The Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS) presents the relaunch of the 15th Annual Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal, which for the first time will be hosted online by Manchester Metropolitan University, on Wednesday 1st September – Saturday 4th September 2021. This edition of the conference takes the theme of ‘Diversity and Decolonisation’. The conference is now open for the submission of papers (with a deadline of Friday 14th May 2021 at 23:59) and panels (with more details below). The DDD15 website can be found here.

Artwork by James McCrea

In increasingly fractured and confusing times, the DDD15 conference seeks to place death as the one intersection that truly touches us all.

The conference will present papers and panels on a range of topics connected to our main theme of ‘Diversity and Decolonisation’. As ever, this 'Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal' conference is multi-disciplinary and open to all, including artists, academics, professionals and practitioners of all kinds, whose interests and/or practices are related to death and dying.

Due to the ongoing situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the conference will now be facilitated entirely on-line.

Manchester Met and ASDS are delighted to be welcoming keynote speakers Prof Yasminah Beebeejaun (UCL), Dr Kami Fletcher (Albright), Prof Rachel Forrester-Jones (Bath), and Prof Avril Maddrell (Reading).

The event welcome papers and panels on the following (non-exhaustive) list of possible topics, as they relate to death, dying and disposal:

  • Animals

  • LGBTQIA+

  • Race

  • Colonialism/decolonisation

  • Cultural appropriation

  • Environmental emergency and extinction

  • Grievability and bare life

  • Disability

  • Gender

  • Intersectionality

  • Representation(s)

  • Class

  • Economies

  • Neoliberalism

  • Migration

  • Inequalities

  • The post human

  • Radicalism

The conference will be accompanied by an accessible, community co-curated arts and culture programme that will address these themes through audio visual presentations, performance and discussions.

For enquiries about submitting panels please email DDD15@mmu.ac.uk with your proposal by Friday 9th April 2021. You will be given further instructions on submitting the panel if your proposal is accepted.

The final deadline for individual paper abstracts and full panel details is Friday 14th May 2021 at 23:59. The CfP can be found in full on the DDD15 conference website.

For any enquiries please email DDD15@mmu.ac.uk (please do not submit individual abstracts to this address).