Durham University Centre for Death and Life Studies

New Book- Emotion, Identity and Death, Mortality Across Disciplines. (eds) Douglas Davies and Chang-Won Park. Published by Ashgate.

Now published -March 2012- this remarkable collection brings together a selection of papers delivered at the Death, Dying and Disposal (DDD9) International Conference hosted at Durham University in September 2009. It attests to the remarkable interdisciplinarity and internationality of what is now the 'Death Studies' world, with the whole volume being framed by Davies and Park's brief Introduction on the importance of emotion and identity as partner concepts underlying these chapters as well as a great deal of work in Death Studies at large.

Authors: Tim Bullamore on Postmodern Obituaries (UK). Eva Jeppsson Grassman on Chronic Illness and Awareness of Death (Sweden). Eva Reimers on Nationalization and Ritual through the media, dealing with an 'honour-killing' case in Sweden. Tim Hutchings looks at aspects of Mortality online, and Arnar Arnason explores isues of 'presence', with much relevance for grief theory, in a Japanese context. Tamar Kohn's chapter on 'Crafting Selves on Death Row' (USA) is a minor classic all of its own, and much the same could be said for Jacque Lynn Foltyn on her emotion and identity and that of her ex-partner and families during his illness and death (USA) Christina MArsden Gillis writes on 'place, Art and consolation' (USA) in relation to family burial location. Then a clutch of chapters take us to the Netherlands on deathbed rituals by Thomas Quartier, Professionals and funeral management by Meike Heessels and 'designing a place for goodbye -the architecture of crematoria in the Netherlands by Mirjam Klaassens and Peter Groote. Eric Venbrux complements this cultural set with his account on new All Souls Day celebrations. Then we move to music and death in tweo chapters, one by Hyuan-Ah Kim on Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (essentially of universal application), and Wolfgang Marx on nineteenth century requiem composition. John Troyer completes the bopok with his provacative and insightful chapter: 'War without Death: America's Ingenious Plan to Defeat Enemies without Bloodshed'.

News

Prof. Davies was an invited Research Fellow at the Collegium, Helsinki University's Institute for Advanced Studies, from April-June 2011 giving papers at the Collegium, at Helsinki's Department of Anthropology, and at the Scandinavian Thanatological Association's Annual Conference.

Film

While in Finland he made use of the film 'Woodland Burial and the Church of England'. Made by Sarah Thomas, following an idea of Dr Hannah Rumble, this innovative film was funded both by The Centre for Death and Life Studies and Durham University's Wolfson Research Institute. It builds upon the collaborative Doctoral Award won by the department from the AHRC-ESRC's Religion and Society Programme, held by Hannah Rumble. The film is increasingly popular. In 2011, for example, Woodland Burial' has been shown both within and beyond the academic world, e.g. at the 10th international Conference on Death, Dying and Disposal (DDD10) at Nijmegen, Holland; in Italy at Turin's Cinemambiente Environmental Film Festival; the London Funeral Exhibition; and at the 2011 Cambridge Film Festival. Other requests continue to flow in. When shown at the 2011 Association of Natural Burial Grounds Conference it was described as the first "considered, none sensationalist coverage of what we do".

Soon to be published - Natural Burial

Another developed outcome of the AHRC-ESRC Collaborative doctoral award will be published by Continuum in July 2012. This joint volume by Douglas Davies and Hannah Rumble is entitled Natural Burial: Traditional-Secular Spiritualities and Funeral Innovation. It offers a spectrum of anthropological and theological interpretation of people's choice of woodland burial while also raising numerous theoretical issues pivoting around ideas of 'giving something back' and 'not making a fuss', as well as the more anticipated issues of ecology.

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Recently published -

Douglas Davies

A further output of the Centre is Identity and Religion: Hope, Reciprocity, and Otherness. Published by Oxford University Press (2011). This study is one outcome of an AHRC Network Award on Emotions held at the Department by Prof. Davies. It offers an extensive interdisciplinary and interplaying study of the themes evident in its title and subtitle. It exemplifies the 'Life' aspect of the title of our Centre for Death and life Studies. It is also hoped that a further book on emotions and religious dynamics, a collection of papers derived from the Emotions' Network Award, will be published later in 2012.

Chang-Won Park

Cultural Blending in Korean Death Rites by Dr Chang-Won Park has now been published by Continuum as a volume in its Advances in Religious Studies Series. This book is a much developed form of Dr Park's doctoral study previously completed at Durham. Adopting a clear anthropological perspective, it takes a reciprocity or gift-theory approach to rites conducted by elderly people before their death, especially in the production of hand-written copies of the Bibile in Korea, to rites associated with death, and with rites that follow later, all as part of a 'total social process'. It reveals the interaction of enduring Confucian traditions with those of Christianity in Korean religious history. Dr Park is now engaged in further research on this topic in a variety of Korean contexts.

The Centre exists to foster and conduct research into life-values, beliefs, and practices that relate to living and dying. It seeks to encourage and facilitate interdisciplinary approaches wherever possible between the humanities, the social and life-sciences and medicine. It also benefits from the support of Durham University's Institute of Advanced Study. For more information about the Centre and its projects, please use the links to the left.

NEWS - Publication

Cultural Blending in Korean Death Rites by Dr Chang-Won Park will soon be published (June 2010) by Continuum.

This is a developed form of Dr Park's doctoral study completed at Durham. It adopts a clear anthropological perspective as it takes a reciprocity or gift-theory approach to rites conducted by elderly people before their death, especially in the production of hand-written copies of the Bibile in Korea, to rites associated with death, and with rites that follow later, all as part of a 'total social process'. It reveals the interaction of enduring Confucian traditions with those of Christianity in Korean religious history.

Contact Details

Prof. Douglas J. Davies,

Director, Centre for Death and Life Studies

Abbey House

Palace Green

Durham, DH1 3RS, UK.

+44 0191 3343943

douglas.davies@dur.ac.uk