ASDS Award ceremony

Friday 29 August, 17.45-18.30 @ Neude library

The Association for the Study of Death and Society is delighted to announce the return of our ASDS Awards. The winners are being revealed at a special ceremony at DDD17 on the evening of Friday 29^th August, and we hope that as many conference delegates as possible will attend as we celebrate the work of all of the nominees and recipients.

There are four categories, two of which (the ASDS Book Award and the ASDS Death and Public Engagement Award) were open to nominations from ASDS members and non-members. The categories are:

• ASDS Lifetime Achievement Award: This prestigious award is awarded to a current ASDS member for outstanding contributions to Death Studies over the course of an academic, professional, voluntary, and/or artistic career.
• ASDS Book Award: This award recognises outstanding and original books in the broad field of Death Studies, published during the nomination period (i.e. 1 April 2021- 31 March 2025).  The shortlisted books for the 2025 award are: The Final Farewell: Understanding the Last Rites and Rituals of India’s Major Faiths (Minaksi Dewan); Ashes to Admin: Tales from the Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer (Evie King); and Necropolitics of the Ordinary: Death and Grieving in Contemporary Singapore (Ruth Toulson).
• ASDS Mortality Journal Article Award: This award recognises important Death Studies scholarship in the form of a full-length article published in the ASDS journal Mortality during the nomination period (i.e. 1 April 2021- 31 March 2025). It is awarded at the discretion of Mortality’s editors and focuses on those new to publishing in the journal.
• ASDS Death and Public Engagement Award: This award recognises individuals and/or teams who have raised public awareness of important issues related to death, dying, grief and loss. The 2025 shortlist is: Dead Good (creative death workers and arts-based death educators); the Death Studies Podcast (a platform for the diversity of voices in, around and contributing to the academic field of Death Studies); and the Victoria and Stuart Project (end of life care planning with people with learning disabilities).

ASDS PGR & ECR lunch

Thursday 28 and Friday 29 August, 12.45-13.45 @ Instituto Cervantes 1.03

For DDD17, the Association for the Study of Death and Society’s (ASDS) monthly online support groups are taking the chance to meet in person! If you are a postgraduate (PGR) or postdoctoral/early career researcher (ECR) you are warmly invited to informal lunches on Thursday and Friday, generously provided by the ASDS and the University of Bath’s Centre for Death and Society (CDAS).

Join Anna Wilde (ASDS PGR representative) and Jennie Riley (Postdoctoral representative) to enjoy networking with colleagues and peers, as well as finding out more about CDAS and ASDS and the support and opportunities they offer. We will also be joined by representatives from international interdisciplinary journal Mortality.

ASDS Ambassadors gathering

Friday 29 August, 12.45-13.45 @ Instituto Cervantes 1.04

The ASDS Ambassadors Gathering is open to our current Ambassadors and individuals who are interested in learning more about the scheme and potentially becoming an Ambassador for their own country/region. All are welcome to join us for a relaxed gathering during the DDD17. 

The ASDS Ambassadors are members of the Association who help promote the interests of ASDS among networks in their respective countries and regions. Their role is crucial in widening the scope and reach of the work that ASDS does, and their contributions help expand networks in death studies and identify research, practice, and art forms in death studies. Our scheme currently covers 23 different nations and 28 regions around the world. For more information, visit our webpage. If you have further questions about the ASDS Ambassadors scheme, please contact Panagiotis Pentaris (panagiotis.pentaris@gold.ac.uk) and/or Stacey Pitsillides (stacey.pitsillides@northumbria.ac.uk) 

Meet Mortality: Promoting the interdisciplinary study of death and dying

Thursday 28 & Friday 29 August, 12.45-13.45 @ Instituto Cervantes Theatre Hall

The subjects of death and dying, grief and bereavement, and memorialisation do not belong to any one discipline, and the journal Mortality reflects the range of scholarship associated with them. The aim of the journal is to provide a space for interdisciplinary engagement, welcoming contributions from discrete disciplines as well as inter-multi- and trans-disciplinary submissions. If you would like more information, are interested in peer reviewing for the journal, or you have a book for review (or that you would like to review), please contact us directly at mortalityjournal@gmail.com or come and meet us in person at the conference. Dr Bethan Michael-Fox will be available at the Book Market and online to answer questions. If you’re attending in person, you can pick up a free copy of the journal at the book market too!