Dr. Meghánn Catherine Ward has been awarded an MSCA European Research Area (ERA) Fellowship for two years. The ERA programme, an initiative of the European Commission, puts emphasis on excellence, innovation and the international mobility of researchers.
This is the fourth MSCA grant awarded to a researcher at Bilkent under the Horizon Europe Programme and the sixteenth including Horizon 2020. Dr. Ward is currently employed as a Research Fellow at the Health and Society Knowledge Exchange (HASKE) at the University of Cumbria, England. Her MSCA proposal will lead to her enrolment as a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Interior Architecture and Neuroscience, led by Prof. Yasemin Afacan.
The main focus of Dr. Ward’s current research is to explore how everyday interactions with both physical (natural, built, material, biophilic) and social (spousal, familial, communal) features of home environments promote or hinder the health, well-being and identity of older women living with dementia in Ankara’s cityscape. The project promotes an interdisciplinary and culturally-sensitive approach to better understanding lived experiences of dementia, drawing on the specialisms of Dr Ward and Prof. Afacan which cross gerontology, psychology, architecture, human geography, and anthropology. The project seeks to develop new scientific knowledge about the complex relations between dementia, gender, landscapes, socio-economic status, familial dynamics, and daily living in Türkiye. The project outputs will aim to provide new insights that can inform future dementia-friendly designs of urban-based apartments and housing.