The Death Studies Podcast

What's the episode about?

Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes on horror studies, the Gothic, graveyards and death, body horror, horror and trauma, film, TV and English Literature and experiencing a transient ischaemic attack, plus highlights from the Death Online Research Symposium (DORS) conference 2023!

Who is Xavier? 

Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University, co-director of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies and, since 2022, co-president of the International Gothic Association.

His books include Gothic Cinema (Routledge, 2020), Twenty-First-Century Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion (Edinburgh University Press, co-edited with Maisha Wester, 2019), Horror Film and Affect (Routledge, 2016), Horror: A Literary History (British Library Publishing, 2016) and Body Gothic (University of Wales Press, 2014).

Xavier is chief editor of the international academic book series ‘Horror Studies’ and a founding member of the Horror Studies special interest group of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies.

He is currently working on the forthcoming edited collection Graveyard Gothic (Manchester University Press) and on a new monograph entitled Contemporary Body Horror on Page and Screen (Cambridge University Press).

Although by no means a thanatologist, Xavier has strong interests in adjacent areas.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Aldana Reyes, X. (2023) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 2 August 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.23823135

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In this episode, hear Professor Tony Walter at the 2023 University of Bath CDAS conference on innovation, climate and ecological emergency, mass mortality, grief, loss and social change, as well as highlights from the conference!

Who is Tony? 

Tony Walter is a sociologist and Emeritus Professor of Death Studies at the University of Bath, UK. His most recent books are Death in the Modern World (2020) and What Death Means Now  (2017). Many of his articles have concerned various channels through which the living encounter the dead – not only spiritualist mediums, but also angels, social media, dark tourism, human remains in museums, music, ancestor veneration, and memory. He is currently writing about mortality in the age of the climate and ecological crisis. 

What is CDAS?

CDAS is an internationally recognised research centre focusing on the interdisciplinary social aspects of death, dying and bereavement at the University of Bath. https://www.bath.ac.uk/research-centres/centre-for-death-society/

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Walter, T. (2023) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 2 July 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.23615262

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Dr. Caroline Bennett on the Cambodian Genocide, mass graves, the Khmer Rouge regime, the identification of bodies, DNA identification, human remains, genocide research, anthropology, ethnography, notions of haunting, karma, post-genocide and getting involved in research into genocide.

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.

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

Bennett, C. (2023) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 June 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.23309723

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr. Hazel Marzetti discuss suicide, LBGT+ mental health, suicide in/as politics, qualitative health research and critical suicide studies as well as collective care and peer support in death studies research.

Who is Hazel? 

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:

Marzetti, H. (2018) ‘Proudly proactive: celebrating and supporting LGBT+ students in Scotland’, Teaching in Higher Education. Taylor & Francis, 23(6), pp. 701–717. doi: 10.1080/13562517.2017.1414788.

Marzetti, Hazel Louise (2020) Exploring and understanding young LGBT+ people's suicidal thoughts and attempts in Scotland. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow. Available at: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/82314/7/2020marzettiphd.pdf

Marzetti,H. (2022) Researcher Self-Care Worksheet. Available at: https://hazelmarzetti.files.wordpress.com/2022/01/2022_worksheet_researcher_care_toolkit.pdf

Marzetti, H. (2022) Manifesto for Change, http://dx.doi.org/10.7488/era/2220

Marzetti, H. et al. (2022) ‘Self-inflicted. Deliberate. Death-intentioned. A critical policy analysis of UK suicide prevention policies 2009-2019’, Journal of Public Mental Health, 21(1), pp. 4–14. doi: 10.1108/JPMH-09-2021-0113.

Marzetti, H., McDaid, L. and O’Connor, R. (2022) ‘“Am I really alive?”: Understanding the role of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia in young LGBT+ people’s suicidal distress’, Social Science and Medicine. Elsevier Ltd, 298(December 2021), p. 114860. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.114860.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Marzetti, H. (2023) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 May 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.22748525

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Jeremy Cohen on new religious movements, radical-longevity, immortality, transhumanism, ethnography and cryonics, as well as tree planting, music and the Salem Witch Trials and mass hysteria, anthropology and the project Talk Death Daily

Who is Jeremy? 

Jeremy Cohen is an Assistant Professor at McMaster, in the Department of Religious Studies.

His research is focused on communities and new religious movements seeking radical-longevity and immortality, as well as the historical and cultural framework of changing North American relationships to technology and death.

