Meika Loe

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Meika Loe

Professor of Sociology and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Department/Office Information

Sociology and Anthropology, Women's Studies
424 Alumni Hall

Contact

(315) 228-7077

Meika Loe is Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Colgate University in New York, where she teaches courses on aging, gender, culture and medicine. She is the author of The Rise of Viagra: How the Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America and Aging our Way: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond.

Professor Loe has been featured on National Public Radio (NPR), O Magazine, BBC, The Washington Post, London Sunday Times, Psychology Today, Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), The New England Journal of Medicine, and Mother Jones.

She has been a featured speaker at international sociology conferences, community meetings on aging, continuing education forums, and on various college campuses.

To write Aging our Way, Professor Loe spent three years following and interviewing 30 individuals aged 85-102 who were living in rural, suburban, and urban Upstate New York. The 13 lessons she learned from these inspirational elders provide the framework for her book.

She is currently engaged in a 5-year qualitative research project on young adulthood in uncertain times.

  • BA, University of California, San Diego 1995
  • MA, University of California, Santa Barbara 1998
  • PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara 2002

Introduction to Sociology; Death, Dying and Grieving; Women, Health and Medicine; Sociology of the Life Course; Introduction to Women's Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Sociology of Gender; Gender, Sexuality and Society; Ethnography and Participant Action Research; Senior Seminar

Meika Loe teaching a class for alumni during Reunion

Books:

  • Aging Our Way: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond. (New York: Oxford University Press, October 2011). Note: The second print has the subtitle Independent Elders, Interdependent Lives.
  • The Rise of Viagra: How The Little Blue Pill Changed Sex in America (New York: New York University Press, October 2004). (Paperback 2006.)
  • Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness Through an Aging, Science, and Technology Lens, Eds Kelly Joyce and Meika Loe, (London: Wiley-Blackwell Monographs, 2010).

 

Journal Articles:

  • “Pandemic Pathways: College Graduates Stalling, Regressing, and Pivoting during COVID-19.” Socius: Sociological Research for the Dynamic World, Pp. 1-24. August, 2024.
  • "Apprehensive about retirement: Women, life transitions, and relationships," with Ariel Sherry, Ariel, Jennifer Tomlinson, D.K. Johnston, & and Brooke C. Feeney.  Journal of Women & Aging. August 2016.
  •  “Professional Women ‘Rebalancing’ in Retirement: Time, Relationships, and Body,” with D. Kay Johnston, Journal of Women & Aging, 28 (5), Summer 2016.
  • “Comfort and Medical Ambivalence in Old Age” in Technological Forecasting & Social Change, special issue on Science, Technology, and Aging, January 2015.
  • “Science, Technology and Ageing,” with Kelly Joyce and Lauren Diamond-Brown, in Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology, 1st Edition, 2015.
  • “The Digital Life History Project: Intergenerational Collaborative Research” in Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 34 (1), January 2013, pages 26-42.
  • ”Yes Means Yes: A New Educational Approach to Sexual Assault Prevention,” with Dawn LaFrance and Scott Brown, Journal of Sexuality Education, 7(4), December 2012, pages 445-460.
  • “From Nursing Home to Green House: Changing Contexts and Outcomes of Elder Care in the U.S.” with Crystal Dea Moore, Journal of Applied Gerontology, 31(6), March 2011, 755-63.
  • “Doing it My Way: Old Women, Technology, and Wellbeing” in Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness Through an Aging, Science, and Technology Lens, Special Issue of Sociology of Health and Illness, Eds Kelly Joyce and Meika Loe, 32 (2), 2010, pages 319-34.
    •  Reprinted in: The State of Families, Editor Jennifer Reich, Routledge, 2020.
  • “Grappling with the Medicated Self: The Case of ADHD College Students,” with Leigh Cuttino, Symbolic Interaction, 31(3), 2008, pages 303-323.
    • Revised and reprinted in: Salute e Società The Medicine of Emotions and Cognitions (in English and Italian), Eds Antonio Maturo and Kristin Barker, 2012.
    • Reprinted in: Drugs and the American Dream, Eds Peter Adler, Patti Adler, and Patrick O’Brien, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.
    • Reprinted in: Everyday Sociology, Editor Karen Sternheimer, Norton, 2010.
  • “The New View in Action: College Students Discuss 21st Century Sexuality,” Feminism & Psychology 18 (4), 2008, pages 495-504.
  • “Sex and the Senior Woman: Pleasure and Danger in the Viagra Era,” Sexualities, 7 (3), August 2004, pages 303-326.
  •  “A New View of Women’s Sexual Problems: Why New? Why Now?  (with L. Alperstein, C. Ellison, JR Fishman, M. Hall, L. Handwerker, H. Hartley, E. Kaschak, P. Kleinplatz, L. Mamo, C. Tavris, and L. Tiefer) in Journal of Sex Research, 38, 2001, pages 89-96.
  • “Fixing Broken Masculinity: Viagra and the Production of Gender and Sexuality” Sexuality & Culture, 5 (3), Summer 2001, pages 97-125.
    • Reprinted in Sex Matters: The Sexuality and Society Reader, 4th Edition, Stombler, Mindy, Dawn M. Baunach, Elisabeth O. Burgess, Denise Donnelly, and Wendy Simonds. Pearson Education, Inc., 2013, chapter 24.
    • Reprinted in Men’s Lives 8th Edition, Eds Michael Kimmel and Michael Messner. Pearson, 2009, Chapter 23.
  • “Feminism For Sale: Case Study of a Pro-Sex Feminist Business,” Gender & Society, 13 (3), December 1999, pages 705-732.
  •  “Dildos In Our Toolboxes: The Production of Sexuality at a Pro-Sex Feminist Sex Toy Store,” Berkeley Journal of Sociology, Volume 43, 1998-9, pages 97-133.
  • “Working for Men—At the Intersection of Power, Gender, and Sexuality,” Sociological Inquiry, volume 66 (4), Fall 1996, pages 399-421.
    • Reprinted in Mapping the Social Landscape. Ed. Susan Ferguson, Seventh Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2012, chapter 9.
    • Reprinted in Readings in Sexuality, Gender and Society. Eds. Christine Williams and Arlene Stein. Blackwell Publishers. November, 2001, pages 221-238.

