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E: mei_fang@sfu.ca
Office: Harbour Centre, Room 2800
Mei Lan Fang
Assistant Professor | Urban Studies and Department of Gerontology
Dr. Mei Lan Fang is an Assistant Professor in Urban Aging in Urban Studies and Department of Gerontology at 丁香园AV, Canada. She is also a Visiting Scholar in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Dundee, Scotland. Her primary research contribution has focused on progressing community-based participatory research concepts, theory, and methods for co-creating healthy, inclusive age-friendly places and environments.
For the past decade, Dr. Fang has led and contributed to ageing in place and wellbeing research to inform the development of age-friendly cities and communities as a Community-Engaged Research Scientist and Qualitative Health Research Methodologist. Her research involves interrelated areas of ageing well in place (environmental gerontology), inclusive digital place-making (ageing and technology) and critical public health (social inequities and health). Dr. Fang鈥檚 research approach is transdisciplinary, participatory, community-focused and qualitative through applying narrative and visual co-creation methods, and integrated knowledge translation techniques including: autobiographical and digital storytelling, story mapping, community mapping, photo-voice and photo-tours, community walk-along interviews, deliberative dialogue, and knowledge caf茅s.
Dr. Fang鈥檚 current research is informed by the sustainable development goals (SDGs) 3, 鈥渆nsure healthy lives, promote wellbeing for all at all ages,鈥� and 11 鈥渕ake cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable鈥�. An important area of her research surrounds the development of Intergenerational and Age-Friendly Living Ecosystems, an idea that has translated into a large scale ESRC funded (拢1.7 million) multi-site project, where Dr. Fang鈥檚 involvement as Co-Principal Investigator, is to explore and understand inclusive and exclusionary physical places and virtual spaces with older people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and older people who identify as LGBTQ+ using ArcGIS Story-mapping and Social Network Analysis.
Education
- PhD (Urban Studies) Heriot Watt University
- MA (Public Health) 丁香园AV
- BSc (Health Sciences, Honours) 丁香园AV
Research
Age-friendly cities and communities; aging in the 鈥榬ight鈥� place; digital inequities, aging and health; aging and technology; palliative and end of life care; inclusive aging spaces and places; seniors' housing; community-based participatory research; transdisciplinary working; co-creation; knowledge mobilization; creative methodology; qualitative research methods and evidence reviews
Current/selected grants
Contract/Grant: Grant Awarded: 2023 Period: 2023-2024
Project Title: Addressing Ethical Challenges in AgeTech: Co-creating a Way Forward with National and International Communities
Funding: Economic and Social Research Council - UKRI Type: Grant Total: $50,000
Involvement: Co-PI; (Co-PIs: Sixsmith, A., Chu, C., Boger, J., Sixsmith, J.)
Contract/Grant: Grant Awarded: 2022 Period: 2022-2026
Project Title: Intersectional Perspectives for Community Inclusion: Understanding the Past, Shaping the Future with Older Marginalised People
Funding: Spinal Cord Institute Type: Grant Total: $$2,860,759
Involvement: Co-PI; (Co-PI: Judith Sixsmith)
Selected Publications
Books/Edited Volumes
- Sixsmith, A., Sixsmith, J., Mihailidis, A., & Fang, M.L. (2021). Knowledge, Innovation, and Impact in Health - A Guide for the Engaged Researcher. New York: Springer.
- Sixsmith, A., Sixsmith, J., Fang, M.L. & Horst, B., (2020). AgeTech for Dementia and Cognitive Health. San Rafael: Morgan & Claypool Publishers.
Book Chapters
- Sixsmith, J., Woolrych, R., & Fang, M. L. (2022). Social Transformation and Urban Regeneration: Well-Being and Women's Marginalization in Community Contexts. In M. Morrow, O. Hankivsky, & C. Varcoe (Eds.), Women's Health in Canada: Challenges of Intersectionality (2 ed., pp. 346-368). University of Toronto Press.
- Fang, M.L., Sixsmith, J., Woolrych, R., Canham, S., Battersby, L., & Ren, T.H. (2021). Case Study: A Community-Based Approach to Developing Optimal Housing for Low-Income Older Adults. In Sixsmith, A., Sixsmith, J., Mihailidis, A., & Fang, M.L. Knowledge, Innovation, and Impact in Health - A Guide for the Engaged Researcher (pp. 59-63). New York: Springer.
- Fang, M.L., Sixsmith, J., Canham, S.L. & Woolrych, R. (2021). Aging in the Right Place: Participatory and Community Mapping for Collaborative Working and Knowledge Co-Creation. In Liamputtong, P. (Ed.), Handbook of Social Inclusion: Research and Practices in Health and Social Sciences. Springer: Singapore.
