Biography
Michelle Hawkins-Collins is a postgraduate researcher in Gerontology at the University of Southampton. Her doctoral research examines how life stories in later life can serve as sources of wisdom, resilience and intergenerational exchange. Adopting a strengths-based and preventative approach to ageing, she is developing and validating a framework for eliciting life stories and sharing the wisdom they contain within local communities. Her thesis is titled Cultivating Wisdom: The Power of Elder Life Stories in Growing Resilience.
Her research is informed by extensive experience in health and care innovation and transformation, including senior leadership as Director of Transformation at Virgin Care. She holds a BSc in International Business and a master’s degree in Gerontology. This interdisciplinary background underpins her interest in how narrative, community participation and preventative practice can contribute to ageing well.
In 2020, she founded The Wisdom Space, a community initiative that creates opportunities for people across generations to explore life stories, wisdom, resilience and connection through facilitated gatherings and reflective practice. This work provides an applied context for her academic interests and reflects her commitment to research that is accessible, participatory and relevant to communities.
Alongside her academic work, Michelle is an oral historian, professional storyteller and poet, and is a former Bard of Bath. Her practice in listening to, interpreting and communicating lived experience complements her qualitative research interests. Across her research and public engagement, she seeks to strengthen recognition of older people as contributors to collective knowledge and community life, and to advance understanding of how life stories can support meaning, connection and resilience across generations.