Mass deaths and memorialisation

This project investigates how mass deaths impact on cultural understandings of death as a phenomenon, and on the memorialisation of the dead. It looks at different forms of mass deaths in different historical periods, for this purpose, asking how these are variously understood and the impact such differing understandings have on understandings of death more broadly and on the memorialisation of the dead. Particular attention will be paid to how it is and why it is that certain mass death events become seen as ‘catastrophes’ worth memorialising collectively; the influence of developing hygiene practices in response to mass deaths; on memorialisation; and the ways in which mass death events are subject to political mobilisation efforts.

This project proposes a series of conversations by an interdisciplinary group of scholars (health services research, philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, history) on these issues to help develop applications for external funding to support more targeted research projects on mass deaths and memorialisation. The longer-term aim is to develop a network of scholars from a variety of fields to support the establishment of a Centre for the study of death at the UoA.