Jeremy is also the co-founder and co-editor of TalkDeath.com.

You can listen to Jeremy’s music, discussed in the podcast, here.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Cohen, J. (2023) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 April 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.22445221

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Professor Helen Wheatley discuss death in film and television, corpses, grief and loss on screen, the Gothic, assisted suicide on television, haunting on TV and cultural trauma, as well as death in children’s television and live death on screen. Helen also discusses her extensive work with television archives and communities in Coventry, UK.

 Who is Helen? 

Helen Wheatley is Professor of Film and Television Studies and co-founder of the Centre for Television Histories at the University of Warwick.

She was also Director of the Resonate Festival, the Warwick Institute for Engagement’s year-long programme of events and activities for Coventry’s City of Culture year. Helen works collaboratively with archives and curators to engage the public with the history of British broadcasting, and has been awarded multiple prizes for impact/community engagement for this work.

Her most recent book, Spectacular Television: Exploring Televisual Pleasure (IB Tauris, 2016) won the BAFTSS Award for Monograph of the Year in 2017.

Helen has research interests in various aspects of British television history, and has published work on popular genres in television drama in the UK, US, including the monograph Gothic Television (2006).

She has an ongoing interest in issues of television history and historiography, the topic of her edited collections Re-viewing Television History: Critical Issues in Television Historiography (IB Tauris, 2007) and Television for Women: New Directions (Routledge, 2016, with Rachel Moseley and Helen Wood).

She is currently completing the monograph Television/Death for Edinburgh University Press (2023). This looks at the representation of death, dying, grief and bereavement, and at the posthumous image on TV.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Wheatley, H. (2023) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 March
2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.22189924

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Esther Ramsay-Jones discuss palliative psychotherapy, grief work, writing about grief, and psychotherapy and maternal figures in dementia care. Esther discusses her mother’s death and her experiences of writing memoir.

Who is Esther?

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.

Find out more about Esther's book The Silly Thing.

Find out more about Esther's book Holding Time.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Ramsay-Jones, E. (2023) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 February 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.21968174

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear a breakdown of the Death and the Screen Special Issue of Revenant and editor-in-chief Professor Ruth Heholt on ghosts, haunting, the Gothic, Catherine Crowe, the supernatural and starting a journal

This special episode accompanies a Special Issue of the academic journal Revenant focused on Death and the Screen. You can find the issue and the journal more broadly at: https://www.revenantjournal.com/

Who is Ruth?

Professor Ruth Heholt is Professor of Literature and Culture at Falmouth University, UK and lead of the Dark Economies research group.

She is author of Catherine Crowe: Gender, Genre, and Radical Politics (Routledge, 2020) and co-author of Gothic Kernow: Cornwall as Strange Fiction (Anthem Press, 2022). She is co-editor of several collections including Gothic Britain: Dark Places in the Provinces and Margins of the British Isles (2018), and Haunted Landscapes (2017).

She has organised international conferences including Folk Horror in the Twentieth Century (Falmouth and Lehigh Universities 2019) and is editor of the peer reviewed journal Revenant: Critical and Creative Studies of the Supernatural.

Revenant is dedicated to academic and creative explorations of the supernatural, the uncanny and the weird and can be found at revenantjournal.com. She is co-editor of the Gender and the Body book series and the Nineteenth Century and Neo-Victorian Cultures book series (Edinburgh University Press).

Ruth is on the advisory and editorial boards of several scholarly associations, book series, and journals. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Heholt, R. (2023) The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 23 January 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.21944186

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Jason Danely discuss ageing, Japan, loss, ageing subjectivities unwitnessed death and anthropology.

Who is Jason?

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.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Danely, S. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 January 2023. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.21800922

What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Salena Godden discuss poetry, her book Mrs Death Misses Death, depicting death as a Black woman, memoir, and talking about death

Who is Salena?

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.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Godden, S. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 24 December 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.21769106

What next?

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Monday Gosling on psychotherapy, grief experienced by adults and couples who were bereaved as children, her experience of bereavement as a child, the loss of mothers and delayed and prolonged grief.

Who is Mandy?

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.

Find out more at www.abcgrief.co.uk or follow on Twitter using @abcgrief and on LinkedIn under Mandy Gosling.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Gosling, M. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 December 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.21641285

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Professor Gayle Letherby discuss reproductive loss, auto/biographical methodologies, loss and bereavement, childlessness, and academic and creative writing practices approaches.

