Conference/CFP: Death & Dying in the Digital Age

Fiona Barnett
3/30/2011 - 10:47am
  1. Culture
  1. death
  2. digital age
  3. dying
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25 & 26 June 2011
Bath Royal Literary & Scientific Institute, Bath 

Conference announcement and call for papers
http://www.bath.ac.uk/cdas/news/conferences/index.html

2010 saw several international conferences on the subject of digital
death, organised and attended by researchers in human-computer
interaction (HCI) and design, with several articles published in HCI
journals. The University of Baths Centre for Death & Society (CDAS)
has extensive contacts in death studies, palliative & bereavement care,
& the funeral industry, and is in a unique position to promote
engagement between HCI/design research and death studies.

The 2011 CDAS summer conference will examine how new interactive
digital technologies affect the social relationships of those who are
dying, mourners, and descendents. 20 minute papers are invited from
researchers in HCI, design, the social sciences and humanities; software
developers and entrepreneurs; and the caring, funeral and memorial
professions. Abstracts (up to 250 words) to be emailed to
cdas@bath.ac.uk by 14 March 2011. Topics could include, but are not
limited to:

   * Dying: Do digital communications change the experience of dying?
Dying people and/or their carers can communicate bad news or regular
updates to their friends by e-mail, Facebook etc: does this differ from
letters, telephone calls, etc? Do dying peoples blogs make the
experience of dying less private than their earlier print equivalents?
Do such technologies erode the so-called taboo of death?

   * Mourning: How do social networking sites (SNSs) change the
experience of mourning? What is the online experience of communicating
with the dead? Of talking with other mourners about the dead? Do SNSs
re-insert mourners into community, if so how? Do they change the 20c
experience of grief as private? How are they evolving?

   * Digital inheritance: How are protocols developing for the
following, and what evidence is there of practice so far? Digital wills;
SNS policies re deceased members; digital archiving; digital
archaeology; the mortality/immortality of digital data