The Death Studies Podcast

Dr Caroline Bennett is a socio-cultural anthropologist, who works on the Cambodian genocide, with a particular focus on mass graves and their dead, and relationships to, and the politics of, those dead in contemporary Cambodia. She also works on the treatment of human remains after mass death, research emerging from her previous training as a forensic anthropologist, and short experience working on forensic humanitarian projects in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Iraq. As well as being an anthropologist, Caroline is an advisory board member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, and between December 2021 and August this year, she was Director of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, in the UK parliament. She holds a BSc in Anthropology (University College London), MSc in Forensic Anthropology (Bradford University), MA in Visual Anthropology (University of Kent), and a PhD in Social Anthropology (University of Kent). She is currently a Lecturer in Social Anthropology, with a focus on Human Rights, at the University of Sussex, UK, and an Associate Research fellow at Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. 

Hazel Marzetti is a post-doctoral Research Associate in the University of Edinburgh’s School of Health in Social Sciences. She currently works on the Leverhulme Trust funded Suicide in/as Politics project which uses qualitative, critical, and arts-based research methods to explore how suicide is represented and used in the UK’s suicide prevention policies, parliamentary debates and charity campaigns 2009-2019. Prior to this role, Hazel completed her PhD at the University of Glasgow’s MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, entitled ‘Exploring and understanding young LGBT+ people's suicidal thoughts and attempts in Scotland’. Hazel's research interests centre on critical suicide studies, LGBT+ mental health, the role of emotions in research practices, and qualitative approaches to health research. Hazel takes an active role in NetECR (a network for early career suicide and self-harm researchers), where she co-organises a Collective Care peer support group. In her spare time Hazel enjoys crafting, volunteering, and watching a lot of TV.

References:

Esther Ramsay-Jones is a practising psychodynamic psychotherapist and Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at Birkbeck College, University of London. She also tutors on the Open University's Death, Dying and Bereavement module, and is engaged as a team member in two related research projects. She has worked in dementia and end of life care for many years, currently facilitating reflective practice with hospice at home staff. Her books 'Holding Time' emerged from her PhD work on the relational field in dementia care, and 'The Silly Thing' follows her mother's experience of living and dying with brain cancer. She is also a mum.

In this episode we talk with Dr Esther Ramsay-Jones about her work as a psychotherapist, her two books and much more!

Jason Danely is a Reader in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University, where he is the Chair of the Healthy Ageing and Care Research Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Network. Having studied Comparative Religions and Asian Studies before pursuing his PhD in Anthropology, Jason's research began as an exploration of the ritual lives of older people in urban Japan. This research tells the story of Japan's aging society through detailed portraits of older men and women as they actively anticipate their own deaths while caring for and memorializing their ancestors. This research led to his first book, Aging and Loss: Mourning and Maturity in Contemporary Japan (2014 Rutgers University Press). This work led to research on unpaid caregivers of older family members, who experience similar feelings of grief and loss, often leading to a deeper appreciation for end of life care. His most recent book, released in October 2022, is titled Fragile Resonance: Caring for Older Family Members in Japan and England (Cornell University Press).His current research looks again at experiences at loss from the perspective of formerly incarcerated older people.

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:

Salena Godden FRSL is an award-winning author, memoirist, essayist, poet and broadcaster of Jamaican heritage based in London. In 2021 Canongate published her highly acclaimed debut novel Mrs Death Misses Death. It is the winner of The Indie Book Award for fiction and The Peoples Book Prize 2022 and shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, The Nibbies, British Book Awards Book Of The Year Fiction Debut, The Bad Form Book Of The Year shortlist and it featured in the Guardian books of the year list 2021.

Mrs Death Misses Death has been described by the publisher as “intoxicating and life-affirming” and in The Bookseller as “original, exuberant … truly one of a kind.” Film and TV rights to this work have been taken by Idris Elba and Green Door Pictures. Commenting on the deal, Idris Elba said: "Mrs Death Misses Death feels like an instant classic, with an intoxicating story that crosses time and continents. I was immediately drawn to Salena’s writing and am humbled and excited to have the opportunity to bring her brilliant words to life on screen."