Who is Gayle?

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.

Visit her staff profile for more information⁠ and Gayle's full publication list.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Letherby, G. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 November 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.21506625

For Gayle's memoir and fiction writing please visit her page on⁠ ABC Tales

Gayle is an avid twitter user and you can find her ⁠@gletherby⁠

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Jillian A. Tullis discuss end-of-life care and communication, resisting the hospice narrative, autoethnography and its ethical implications, truth in qualitative research, spirituality and cancer care and innovative teaching approaches.

Who is Jillian?

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.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Tullis, J. A. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 October 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.21251421

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Trish Biers and Dr Katie Stringer Clary discuss museums, heritage, and death, the ethics of human display, curation and working in museums and heritage education.

Who is Trish?

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.

Who is Katie?

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.

Find the Routledge Handbook of Museums, Heritage and Death here.

LISTEN HERE!

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Biers, T. and Stringer Clary, K. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 21 September. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.21175312

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr John Troyer discuss technology and the human corpse, necrowaste, necrophilia laws, transdisciplinary death studies, grief and his sister and mother’s deaths.

Who is John?

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.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Troyer, J. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 September 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.20750005

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Sara Knox discuss murder, serial killers, pet death, inequality in death and dying, violence and representation and writing novels.

Who is Sara? 

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.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Knox, S. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 August 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.20393631

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Helen Frisby discuss Victorian funeral customs, traditions of death and burial, sineaters and being an independent researcher whilst working in professional services in a university.

Who is Helen? 

Dr Helen Frisby obtained her PhD on Victorian funeral customs from the University of Leeds in 2009.

Helen is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Death & Society, University of Bath, Secretary of the Association for the Study of Death & Society (ASDS) and a Council Member of the Folklore Society.

She continues to research, publish and speak on the history and folklore of death, dying and bereavement, including appearances on the History Channel and BBC Radio. Helen’s book Traditions of Death and Burial was published in 2019.  Other recent research, with the University of Bristol, investigates the informal occupational culture of frontline cemetery staff.

Helen is also Researcher Development Manager at UWE Bristol, with particular expertise in academic writing, qualitative research methods and postgraduate researcher wellbeing.

Here are some of the references that Helen mentioned:

● Ronald Hutton ‘The English Reformation and the Evidence of Folklore’ Past and Present 148 (1) pp.89-116.

● Ronald Hutton The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

● Brian Parsons The Evolution of the British Funeral Industry in the 20th Century: From Undertaker to Funeral Director. Bingley: Emerald Publishing, 2018.

Helen’s favourite popular culture depiction of the Sin Eater is the film The Order(US Title)/The Sin Eater (UK title)

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Frisby, H. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 July 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.20161061

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Ruth Penfold-Mounce discuss crime, deviance, death and popular culture, celebrity death, pedagogy and public engagement with death, death walks and gender inequality after death.

Who is Ruth? 

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 formerly led the Death and Culture Network at the University of York and currently co-edits the Death and Culture Book Series.

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.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Penfold-Mounce, R. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 June 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.19948010

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Professor Frank Eyetsemitan discuss the psychology of death, ageing, intergenerational relationships, cross-cultural gerontology, and grief.

Who is Frank?

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).

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Eyetsemitan, F. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 6 May 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.19721980

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Lucy Willow discuss death and fine art, performance art and visual culture, photographing the dead, mourning, loss, grief and artistic practice, as well as research and being a celebrant.

Who is Lucy?

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:

www.lucywillow.art

www.art-of-grief.co.uk

https://www.instagram.com/art_of_grief/

https://www.instagram.com/artist_lucy_willow/

Read the chapter we discuss: http://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/1894/

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Willow, L. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 April 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.19493975

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Panagiotis Pentaris discuss thanatology, hospice social work, bereavement therapy, end-of-life strategy, religious literacy in hospice care and death in a transhumanist and posthumanist society.

Who is Panagiotis?

Panagiotis Pentaris is Director of Research and Research Studies Senior Lecturer of Social Work & Thanatology at Goldsmiths, London.

He was formerly an Associate Professor of Social Work and Thanatology in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Greenwich, England, UK, where he was 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.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Pentaris, P. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 March 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI:10.6084/m9.figshare.19267499

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What's the episode about?

In this episode, hear Dr Kate Woodthorpe discuss funeral practice and policy, state funeral support, death and loss as relational, public dying and working in academia.

Who is Kate? 

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).

