Ruth Ray Karpen

Affiliate Faculty

Ruth Ray Karpen is Professor Emerita from Wayne State University in Detroit, where she taught and mentored undergraduate and graduate students for 35 years.  She was a professor of English and a faculty associate in gerontology until she retired in 2013 and moved to Boise.

She has published many books, chapters and articles on feminist gerontology, aging, and old age, including Beyond Nostalgia: Aging and Life-Story Writing (2000), Endnotes:  An Intimate Look at the End of Life (2008) and Nobody’s Burden: Lessons from the Great Depression on the Struggle for Old Age Security (2011).

In Boise, Ray Karpen works as a freelance researcher and writer and contributes blog articles on late-life development to a website called agegracefullyamerica.com.  She also volunteers for a local hospice, where she visits patients and edits the volunteer newsletter.

Email: ruthray@wayne.edu