I’m an educator, scholar, social worker, and author—but this website is mostly about my writing. I write in both academic and personal voices, often exploring the same questions from different angles. Across all of it, common themes emerge—especially around lived experiences, most often through the eyes of women.
My work spans genres and geographies: textbooks written in the first person, essays on aging and embodiment, chapters on immigration and justice, a forthcoming book on women and aging, and a memoir-in-progress about what happened when I jumped into an adventure and found far more than I bargained for (being purposely oblique here).
My Substack blog—Aging Naked—focuses mostly on women and aging (with a little politics thrown in for good measure). My academic work centers on human rights, social welfare, migration, and well-being.
What runs through all of it is a deep interest in the human experience—especially the kinds of experiences women carry that are rarely named. Those moments that require heavy lifting. The ones we often keep hidden—from society and from ourselves. I’m committed to naming the unnamable. I write about what it means to be authentic in a world that encourages hiding.
Before I entered academia, I worked for decades as a social worker in a range of practice settings: child welfare, victim advocacy, hospice, outpatient mental health, school social work, refugee resettlement, substance misuse, and private practice—where I worked primarily with women.
I write about the kinds of human experiences that bring us to our knees—and also the strength that carries us back up. I write about how people survive, heal, and ultimately flourish. That process is resilience: the ability to reflect on what we’ve lived through, attach meaning to it, and come out the other side with wisdom.
My work spans genres and geographies: textbooks written in the first person, essays on aging and embodiment, chapters on immigration and justice, a forthcoming book on women and aging, and a memoir-in-progress about what happened when I jumped into an adventure and found far more than I bargained for (being purposely oblique here).
My Substack blog—Aging Naked—focuses mostly on women and aging (with a little politics thrown in for good measure). My academic work centers on human rights, social welfare, migration, and well-being.
What runs through all of it is a deep interest in the human experience—especially the kinds of experiences women carry that are rarely named. Those moments that require heavy lifting. The ones we often keep hidden—from society and from ourselves. I’m committed to naming the unnamable. I write about what it means to be authentic in a world that encourages hiding.
Before I entered academia, I worked for decades as a social worker in a range of practice settings: child welfare, victim advocacy, hospice, outpatient mental health, school social work, refugee resettlement, substance misuse, and private practice—where I worked primarily with women.
I write about the kinds of human experiences that bring us to our knees—and also the strength that carries us back up. I write about how people survive, heal, and ultimately flourish. That process is resilience: the ability to reflect on what we’ve lived through, attach meaning to it, and come out the other side with wisdom.
©2024 All Rights Reserved Michelle E. Martin, Inc., Laguna Beach, California
"Aging Naked" U.S. Trademark Application No. 86/631,351
"Aging Naked" U.S. Trademark Application No. 86/631,351