- Sixsmith, J., Fang, M.L., Woolrych, R., Canham, S., Battersby, L., Ren, T.H. & Sixsmith, A. (2019). Aging-in-Place for Low-Income Seniors: Living at the Intersection of Multiple Identities, Positionalities, and Oppressions. In Hankivsky, O., & Jordan-Zachery, J. (Eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Intersectionality in Public Policy (pp. 641-664). Cham: Palgrave MacMillan.
- Fang, M.L., Woolrych, R., Sixsmith, J., Canham, S.L., Battersby, L., Ren, T.H., & Sixsmith, A. (2018). Integrating sense-of-place within new housing developments: A Community-based participatory research approach. In Goulding, A.M., Davenport, S.B. & Newman, A. (Eds.), Resilience and Ageing: Creativity, Culture and Community (pp. 129-156). Bristol: Policy Press.
- Battersby, L., Fang, M.L., Canham, S.L., Sixsmith, J., Moreno, S., & Sixsmith A. (2017). Co-creation Methods: Informing Technology Solutions for Older Adults. In Z. Jia & G. Salvendy (Eds.), Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Aging, Design and User Experience (pp. 77-89). New York, NY: Springer.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Fang, M. L., Canham, S. L., & Battersby, L. (2023). Supporting intersecting cultural needs of gender and age by increasing cultural safety and humility for Housing First initiatives. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 1-17.
- Sixsmith, J., Makita, M., Menezes, D., Cranwell, M., Chau, I., Smith, M., ... & Fang, M. L. (2023). Enhancing Community Participation through Age-Friendly Ecosystems: A Rapid Realist Review. Geriatrics, 8(3), 52.
- Fang, M. L., Sixsmith, J., & Woolrych, R. (2023). Understanding Place Histories to Inform Positive Ageing-in-Place Transitions: An Intersectional Place Perspective of Forced Relocation Experiences. International Journal of Educational and Life Transitions, 2(1).
- Fang, M.L., Sixsmith, J., Hamilton-Pryde, A., Rogowsky, R., Scrutton, P., Woolrych, R., Pengelly, R. (2023). Co-creating Transnational Opportunities for Inclusive Place-making: Towards an Intergenerational, Age-friendly Living Ecosystem. Frontiers in Public Health, 10, 996520.
- Rubeis, G., Fang, M.L., & Sixsmith, A. (2022). Equity in AgeTech for ageing well in technology-driven places: the role of social determinants in designing AI-based assistive technologies. Science and Engineering Ethics, 28(6), 1-15.
- Woolrych, R., Sixsmith, J., Duvvuru, J., Portella, A., Fang, M. L., Menezes, D., Henderson, J., Fisher, J., & Lawthom, R. (2022). Cross-National Perspectives on Ageing and Place: Implications for Age-Friendly Cities and Communities. The Gerontologist, 62(1), 119-129.
- Fang, M. L., Walker, M., Wong, K. L. Y., Sixsmith, J., Remund, L., & Sixsmith, A. (2022). Future of digital health and community care: Exploring intended positive impacts and unintended negative consequences of COVID-19. Healthcare Management Forum 35(5), 279-285.
- Fang, M.L., Canham, S., Battersby, L., Sixsmith, J., Wada, M., & Sixsmith A. (2019). Exploring Privilege in the Digital Divide: Implications for Theory, Policy, and Practice. The Gerontologist, 9(59), e1-e15.
- Canham, S., Fang, M.L., Battersby, L., Woolrych, R., Sixsmith, J., & Sixsmith A. (2018) Contextual Factors for Aging Well: Creating Socially Engaging Spaces Through the Use of Deliberative Dialogues. The Gerontologist, 18(58), 140-148.
- Fang, M.L., Siden, E., Korol, A., Demesthias, M.A., Sixsmith, J., & Sixsmith, A. (2018). Exploring the Intended and Unintended Consequences of eHealth on Older People: A Health Equity Impact Assessment. Human Technology, 14(3), 297-323.
- Fang, M.L., Woolrych, R., Sixsmith, J., Canham, S., Battersby, L., & Sixsmith, A. (2016). Place-Making with Older Persons: Establishing Sense-of-Place through Participatory Community Mapping Workshops. Social Science & Medicine, 168, 223-229.
- Fang, M.L., Sixsmith, J., Sinclair, S. & Horst, G. (2016). A Knowledge Synthesis of Culturally- and Spiritually-Sensitive End-of-Life Care: Findings from a Scoping Review. BMC Geriatrics, 16, 107.
- Fang, M.L., Sixsmith, J., Lawthom, R., Mountian, I, Shahrin, A. (2015). Experiencing 鈥榩athologised presence and normalised absence鈥�; understanding health related experiences and access to health care among Iraqi and Somali asylum seekers, refugees and persons without legal status. BMC Public Health, 15, 923.
- Fang, M.L., Malcoe, L. Sixsmith, J., Wong, L. & Callender, M. (2015). Exploring traditional end-of-life beliefs, values, expectations and practices amongst Chinese women living in England: Informing culturally-safe care. Palliative & Supportive Care, 13(5), 1261-1274.