This month we are welcoming Ann Burnett, Scottish author and dementia advocate (ann burnett | Writer of Many Things).

After gaining support from Age UK, Ann was able to use transcripts generated through participation in Marianne’s PhD study as a starting point to write her memoir, “A Last Journey” available from lumphananpress.co.uk or Amazon. In the book, Ann recounts a life of adventure spend with her husband Bill, and their subsequent journey through dementia diagnosis, care at home and Bill's death.

Ann is also active in other aspects of dementia support and education, writing a column for DementiArts magazine, produced by the Festival Theatre's Dementia programme, and linking in with the University of Edinburgh.

In this session, Ann and Marianne will celebrate the publication of ‘A Last Journey’ and discuss Ann’s transitions experiences during her time as a carer for Bill.

Dr Marianne Cranwell is a Project Coordinator for IncludeAge (IncludeAge) in the School of Health Sciences, at the University of Dundee. She completed her PhD on the Transitional Experiences of Co-Habiting Carers of People with Dementia when Homecare Begins in 2024. 

Scott Oatley is a final year PhD Student in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. His work specialises on social stratification and youth transitions. He has presented his research at national and international conferences on topics of: pedagogy, social stratification, social survey analysis, and simulation studies.

• Scott Oatley's personal Website
• Github link to presentation

Change is the one constant characterising youth transitions research. This paper documents this change and the consequences of it following a collapse of viable alternative pathways for young people following mandatory schooling. Using four datasets: the National Childhood Development Study (1958), the 1970 British Cohort Study (1970), and the British Household Panel Survey and the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study (1991-), this paper provides a historical account of young peoples first transition into the world of work following mandatory schooling. This work documents the collapse of alterative pathways for young people, who are seemingly pushed into continuing education for an increasingly credentialed society. Patterns of social inequality are focused on, with sex and housing tenure based impacts on continuing schooling declining - whilst social class effects remain robust. This paper updated previous literature on the topic by introducing novel contemporary statistical methods: sensitivity analyses, handling missing data procedures, and adjusting for complex survey designs. Young people in contemporary Britain are faced with a lack of choice and increasingly lacking opportunity. Elongated transitions are pushing young people into continuing education with no viable alternatives. Diminished structural impacts on continuing education are naive, as current credentialization pushes these inequalities down the proverbial road to young peoples next life stage.

Host: Professor Angus Lamond

Venue: MSI Small Lecture Theatre, SLS

Speaker Bio- Dr. Christian Landles is a Senior Research Fellow at the Bates lab, part of the Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, Huntington’s Disease Centre, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK. He obtained his PhD from Cancer Research UK and has held numerous research positions at various renowned academic institutes, including King’s College London, Imperial College London, and UCL. He has more than a decade of research experience resulting in over 50 publication contributions and has worked on studies funded by the CHDI Foundation and UK Dementia Research Institute. His area of expertise includes the molecular pathogenesis, pre-clinical mouse models, and the protein biology and aggregation of Huntington's disease. In addition to researching Huntington's disease, he has extensive experience in technology and molecular assay development with translational applicability for biomarker discovery and therapeutics.