Call for papers: Death Futures

Call For Papers!

Conference: Death Futures
The 6th International Symposium of the Death Online / Research Network
Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom, May 31st – June 2nd, 2023

Digital media are integral to death, grief and memory, from personal illness blogs and live-streamed funerals to virtual memorials, cultural and artistic representations of death online and explorations of digital afterlives.Studying‘death online’ involves attention to cultural change, identity performances, social bonding, legal matters, cross-media explorations, design innovations,artistic practices, business opportunities and more.

DORS#6 will take place at Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom.The symposium will provide opportunities for the discussion of ongoing and new orientations in the academic and interdisciplinary field of death online. The meeting will explore death futures in relation to Death Online research and practice. We warmly welcome new members to the network as well as old friends.

The future of death is entangled in uncertainty with technologies and human nature shifting in ways that are only just becoming apparent to us. Our legacies are now blended sites of on-and offline identities that come with questions of privacy, ownership and control, continuously being redefined both socially and legally. Fields of medical and genetic research offer us dreams of immortality while ecological concerns and cultural shifts are driving us towards new forms of dispersing human bodies at the end of life. Design and emerging technologies are at the forefront of these futures, driving forward developments and supporting rich imaginations and media representations of what the future of death might hold for societies.

Key Notes:

Dr Carla Sofka is a Professor of Social Work and thanatechnologist at Siena College in Loudonville(New York)

Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes is a Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University

Professor Larissa Hjorth is a digital ethnographer and socially-engaged artist in the School of Media & Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne.

Themes and Perspectives:

We invite abstracts for oral presentations and practice research submissions of new, recently completed, or ongoing research, and/or new ideas relating to Death Futures.We welcome presentations that explore how traditional and innovative research practices expand our understanding of the current and future trends in death online, from a variety of disciplines and perspectives.

Submission deadline: November 30th, 2022

Submission feedback: January 20th, 2023

For More Information click here: DORS Call for Papers