Elisabeth Schroeder-Butterfill

Elisabeth Schroeder-Butterfill serves as Associate Professor and Head of Department in the Gerontology Department at the University of Southampton, where she also holds the positions of Director of Research and Academic Conduct Officer. Having joined the department in 2006 as its first Lecturer in Gerontology, she played a key role in developing the MSc in Gerontology program and has since established herself as a leading researcher in aging studies.

Her academic foundation includes a BA (Hons) in Human Sciences from Oxford University and an MSc in Medical Demography from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Following two years of research at Bielefeld University in Germany, she completed her DPhil at Oxford on old-age support and intergenerational relations in Indonesia. She was subsequently a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at St Antony's College and the Institute of Human Sciences at Oxford from 2004-2006.

Elisabeth's research focuses on understanding the relationships between social networks, social stratification and vulnerability across the lifecourse, with particular attention to how care and support are negotiated within older people's family and community networks. Her interdisciplinary approach combines anthropology and demography, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods with ethnography informing survey design and interpretation. Much of her work centers on Indonesia, examining care systems in contexts with limited formal elder care infrastructure, while also conducting research on transnational care networks among Transylvanian Saxons in Romania.

Her recent publications (2023-2025) demonstrate continued research productivity with a strong focus on aging in Indonesia, particularly examining community volunteer care systems, health challenges faced by older adults, and social support networks. This work builds on her extensive experience with major research projects including ESRC-funded work on care networks in Indonesia and Australian Research Council projects on vulnerabilities across the lifecourse.

Her significant contributions have been recognized through several awards:

• Vice-Chancellor's Award For Gerontology Programme Team (2012)
• Southampton Student Union Academic Awards: Best Academic Support (2024)
• Vice-Chancellor's Award Nomination (2024)
• ReelOzInd! Film Festival People's Choice Award 2024

Elisabeth currently supervises six PhD students working on various aspects of gerontology and serves on the editorial boards of Ageing & Society and the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology. She has secured substantial research funding including ESRC, Australian Research Council, and University of Southampton Impact Fund support for her current project 'Widening the Reach of Home Visit Programmes in Indonesia,' which aims to achieve sustainable community-based care for housebound older people.

As Head of Department, she leads the Gerontology Department's research activities while maintaining active external roles with organizations including the British Society of Gerontology, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, and as an ethics advisor for multiple international projects.