Workshop 1

Social imaginaries of the dead

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Location: CACSSS Seminar Room ORB G27, O'Rahilly Building

Date and Time: 19th September, 9:00am - 5:30pm

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Speakers:

Margrit Shildrick, Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies, Stockholm University

Thomas W. Laqueur, Department of History, University of California Berkeley

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Department of Anthropology, University of California Berkeley

Niamh McCullagh, Independent Consultant Forensic Archaeologist

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This day-long workshop will explore how un/cared-for dead bodies have been variously conceptualised and researched in the medical humanities and social sciences, focusing on forensic archaeology, cultural history, militant anthropology and feminist and post-humanist social theory. Particular emphasis will be placed on explanation and discussion of Laqueur’s (2015) concept of ‘the work of the dead’ and Derrida’s (1993) ‘hauntology’ and ethical project of ‘learning to live with ghosts’.

 

Presentations will be made by Margrit Shildrick, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Thomas Laqueur and Niamh McCullagh on social imaginaries of the dead, followed by lots and lots of exploratory discussion. As workshop participants may not be familiar with the work of these scholars, readings will be circulated in advance. The presenters have been invited to focus primarily on conceptual and methodological tools they think may be of use to the project. We aim to develop a new research vocabulary, and recognise that this requires firstly becoming literate to some extent in each other’s disciplines.

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