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Woodthorpe, K. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 February 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.19102700

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What's the episode about? In this episode, hear Dr Kami Fletcher on death and American and African American history, African American burial grounds, late 19th and early 20th century Black undertaker and contemporary Black grief and mourning.

Who is Kami?

Dr. Kami Fletcher is an Associate Professor of American & African American History and Co-Coordinator of Women’s and Gender Studies at Albright College. She teaches courses that explore the African experience in America and unpacks social and cultural U.S. history all at the intersection of race, gender, class, and sexuality.

Her research centers on African American burial grounds, late 19th/early 20th century Black female and male undertakers, and contemporary Black grief and mourning. She is the co-editor of Till Death Do Us Part: American Ethnic Cemeteries as Borders Uncrossed which examines the internal and/or external drives among ethnic, religious, and racial groups to separate their dead (University Press of Mississippi, April 2020) She is currently working on Grave History: Death, Race & Gender in Southern Cemeteries from Antebellum to the Post-Civil Rights Era investigates the southern places where cemeteries take root as well as probe the interplay of southern history, culture, race, class, gender, and climate in these cities of the dead (University of Georgia Press).

Currently, Dr. Fletcher is working on a manuscript that historicizes Mount Auburn Cemetery in Baltimore, the first Black owned and operated cemetery in Maryland. The book positions African American cemeteries as the point where life and death meet arguing that this meeting point is a symbol of Black freedom from White control.

At the end of the show, Beth asks about one of the paintings on the wall behind Kami. Kami’s lifemate, sociologist and artist Dr. Myron T. Strong, painted it. It is entitled "Guardian". If you are interested in seeing it or purchasing a print, you can do so at his website.

For more on Dr. Fletcher visit her website: www.kamifletcher.weebly.com and/or contact her on Twitter using @kamifletcher36

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

To cite this episode, you can use the following citation: Fletcher, K. (2022) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 12 January 2022. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.18272015

What next?

Check out more ⁠episodes⁠ or find out more about the ⁠hosts! ⁠Got a question? ⁠Get in touch⁠.

In this episode, hear Gina Bond discuss a career as an anatomy technician, body donation, dissection, anatomy, death education, digitalising donor registers, annual memorials for donors and the support available in this field of work.

Who is Gina? 

Georgina Bond is an anatomy technician in the Medical Teaching Unit at the University of Sheffield. She deals with people who chose to donate their body upon their death, including their embalming, their dissection and their eventual funeral. She has a BSc in Biology from Sheffield Hallam University and an MSc in Human Osteology and Funerary Archaeology from the University of Sheffield and has previously worked in Outreach. Georgina also volunteers her time at Bart's Pathology Museum and has now taken on an Ethics Reviewer role for the Medical School at the University of Sheffield. You can follow Georgina on twitter @georginab2610 and her lab @SheffAnatomy She also has a few blog posts about body donation which you can view at thedonationdiaries.wordpress.com

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Bond, G. (2021) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 16 December 2021. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI:  https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.17212505.v1

Check out more episodes or find out more about the hosts! Got a question? Get in touch.

In this episode, hear Deb Rawlings and Emma Clare on Death Doulas, death education, the language we use around death and dying, and doing death differently!

Who is Deb? 

Deb Rawlings is a Senior Lecturer in postgraduate palliative care at Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia. With a background in palliative care nursing, Deb is an academic/researcher with an interest in the Death Doula role. She was an author and moderator on the successful Dying2Learn MOOC. Deb is Co-Lead Investigator on the End-of-Life Essentials project funded by the Australian Department of health which aims to support health professional working in acute hospitals. The End-of-life essentials website can be accessed here.

You can follow Deb on Twitter @deb_rawlings

The Conversation article we mention in the podcast is titled ‘Passed away, kicked the bucket, pushing up daisies – the many ways we don’t talk about death’ and can be accessed here. You can download the corresponding journal article here.

Some of her death doula articles as discussed on the podcast are:

Rawlings, Litster, Miller-Lewis, Tieman, Swetenham. End-of-Life Doulas: A qualitative analysis of interviews with Australian and International death doulas on their role. Health Soc Care Community. 2020;00:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13120

Rawlings, Litster, Miller-Lewis, Tieman, Swetenham. The voices of death doulas about their role in end of life care. Health SocCare Community. 2020;28(1):12‐21. doi:10.1111/hsc.12833

Rawlings D, Tieman J, Miller‐Lewis L, Swetenham K. (2018) What role do Death Doulas play in end‐of‐life care? A systematic review. Health Soc Care Community. 2019;27(3):e82‐e94. doi:10.1111/hsc.12660

Who is Emma?  

