DeathWrites today, January 31st 2022, launches its Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) funded Network. The Network is called COVID 19 as Catalyst for Writing and Discussing Death, Dying and Grief through Objects, Diaries and Collective Archives and runs from January 2022-January 2024. The project is run by Dr Elizabeth Reeder, Dr Naomi Richards, and Dr Amy… Continue reading →
Several years ago, I started hearing about a new kind of community-based care role. Some called themselves ‘end-of-life doula’; others identified themselves as a ‘death doula’ or a ‘death midwife’. These terms describe people (primarily women) who provide a wide range of social, emotional, practical, and spiritual supports for people nearing the end of life,… Continue reading →
Eight minutes and forty-six seconds. That’s how long an officer kept his knee on George Floyd’s neck resulting in his death from asphyxiation. In eulogizing Floyd, Reverend Al Sharpton said, “Since four hundred and one years ago, the reason we could never be who we wanted and dreamed of being is you kept your knee… Continue reading →
A yellow heart has been widely shared across the UK during lockdown, giving many bereaved families a meaningful opportunity to visibly share their loss and grief. Originating from a single bereaved family, this simple and powerful movement has showcased one of many new forms of grieving developed during the time of Covid-19. In the face… Continue reading →
Before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted conventional thinking around death and dying, Death Cafés around the world were encouraging people to reflect on their mortality. Death Cafés are informal social spaces where strangers meet to ‘have a conversation’ about death and dying. They can be organised by anyone, anywhere in the world. With death rates now… Continue reading →
Until Death Café meetings moved from cafes, libraries, community centres, cemeteries, etc. to the online sphere due to social distancing measures, it had not occurred to me to specify that my PhD thesis is about face to face Death Café meetings. Online Death Cafés were an exception, not the rule when I conducted my fieldwork… Continue reading →
Through an interdisciplinary Arts Lab on Reading and Writing Death and Dying, Dr Elizabeth Reeder, Dr Naomi Richards, and Amy Shea are running a half-day symposium on Wednesday 22nd January 2020, 1-5pm, at the Women’s Library in Glasgow. The symposium is open to 40 people and will comprise various writing workshops responding to imagery and… Continue reading →
My now regular route from Clydeside to Dumfries takes me by motorway to within twenty miles of my destination, the University of Glasgow’s School of Interdisciplinary Studies, where I am a PhD student, linked with the End of Life Studies Group. I am researching how writers depict physician-assisted death, and suicide. Today I was pleased… Continue reading →
