Welcome to Durham’s Centre for Death and Life Studies.
When some people first hear the Centre’s name, they think they’ve misheard, assuming that ‘Life’ comes before ‘Death’. That moment captures part of the Centre’s goal of prompting thought or a rethinking of notions of mortality. For some the ‘Death - Life’ pairing may prompt religious worldviews of afterlives, or perhaps a more anthropological-sociological awareness of cultural modes of death-transcendence. For many, it may simply be a framing-interplay between mortality and vitality in our present awareness of existing. Whether in the more abstract realms of philosophy-theology or the concrete practices of cremation or woodland burial, the Centre seeks to foster academic and wider interests.
The Centre seeks to foster interdisciplinary approaches to studies in life and death across the humanities and social sciences. Founded in 2007, the Centre has developed an outstanding record of academic research, publication, and dissemination and engagement.hosted a variety of academic research and events, such as the 2009 International Conference of death, Dying, and Disposal, which included the formal launch of the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS) held at Durham Castle. Numerous scholars have pursued work in Death Studies here at Durham, with postgraduate research being a longstanding concern. The Centre has a strong interdisciplinary Advisory Board drawing from a variety of University Departments. At the undergraduate level the hosting Department of Theology and Religion, in which I am Professor in the Study of Religion, is matched by a very popular module - Death, Ritual and Belief - which had over 60 students in 2023-24, and runs every other year.
Durham’s ethos of Research-led teaching informs the Centre’s
The Centre’s interest also witnessed the arrival of the extensive Archive of the Cremation Society of Great Britain under permanent load from that Society with which the Centre has ongoing close relationships. It is also slowly expanding as new materials come to it, as from the records of the Federation of Burial and Cremation Authorities. Scholars come from across the world to use this resource, and there are University grants available for such archival visits. That Archive has its own webpage. The Centre also has a number of Honorary Visiting Scholars, currently including Professors Allan Kellehear and Hilary Grainger. That Archive helped Centre scholars in the editing of the unique Encyclopedia of Cremation (Douglas Davies and Lewis Mates, 2005).
The most recent Centre publication – UK Crematorium Managers and Covid-19 Crisis- was published in January 2024 and is freely available online through Durham University Library, through this link.
https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2185756
Do, please, read it and spread its news. It was produced by Dr Georgina Robinson, a Centre member and postdoctoral researcher (on the Digital Death Project) and myself, as Director. As the outcome of a mixed methods project funded by The Cremation Society of Great Britain, it is -above all else perhaps- an acknowledgment of the selfless endeavour of UK crematorium staff over the Covid Crisis period. Let me also mention the six-volume Cultural History of Death for which I was the overall Series Editor. Published in January 2024 it is something of a benchmark set covering 2,500 years history across a host of academic disciplines in Arts Humanities and Social Sciences. Personally speaking this was quite a venture and I am delighted to see it now make the light of day.
The Centre’s research interests are always moving forward and just now – in 2024- include a joint research project on Digital Death with Romania and Norway, with Finland’s Helsinki University as its lead in Prof. Johanna Jumiala, and myself -Douglas Davies – as the Durham lead, ably assisted full-time by Dr Georgina Robinson. The Centre also has a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with Kindly Earth Ltd as it pursues the development of Resomation -alkaline hydrolysis-in the UK.
I hope you will look-up our webpage as 2024 moves into 2025 to see some conferences, both online and in-person, announced, as well as for other notices and informative pieces. You are always welcome to get in touch with us.
Prof. Douglas J. Davies FBA
Director
