Convenors
Giorgio Scalici, University of Palermo
scalicigiorgio@gmail.com
Nives Ladina, University Sapienza of Rome
nives.ladina@uniroma1.it
The proposed session will address ethnographers’ unique challenges when studying death, grief, and funerals, emphasizing both empirical and methodological dimensions. Researchers in this field are faced with ethical and emotional dilemmas, as well as engaging with tangible social phenomena that reveal underlying power structures, forms of discrimination and inequalities. This session will explore how regimes of care for lifeless bodies—such as burial practices, mourning rituals, and post-death processes—serve as indicators of broader societal relations, including power dynamics and processes of marginalization. For instance, the treatment of the deceased within different communities often mirrors the social hierarchies and exclusions experienced during life, particularly among migrants, minorities, and other vulnerable populations.
The session will investigate critical questions: How do these regimes of care reflect and reinforce social inequality? What does it mean to conduct research with people in moments of profound grief, and how do these experiences vary across social groups? Additionally, how can researchers manage their emotional responses while maintaining professional integrity, and how do these responses shape their findings? By considering the lived experiences of the bereaved alongside the treatment of the deceased, the session will offer an empirical lens on the societal implications of death and grief, in addition to discussing the ethical responsibilities of researchers.
This session will attract scholars from anthropology, sociology, psychology, and religious studies, among other fields, fostering an interdisciplinary dialogue. By bridging empirical and methodological concerns, it aims to push the boundaries of traditional ethnographic methods and stimulate innovative approaches to studying death and grief.
Finally, the session underscores the social relevance of death studies, particularly in how they challenge taboos surrounding death and illuminate the collective and political dimensions of mourning. Ethnographers working on these topics contribute to broader societal discourse, promoting empathy, understanding, and social justice. Presenters will share both their research findings and the challenges they face, offering insights for seasoned researchers and newcomers alike. This session will demonstrate how current ethnographic research on death and grief not only thrives but also holds profound significance for understanding both the private and public dimensions, as well as the relationship and intersections between them.
Open questions
- Ethical Considerations: How can researchers ethically balance the demands of academic inquiry with compassionate engagement, particularly when witnessing how power dynamics shape grief and mourning practices?
- Emotional Management: What strategies can researchers use to manage their emotional responses, and how do these emotions inform their interpretation of power relations and inequalities observed in death and funeral practices?
- Coping Mechanisms: What coping mechanisms are effective for researchers working in the field of death studies, and how do these mechanisms impact their ability to analyze the social and political dimensions of death?
- Empirical Insights on Power and Discrimination: How do the regimes of care for the deceased (e.g., burial rites, post-mortem treatment) reflect social inequalities, and what empirical evidence highlights the intersections of power, marginalization, and discrimination in death practices?
- Methodological Innovations: What innovative methodologies can be developed to empirically study the treatment of lifeless bodies, considering how these practices mirror societal hierarchies?
- Interdisciplinary Approaches: How can interdisciplinary insights from anthropology, sociology, psychology, and religious studies deepen our empirical and theoretical understanding of death, grief, and related power dynamics?
- Respectful Engagement: What best practices can ensure that researchers respect not only the emotional experiences of the bereaved but also the broader social and political implications of how different communities handle death?
- Impact on Marginalized Communities: How can ethnographic research on death and grief empirically address the needs and challenges faced by marginalized populations, such as migrants and minorities, and contribute to social justice?
- Cultural Sensitivity and Power Structures: How can researchers ensure that their work is both culturally sensitive and critically aware of the power relations that influence death practices in different cultural settings?
- Future Directions: What are the emerging empirical trends in the study of death and grief, particularly regarding the intersection of care regimes, power relations, and discrimination?
Keywords
grief and mourning; power and discrimination; regimes of care; social inequality; community well-being; interdisciplinary approaches.
Sub-disciplines or cross-disciplinary areas of concern
sociology; religious studies; anthropology; cultural studies; public health; social work; political science.
References
Balkan, O.
2023 Dying Abroad: The Political Afterlives of Migration in Europe, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Conway, H.
2016 The Law and the Dead, Routledge: London.
De León, J.
2015 The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail, University of California Press: Oakland.
Favole, A.
2003 Resti di umanità: vita sociale del corpo dopo la morte, Editori Laterza: Roma- Bari.
Laqueur, T. W.
2015 The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains, Princeton University Press: Princeton.
Pentaris, P. (Ed.)
2021 Death, Grief and Loss in the Context of COVID-19, Routledge: London.
Stevenson, L.
2014 Life Beside Itself: Imagining Care in the Canadian Artic, University of California Press: Oakland.
Van den Breemer, R.
2021 Governing Cemeteries: State Responses to the New Diversity in the Netherlands, Norway, and France, Vandenhoeck & Ruprech: Göttingen.
Verdery, K.
1999 The Political Lives of Dead Bodies: Reburial and Postsocialist Change, Columbia University Press: New York.
Woodthorpe, K., Foster, L. (Eds.)
2016 Death and Social Policy in Challenging Times, Palgrave Macmillan: London.
Convenors’ bios
Giorgio Scalici earned his PhD in the Anthropology of Religion from Durham University. His research explores death and funerals, currently focusing on religiousfreedom, funerals, and minorities in Italy. His academic interests span death, video games, the Mafia, shamanism, and religion. As president of NIMO – Network in Italiano su Morte e Oblio, Giorgio works to advance the Death Studies in Italy.
Nives Ladina is a PhD candidate in History, Anthropology and Religions at Sapienza University of Rome. Her research interests concern victims of borders, torture and intentional violence crossing the Central Mediterranean; the intersection between forensic disciplines and migration; and human and material remains. Besides her research activities, Nives is a tutor at the University of Milan for students with disabilities and specific learning disorders. Furthermore, she participates in the network NIMO, is a board member of the climate change research-action association HIMBY and is part of the editorial board of the independent anthropology journal ALEA.