Thanatology (death studies)

The research suggests that classifying funerals as either religious or non-religious is an over-simplification that does not reflect the reality of what everyday funerals look like. In our project toolkit, you can find the project report as well as a range of materials to support funeral arrangers, celebrants and religious ministers to reflect on the implications of the project for their work in supporting families.

• faithinfunerals.org

Drawing on transhumanism and discourses about posthumanity, life prolongation and digital life, this project analyses death, dying and grief via the governance of dying.

It states that the bio-medical dimensions of our understanding of death and dying have predominated not only the discourses about death in society and the care of the dying, but their policy and practice as well.

The project seeks to provoke thinking beyond the benefits of technology and within the confinements of the world transhumanists describe.

Book: Dying in a Transhumanist and Posthuman Society

Current knowledge in death studies tends to be filtered through the lens of Western views, conforming identities, certain disciplines and for different reasons and with little inter-disciplinary collaboration, the English language, and a certain generation. This raises the question of what 'decolonising' means in this context. It entails queries about the nature of the knowledge underpinning claimed expertise in death studies, which impacts universally on policies, practices, theory and research.

The increasing diversity and plurality of the populations across the world demands further attention to diversify evidence and knowledge to the degree that it serves its beneficiaries effectively. Drawing on this and the ongoing challenges of the potential risk for re-colonising knowledge in this area due to the persistence on English-speaking, Western and conforming expertise in the field, this project seeks to explore ways in which we can avoid this risk and foster a growing network of knowledge and expertise that challenges the limitations.

Article: Interview with Dr Panagiotis Pentaris