Leadership Group – Paar-Net

Seran Demiral is a children’s and science fiction author, as well as a Philosophy for Children/Communities (P4C) trainer based in Istanbul. A prolific writer, she has published over ten novels for children and young adults. With a background in architecture and sociology, she weaves social issues into her fiction while bringing her experience with children, youth, and older adults into academia. As an associate professor of sociology, she integrates arts-based methodologies and forum theatre into her research, fostering creative and participatory approaches to understanding youthful digital subjectivities and collective cultures.

She also teaches children’s literature, sociological theories, and digital cultures at Bahçeşehir University (Sociology) and Boğaziçi University (Primary Education). She has been selected for an MSCA ERA fellowship at the University of Porto for her project InterGENerational Youthful Narratives: ARTs-Based Approaches to Digital Citizenship and Civic EngageMENT (GENARTMENT), which is currently in the final stages of approval. Within PAAR-net, she is a co-leader of Working Group 3, Technology and Innovation.

Thibauld Moulaert is Associate Professor in sociology at the Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Sciences Po Grenoble, School of Political Studies, PACTE Social Sciences Laboratory, Grenoble, France, in charge of of the “Social Justice” team. He is co-responsible of the Research Committee on ageing at the French Association of Sociology and co-editor in chief of Gérontologie et Société. His researches explore the mediations between ageing, citizenship and environments through Age-friendly Cities and Communities program, participative methods with older adults and a focus on “public benches for older adults”.

Anna Wanka co-leads the COST-Action PAARNet together with Anna Urbaniak. She is a sociologist and critical gerontologist interested in un/doing difference and the material-discursive construction of age across the life course. Anna did her PhD in Sociology at the University of Vienna, Austria, and is currently a research group leader at Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany. Her areas of expertise comprise life course transitions and the re/production of intersectional inequalities across the life course, ageing and technologies, age-friendly cities and communities, ageing migrants, and lifelong learning. She has expertise in both qualitative and quantitative methods and has developed reflexive approaches to mixed-methods research.

Marion Scheider-Yilmaz is a sociologist specialising in ageing, disability, and social participation. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Grenoble Alpes University (PACTE Laboratory), working on the ANR/DFG Franco-German research project The Social Production of Space and Age (SPAGE) in collaboration with Goethe University Frankfurt. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Lorraine, where she explored citizenship and decision-making among older adults and individuals with disabilities in French advisory bodies.
Her research bridges ageing and disability studies, with a focus on socio-spatial inclusion. She serves on the editorial committee of Retraite et Société and the ethical and scientific committee of the Handéo Observatory.
Within PAAR-net, she co-leads the “Place and Community” working group, fostering knowledge exchange on participatory approaches with older adults in community and place-based contexts.

Davide Lucantoni received a master’s degree in Economics and Management from the Polytechnic University of Marche. He carries out research activities on active ageing issues and participatory approaches to policy making on this topic, at the Centre for Socio-Economic Research on Ageing of the IRCCS-INRCA of Ancona, as part of the research project “National multilevel co-managed coordination of active ageing policies in Italy”, funded by the Department for Family Policies at the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers. On the subject, he is the author of some publications in the form of reports and in international scientific journals.”

Dr hab. Anna Urbaniak is Chair of PAAR-Net and a sociologist specializing in ageing, public policy, and participatory research. She is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Sociology and a researcher at the Centre for Evaluation and Public Policies Analysis at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Her academic background includes research positions at the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology (University of Galway), the University of Vienna, and the Cracow University of Economics. Anna has extensive experience in interdisciplinary ageing research, with a focus on inclusive, participatory approaches that bridge science, policy, and practice. She is the author and co-author of numerous academic publications and co-editor of the Routledge International Handbook of Participatory Approaches in Ageing Research (2023).