 

Chapters in Edited Volumes:

  • “Beloved Community as Practice: Grounding Practices, Care Teams and Redefining Success,” in Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education: Narratives Toward Wholeness, editors Karolyn Kinane and Lee Ray Costa Michelle, David. November, 2024.
  • “Comfortable Aging: Lessons for Living from 85 and Beyond,” Successful Aging: A 21st Century Obsession, edited by Sarah Lamb, Rutgers University Press, 2017.
  • "Feminist Parenting Online: Community, Contestation, and Change," with Tess Cumpstone and Susan Miller, Taking the Village Online: Mothers, Motherhood, and Social Media, Eds Lorin Arnold and Bettyann Martin, Demeter Press, 2016, pages 180-195.
  • “Ageism: Stereotypes, Causes, Effects, and Countermovements,” with Evan Chartier and Ariel Sherry, Gerontology: Changes, Challenges, Solutions, Eds. Madonna Harrington  Meyer and Elizabeth A. Daniele, Praeger, 2016, pages 57-82.
  •  “Technology and Aging,” with Kelly Joyce and Lauren Diamond-Brown, Handbook on Cultural Gerontology. Eds Julia Twigg and Wendy Martin, July 2015, pages 157-164.
  • “Pippi and Lisbeth: Fictional Heroes Across Generations,” in Men Who Hate Women and Women Who Kick Their Asses: Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy in Feminist Perspective, Eds Carrie Smith and Donna King, July 2012, pages 170-180.
  • “Pleasure in Old Age” in Sex For Life: From Virginity to Viagra, How Sexuality Changes Throughout Our Lives, Eds. Laura Carpenter and John DeLamater, NYU Press, February 2012, pages 278-298.
  • “Theorising Technogenarians: A Sociological Appproach to Aging, Technology and Health,” (with Kelly Joyce) in Technogenarians: Studying Health and Illness Through an Aging, Science, and Technology Lens, Special Issue of Sociology of Health and Illness, Eds Kelly Joyce and Meika Loe, 32(2) 2010, pages 171-80.
  • “Sexuality and Women: The Experts Speak,” with A. Katz, B. Davis, C. Fogel, B. Johnson, S. Kellog-Spadt, and L. Martinez). Nursing for Women's Health, 11(1), 2007, pages 38-43.
  • “Lessons from Sociology of the Body,” in Anderson, Erin K. and Susan J. Ferguson (editors). 2007. Teaching the Sociology of the Body: A Collection of Syllabi, Assignments, and Other Resources. Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
  • “Sociology of Viagra” Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, George Ritzer, Editor,  Blackwell, 2006, pages 5188-9.
  • “Sex and the Senior Woman,” in Introducing the New Sexuality Studies, Eds. Steven Seidman, Chet Meeks, and Nancy Fraser, Routledge, 2006, pages 96-101.
  • “The Viagra Blues: Embracing or Resisting the Viagra Body,” in Medicalized Masculinities, eds. Dana Rosenfeld and Christopher Faircloth, Temple University Press, 2005, pages 21-44.
  • “The Feminist Classroom as Community: A Discussion of Pedagogy,” (published with Panagakos, A. et.al.), Voices, 3 (1), June 1999, pages 1-5.

 

Public Sociology Articles:

  • “Lessons in Living (and Dying)” in Colgate Magazine. Fall 2019.
  • “A New Vision for Elder Care” (A Review of Age of Dignity by Ai-Jen Poo) Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2015.
  •  “Asking for Help as we Age Actually Fosters Autonomy” Aging Today, American Society on Aging (ASA), June 2013
  • "Aging at home, but not alone: Building Caring Communities in the Capital Region," Capital Commons Quarterly: The Dynamics of Aging and Our Community, January 2013.
  • “Alice Hastings Murphy: Managing a Remarkable Life with Grace, to the End,” Capital Commons Quarterly: The Dynamics of Aging and Our Community, 1:6 April 2012, pages 7-10.
  • “Aging and Sexuality: Pleasure in Old Age” Our Bodies Ourselves (40th anniversary edition), Simon and Schuster, October 2011, page 561.
  • “The Prescription of a New Generation,” Contexts 7 (2), 2008, pages 46-9.