Barbara L. Marshall is Professor of Sociology at Trent University in Peterborough, Canada. She has written widely on feminist theory, sexuality and the body, and with her colleague Stephen Katz, has co-authored a series of papers exploring aging, embodiment and sexuality. Her publications have appeared in a range of academic journals and edited collections, including Sexualities, Body and Society, History of the Human Sciences, Sociology of Health and Illness, Men and Masculinities, Medicine Studies, Canadian Review of Sociology, Journal of Aging Studies, Generations, and Science as Culture. In 2006, she was honoured with Trent’s Distinguished Research Award. Her most recent book is a co-edited collection (with A. Kampf and A. Peterson), Aging Men, Masculinities and Modern Medicine (Routledge 2013).
Her most recent research program — entitled “Sexualizing the Third Age” — was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Situated at the intersection of ageing studies, feminist studies and science and technology studies, it casts a critical feminist eye on the discourses, imagery and technologies of ‘successful aging’. Ongoing projects include a socio-historical analysis of the construction of gender and sexual difference in biomedical accounts of aging, and a critique of the ‘heterosexual imaginary’ that frames ‘third age’ cultural representations. Her current research is exploring quantification and self-tracking in ageing populations.