Salena Godden's work has been widely anthologised and broadcast on BBC radio and TV. Her essay Shade was published in groundbreaking and award-wining anthology The Good Immigrant (Unbound). A short-story Blue Cornflowers was shortlisted for the 4th Estate and Guardian short story prize 2016. She has had several volumes of poetry published including Under The Pier (Nasty Little Press) Fishing in the Aftermath: Poems 1994-2014 (Burning Eye Books) Pessimism is for Lightweights - 13 Pieces of Courage and Resistance (Rough Trade Books) and also a literary childhood memoir, Springfield Road (Unbound). She has produced four studio albums to date. Her solo poetry album LIVEwire (Nymphs and Thugs) was shortlisted for The Ted Hughes Prize 2017. The Royal Society of Literature elected Godden as fellow FRSL in November 2020, she was inducted in July 2022. Her poem Pessimism is for Lightweights is on permanent display at The Peoples History Museum, Manchester.

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:

Mandy Gosling is a UKCP and BACP accredited psychotherapist, researcher and author, specialising in unresolved grief experienced by adults and couples who were bereaved as children.  As a bereaved child herself, Mandy completed a research MA in 2016 to ‘Understand Childhood Parental Bereavement from a Psychological and Spiritual Perspective’ and then established ABC Grief, the central focus for her private practice in High Wycombe, Bucks.  She is a contributing author in the anthology ‘My Mother’s Story – Gone Too Soon’ from which she co-presented a poster at the inaugural European Grief Conference, and is currently collaborating on a phenomenological research project to investigate the long term consequences of delayed and prolonged grief in adults bereaved as children.   Mandy continues to drive awareness in this niche and often overlooked area of grief through conversations in the media, podcasts and bereavement community.

Professor Gayle Letherby is a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Plymouth and Visiting Professor at the University of Greenwich. She is a teacher, mentor and a researcher. Alongside substantive interests in reproductive and non/parental identities; gender, health and wellbeing; loss and bereavement; travel and transport mobility and gender and identity within institutions she has always been fascinated by research methodology, including auto/biographical, feminist and creative practices. In recent years Gayle has become interested in writing sociologically for non-academic audiences and creative writing within academic work. In addition to writing her own memoir and fiction she also runs ‘creative writing for academics’ workshops and has helped to facilitate a variety of research and writing events as consultant.

Dr. Jillian A. Tullis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of San Diego. Her teaching and research interests focus on health communication, specifically communication about dying and death in healthcare settings. She returned to her home state, joining the faculty at the University of San Diego in 2015, after serving on the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte for 6 years. Dr. Tullis is former chair of the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association and continues to serve on the editorial boards of the Journal of Loss & Trauma and Qualitative Research in Medicine & Healthcare and is editor of the Critical Interventions forum of Departures in Critical Qualitative Research. She is currently conducting research about definitions of a good death.

This episode was recorded LIVE at the Death and Culture conference at York St Johns University in September 2022 and features several of the conference attendees at the close of the episode. Tune in to hear their experiences! 

Dr Trish Biers is the Collections Manager at the Level of Curator of the Duckworth laboratory (human and non-human primate remains and an archive) in the Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. She teaches in the Department about ethics, repatriation, treatment of the dead, mortuary archaeology, and osteology. She has excavated all over the world but specialises in mummies of South America. She is currently the Museum Representative, on the Board of Trustees, British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO)  and organises their sub-group on the sale and trade of human remains. Her research interests include  ancient and modern death work, mummy studies, osteoarchaeology and paleopathology, biomolecular archaeology, the Columbian Exchange, and museum studies focusing on displaying the dead, working with human remains, repatriation and ethics in archaeology.  She is also involved in research about witchcraft, folklore, and archaeology.  Trish is the ‘other-half’ of MorMortisMuseum with Dr Katie Stringer-Clary.

