Digital Death: Grieving the Dead in the Contemporary World

When

October 11, 2019    
3:00 pm-5:00 pm

Where

Law School East
501 Penn St., Camden, NJ, 08102

Presented by Dr. Candi K. Cann, Baylor University

Friday, October 11 
3 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Law School E108
Reception to follow

In this presentation, Dr. Cann examines different types of virtual memorials–funeral industry virtual memorials offered as part of burial packages, community-driven bereavement sites, and spontaneous social network memorial sites– examining how they are being used to mourn and interact with the dead. Particular attention is paid to how the language utilized by the bereaved in these memorial sites contributes to the shifting of mourning from a fixed physical location to a virtual and public sphere. Dr. Cann posits that the internet, social media and phone apps ultimately function to democratize dying, death and grief.

About Dr. Cann

Dr. Candi K. Cann teaches World Cultures, Social World, World Religions, Death and Dying in World Religions, and Buddhism at Baylor University, and teaches in both the BIC and the Religion department. Her research focuses on death and dying, and the impact of remembering (and forgetting) in shaping how lives are recalled, remembered and celebrated.


Sponsored by the Henry Rutgers Term Chair for Ethics, Health, and Society and the Department of Philosophy and Religion