Death, Dying, and Decolonisation: Legacies and Politics of Commemoration
Description
Death Studies is a field of study that not only draws from a host of disciplines like anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and psychology but also cuts across fields such as bereavement studies, trauma studies, and health humanities.
Beliefs and practices centring death and dying operate within socio-cultural contexts that are inherently intersectional. And for those whose history has been shaped by years of colonial exploitation, the contexts and infrastructures surrounding death are deeply affected by histories of violence, discrimination, and segregation. The intent of this seminar is to understand how imperial history has shaped and continues to shape our responses to mortality. The panel is steered by two primary questions: Why talk about decolonising death studies in the first place? And how should one go about it?
As postcolonial societies continue their efforts toward decolonisation, examining how dominant colonial narratives continue to shape the understanding of death and dying becomes imperative. What does it mean to truly honour the dead? How does one discern the politics of race, death, and imperial history? And more importantly, how does one actively dismantle colonial systems and structures that have come to shape death rites and practices? Can literary, visual and other forms of cultural artefacts play a role in reconstructing and recontextualising history? The seminar seeks papers which would help examine how the history of systemic oppression impacts the understanding of death, dying, and grief. Given that this panel intends to act as a site for ‘decolonising’ death studies, papers that would reflect voices from the Global South are particularly encouraged.
Faculty members, independent researchers, as well as graduate students are welcome to submit their abstracts (250-300 words) and brief bios via the official website of the ACLA between August 26-October 02, 2025.
Topics may include:
- Necropolitics and decolonisation
- Death Studies and institutionalised discrimination
- Indigenous theories and practices around death, mourning and commemoration
- Death rites and acts of resistance
- Reclaiming history through death narratives
- Alternative frameworks (pedagogic and otherwise) of engaging with the field of Death Studies
- Death Studies and the Global South
- Death, dying, and shared histories
- Challenges involved in decolonial readings of the field
Schedule
Papers
Speaker Bio
Heather Maycock is a PhD student at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Her PhD critically examines how death is grammarised in digital environments through necropolitical and feminist cultural theory, with attention to its resonances with real world structures of power. Her PhD is funded through the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities.
Speaker Bio
Ogochukwu Ukwueze is a PhD student in Comparative Literature and Visual Studies. His research interests include African, African Diaspora and World Literatures, Visual Culture, Decolonization and Death Studies. His articles have been published in African Identities, Comparative Literature: East and West, English Academy Review, Okike, Matatu, and Crossings. He co-edited Big Brother Naija and Popular Culture in Nigeria.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Natalie Jo-Anne Diengdoh is a media scholar/practitioner with 24+ years experience. She's directed 62 documentaries, produced 40+ radio programs. Assistant Professor, Fashion Communication, NIFT Shillong. Authored books, contributed to publications. Recognized for cultural conservation via media. Versatile in multimedia storytelling & academic roles.
Speaker Bio
Sarah Tanner is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of South Carolina. She specializes in American 20th-century literature and ecocriticism. She served as the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association’s graduate student delegate (2023-2024) and has presented at regional and national conferences and has published scholarship in journals including ISLE, Victorian Culture and Experiential Learning, Western American Literature, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and Green Letters.
Papers
Speaker Bio
Kit Ying Lye is currently Senior Lecturer at Singapore University of Social Sciences. Her research interests include the Cold War in Southeast Asia and death in Southeast Asia, with her publications discussing the relationship between literature and violent history. She is the principal investigator of Singapore Chinese Funerary Practices. She is the co-editor of Death and the Afterlife: Multidisciplinary Perspectives from a Global City and Reading Violence and Trauma in Asia and the World.
Speaker Bio
Aliza Mehdi is an independent researcher and recent graduate in Political Science from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. Her work engages with semiotics, ritual, and vernacular cultural production, focusing on how South Asian Shia mourning practices sustain archives of memory through performance, affect, and ephemera. Alongside research, she has trained over 200 students across India in debate and critical thinking with Pratarka Education.
Speaker Bio
Kimmy Clough holds a Ph.D. in English from Texas A&M University, specializing in 20th- and 21st-century transnational literature and film with an emphasis on feminist theory. Her work has appeared in publications such as ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature and Transcr(é)ation. She currently works at Texas A&M as an assessment specialist and instructor.