Katie Stringer Clary, Ph.D., currently teaches history and public history at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C. Since 2007, Clary worked with museums in various capacities from docent to executive director. In her time at museums and as a graduate student in Public History she focused on museum education and inclusion issues, especially for people with special needs. This research culminated in her 2014 manuscript, Programming for People with Special Needs: A Guide for Museums and Historic Sites. Through her work, she continues to advocate for accessibility, representation, and equality in museums and historic sites. Clary currently researches the ethics and historical contexts of human remains in museums, dark tourism and ghost tours at historic sites, and the roles death plays in the museum world. Museums, Heritage, and Death, co-edited with Dr. Trish Biers for Routledge Publishing is scheduled for release in 2023, and she also has two chapters in the volume.  Clary works closely with community organizations to preserve and interpret the past. She is also interested in the history of museums, museum administration, digital histories, and community engagement. In her spare time, she likes to camp and hike, travel, and spend time with her dogs Harry Clary and Brutus, cat Miss Frances, and six chickens.

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:

Dr John Troyer is the Death Studies Scholar-at-Large and former director of the University of Bath’s Centre for Death and Society in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath. John received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in Comparative Studies in Discourse and Society. His Ph.D. dissertation, entitled "Technologies of the Human Corpse" was awarded the University of Minnesota's 2006 Best Dissertation Award in the Arts and Humanities. In 2020 MIT Press published his most recent book under the same title. From 2007-2008 he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Comparative Studies at The Ohio State University teaching the cultural studies of science and technology. In 2018 he was awarded the University of Minnesota's Alumni of Notable Achievement Award for his work on death and dying and in 2019 he received the University of Bath's Mary Tasker Award for excellence in teaching. Within the field of death studies, John focuses on the history of science and technology, science and technology studies, bioethics and the law.

Dr Sara Knox is Associate Professor in the Writing and Society Research Group and the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of Western Sydney. She is the author of Murder: a Tale of Modern American Life (Duke University Press, 1998) and other notable works on violence and representation.  Her most recent publications include work on Hilary Mantel, including a study of the moral geography of violence in Mantel's novels,  and the regeneration of the historical novel as literary genre. Her novel The Orphan Gunner (Giramondo, 2007) won the 2009 Asher Literary Prize and was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize and the Age Book of the Year.

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:

Dr Ruth Penfold-Mounce is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology in the Sociology Department at the University of York. Her background in Sociology is united with an interest in crime and deviance, death studies and popular culture and celebrity. Ruth leads the Death and Culture Network at the University of York, co-edits the Death and Culture Book Series, and hosts the Death and Culture conference every two years. She also does regular public engagement events and media appearances. She is author of the book Death, the Dead and Popular Culture as well as numerous other publications including an award-winning journal article on gender inequality after death, all of which are discussed in this episode.

Professor Frank Eyetsemitan is Professor of Psychology at Roger Williams University in Bristol Rhode Island, where he previously held the position of Associate Dean for Social Sciences Division of the College of Arts and Sciences. Professor Eyetsemitan’s work in the field of aging spans almost three decades. His research interests include intergenerational relationships (within families and within skilled care facilities), cross-cultural gerontology, and adult grief outcomes. Prof Eyetsemitan’s works have appeared in prominent journals on Aging and Death & Dying, including the Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology; Death Studies; and OMEGA: Death and Dying. His book (published in 2003 with James Gire as co-author), entitled: Aging and Adult Development in Developing Societies: Applying Western Theories and Concepts discusses the appropriateness of applying key Western theories and concepts to non-Western populations. He is also the author of the textbook, Understanding Death & Dying: Encountering death, dying and the afterlife (2020); and of Death, Dying and Bereavement Around the World: theories, varied views and customs(2021).

In this episode, hear artist Lucy Willow talk about her work.