Emma Clare is a Health Psychology PhD researcher and Director of End of Life Doula UK. Based in Yorkshire, she describes herself as an activist and nature lover with a passion for bringing death and dying out of hospitals and back into compassionate communities wherever possible. Emma's current research is focused on supporting individuals (both professionals and the public) to develop death competency – our skills and capabilities in dealing with death and dying.

You can follow Emma on Twitter @emmacclare

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Clare, E. (2021) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 15 November 2021. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: https:doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.17012624

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

Rawlings, D. (2021) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 15 November 2021. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: https:doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.17012624

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In this episode, hear Dr. Khyati Tripathi on the psychology of death, 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. 

Who is Khyati? 

Khyati Tripathi is a Visiting Research Fellow at Harvard University. was formerly an Assistant Professor at UPES, the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies in Dehradun, India. She is a death researcher with a focus in psychosocial, cultural and religious studies and is the Ambassador for India for the Association for the Study of Death and Society.

Khyati Tripathi is a psychologist and anthropologist from India and, through her work, she tries to bring together events, emotions and practises related to death to explore the psychosocial significance and intricate connections between them. She is interested in exploring the ‘sacred’ in death and the pure and impure aspects of it. Her work is based at the intersection of social anthropology, psychology, and psychoanalysis.

She completed her PhD from the Department of Psychology, University of Delhi, India and was awarded the Commonwealth Split-Site scholarship (2016-17) to spend a year of her PhD in the Department of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck, University of London. After completing her B.A (H) and M.A in Psychology from the University of Delhi, she completed an M.Phil. in Social Anthropology and then went on to pursue her PhD with an interdisciplinary focus. She was awarded the Junior Research Fellowship by the University Grants Commission in India. She was contemporaneously selected for another Junior Research Fellowship by the Indian Council of Medical Research which she could not avail of because of simultaneous selection for two fellowships. Her PhD project focused on the cultural construction of the dead in Hinduism and Judaism through culture-specific death rituals and mortuary techniques.

She has been a death scholar for twelve years and is also the ASDS (Association for the Study of Death and Societies, UK) Ambassador for India. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the School of Liberal Studies at UPES University, Dehradun, India. She is also the Book Review Editor for H-Death, a part of H-NET (Humanities and Social Sciences Online, which is an independent, non-profit scholarly association) and on the Editorial Board for the Taylor and Francis journal Mortality. 

In 2020, she was invited as an expert on a BBC World Service special on ‘Digital Death’ to present her perspective on the changing death rituals in pandemic times. In 2017, she was also selected as one of the fifty Commonwealth and Chevening scholars in the UK to participate in the ‘Emerging International Leaders’ Programme’ on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), funded by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

You can follow Khyati on Twitter @khyati_tripathi

Khyati’s chapter on managing a PhD with a Health Condition, discussed in the podcast, is as follows:

Tripathi, K., Johnstone, A.& Johnson, M. (2019). Managing PhD with a Health Condition. In PsyPAG Guide (2nd Edition). British Psychological Society: London.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Tripathi, K. (2021) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 21 October 2021. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16843690

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In this episode, hear Dr. Erica Borgstrom discuss End-of-Life Care, anthropology, palliative care, ethnography, thanatology and death studies, as well as ‘imposter syndrome’ in academia.

Who is Erica?

Erica is a medical anthropologist and lecturer at the Open University, where she is the Qualifications Lead for Health and Social Care and the lead for Open Thanatology. She is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Erica is one of the two editors for the academic journal Mortality.

Her specialist area in research and teaching is death and dying, with an emphasis on end-of-life care. She uses her anthropological skills to disrupt the normative concepts in end-of-life care by foregrounding people’s everyday experiences and the structural and discursive elements that shape how care is provided. She is involved in several projects about palliative and end-of-life care.

You can follow Erica on Twitter @EricaBorsgstrom

Watch ‘Should everyone have an ‘end-of-life’ plan?’ here.

Watch ‘Life or Death Decisions’ here.

Experience the ‘Life or Death Decisions’ interactive here.

How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?

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

Borgstrom, E. (2021) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 17 September 2021. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16640065.v1

Check out more episodes or find out more about the hosts!

Got a question? Get in touch.