Hello. I’m a British social anthropologist specialising in death, dying and disposal. Contemporary and historical cultural innovations in death and dying from around the world fascinate me because they indicate a great deal about peoples’ views of the world, reality, life/death and their sense of themselves.
I welcome posts and guest contributions from anybody who has a personal, professional or academic interest; be it in the UK or much further afield.
Current Responsibilities:
Senior Research Associate – School of Education, University of Bristol
Research Fellow – Centre for Death and Society – University of Bath
Centre Associate – Centre for Death and Life Studies – University of Durham
General Council Member & Early Career Researchers Representative – Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS)
Editorial Board – Mortality: Promoting the interdisciplinary study of death and dying
Previous Academic Roles:
Lecturer – Department of Sociology, Philosophy and Anthropology – University of Exeter
Teaching Fellow – Department of Anthropology – University of Aberdeen
Research Officer – Department of Social and Policy Sciences – University of Bath
Teaching Fellow – Centre for Death and Society – University of Bath.
Visiting Docent – Department of Communications Studies (Masters programme in Social Anthropology)- Riga Stradins University, Latvia.
Following the completion of my AHRC-ESRC funded PhD under the supervision of Professor Douglas Davies , we co-authored a book in which findings from my doctoral research were discussed in relation to his expertise in spirituality and funeral innovation in contemporary Britain. This book is published by Continuum.
I love doing collaborative, creative projects that challenge me as an ‘academic’ and take me out of the university setting. Dead and Buried is an example; a creative collaboration I undertook in Bristol (UK) with a community artist, freelance film-maker and a youth organisation and funded by the AHRC’s Cultural Engagement Fund.
As a STEM social science Ambassador I am keen to give presentations and workshops in schools on funeral rites, natural burial, spirituality and funerals, death and bereavement, amongst many other related topics that are requested in my public engagement and outreach role, which has also extended to stand-up comedy!
I am happy to consider collaborations in research, the arts and media. I am also available for consultancy and public speaking.
more than just music