Born in Whitstable, Kent Lucy Willow graduated with first class BA in Fine Art from Falmouth College of Art in 2003. Willow lives and works in Cornwall and has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. Her work first received acclaim with a series of Dust carpets made on location and for specific environments, Smithfield abattoir (2005), Old Romney Church (2005), Make it Real, Whitstable, Kent (2006), Art Now Cornwall, Tate St.Ives commission (2007). In 2001 Willow won the BAMS (British Art Medal Society) award for contemporary medal making. Willow’s photographic work was presented for the first time with a solo show at Millennium Gallery St.Ives (2009). Willow was selected in 2009, with seven artists representing Cornwall, to show in London in a project called Gloria Zoo Art 2009. In 2014 she had a solo exhibition Fallen at Kestle Barton, Centre for Contemporary art, Cornwall (April – June 2014), where she developed a body of work over a two-year period with two artist residencies. In December 2015 she was artist in residence at HERE factory in Iceland where her work was strongly influenced by the dark winter months and bleak landscape. In March 2016 she became artists in residence in Guangzhou China as part of an arts international program and had a solo show in Redtory arts district, Guangzhou (April – May 2016). Willow presented a paper at the Malady and Mortality conference, Falmouth University 2013 Paper: The last Portrait, a microscopic view of transience, mourning and loss. Published in Malady and Mortality: Illness, Disease and Death in Literary and Visual Culture (2016) Chapter: The last Portrait, a microscopic view of transience, mourning and loss.

In 2020 she set up an organisation DUST The Art of Grief from an old shop in Penzance as a space to bring together artists, artefacts, members of the community and professionals working in end of life and funeral industries.

Lucy Willow is currently part time senior lecturer in Fine Art at Falmouth University, an end of life photographer, a freelance practitioner using creative practice to tell community stories of grief and a recently trained funeral celebrant hoping to bring artworks into funeral settings.

Find out more at:

Panagiotis Pentaris is an Associate Professor of Social Work and Thanatology in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Greenwich, England, UK, where he is also a member of the Institute for Lifecourse Development. Panagiotis is a council member for the Association for the Study of Death and Society, the Chair of the ASDS Ambassadors Scheme, a Research Fellow for the Faiths & Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths, and over the last ten years he has researched and published on death, dying, bereavement, culture and religion, social work, social policy and LGBTQIA+ issues. Panagiotis is licensed in Social Work. He has practised social work in the field of thanatology, notably with dying children and adults, and bereaved individuals; he has practised both internationally and nationally. Positions held include hospice social worker, independent bereavement therapist, and social policy consultant regarding end of life strategies and palliative and hospice care guidance, as well as disaster social work.

Two books we talk about in the episode are linked below, both published by Routledge.

Kate Woodthorpe became CDAS (the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, UK) Co-Director in 2021, having joined CDAS in January 2010, and acting as Programme Leader for the Foundation Degree in Funeral Services until 2012. Kate has had articles and book chapters published on funeral costs, state support for funerals, mortuary practice, professional development, cemetery usage, the experience of researching in this area, and public dying. She is on the editorial board for Death Studies, Bereavement Care, Sociology, and Mortality, which she co-edited until 2019. She has advised the UK Government on funeral policy over many years, including in 2016 as a Special Adviser to the Government's Work and Pensions Select Committee Inquiry on Bereavement Benefits, and provided evidence in 2019 to the Competition and Market's Authority Funeral Sector Investigation. She is keen to support the next generation of academics and has published a book for PhD students and early career colleagues entitled 'Survive and Thrive in Academia: the new academic's pocket mentor' (2018, Routledge).

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:

In this episode, hear Deb Rawlings and Emma Clare discuss Death Doulas.

In this episode, hear Dr. Khyati Tripathi discuss Death Studies, death anxiety research, Covid-19 in India, qualitative and autoethnographic work, Psychosocial Studies and her own experiences of studying for a PhD whilst living with Rheumatoid Arthritis.