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 Simon Fraser University, 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’s 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 cafés.

Dr. Fang’s current research is informed by the sustainable development goals (SDGs) 3, “ensure healthy lives, promote wellbeing for all at all ages,” and 11 “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. 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 (£1.7 million) multi-site project, where Dr. Fang’s 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) Simon Fraser University
BSc (Health Sciences, Honours) Simon Fraser University

Research

Age-friendly cities and communities; aging in the ‘right’ 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 ‘pathologised presence and normalised absence’; 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.

Gerontology