reading, this time working in small groups and drawing on shorter texts from the Reader. Highlights include reading and listening to Franz Hohler’s “Der Weltuntergang,” Elfriede Jelinek’s Asche, and poems by Ulrike Draesner. We explored how language, imagery, and narrative structure shaped understanding of climate impacts on older populations, fostering critical thinking and interdisciplinary insights. The shift in scale—from Atwood’s expansive story to these more compact selections—invited us to sharpen our attention. Once again, we returned to the guiding questions that had anchored our earlier discussions: How do these texts portray memory under ecological threat? What temporalities of ageing and collapse come into focus? How is freedom imagined—or lost—at the intersection of old age and climate crisis? As we wrestled with these questions, new nuances emerged. Conversations shifted quickly from line-level details to broader conceptual frameworks. By the late morning, the fragments of ideas—annotations, quick notes, speculative sentences—were beginning to crystallize into the ideas for book chapters. We could start to see not just what each group wanted to say, but also how these chapters might eventually speak to one another within a larger volume.

In the afternoon, we established a more rigorous plan for the book itself, while also looking ahead. We mapped out future events, envisioned dissemination strategies, and designed the framework for a student creative competition, among other initiatives. Finally, we gathered in reflection, sharing commitments and hopes, and concluded with a round of feedback. As one team member noted, “Bringing together individual (age-related) and collective (climate-related) transformations proved to be remarkably fruitful – our discussions will resonate for a long time. I am very much looking forward to the next steps of collaboration in our subgroups and within the larger team!”

“Bringing together individual (age-related) and collective (climate-related) transformations proved to be remarkably fruitful – our discussions will resonate for a long time. I am very much looking forward to the next steps of collaboration in our subgroups and within the larger team!”

That evening, we celebrated with dinner in Galway City, conversations flowing well past the end of the formal program. On Tuesday morning, over a final breakfast together, we said our goodbyes. We left not only with ideas for a collective book but with a stronger sense of shared purpose, sharper questions, and the beginnings of what we hope will be long-term collaborations. 

---

Key Questions: