Language, emotion and death investigation

Looking back at my interview transcripts, the proportion of my interview time spent discussing language around the deceased was small, but that does not, I think, undermine how important it was. This is because language not only conveys facts but is also imbued with meaning, both for the people using it and for those hearing […]

Living with the Dead: Attitudes and Values in Medico-Legal Autopsies

Note that this blog was originally commissioned for the blog associated with Social and Legal Studies, and can be found here: https://socialandlegalstudies.wordpress.com/2021/03/29/living-with-the-dead-attitudes-values-medicolegal-autopsies/ In my Social and Legal Studies article ‘Objects of Crime: Bodies, Embodiment and Forensic Pathology’, I ‘theorise[d] about legal embodiment, extending the current literature by demonstrating that it is not only the bereaved who value […]

Caring for the Dead

‘It’s all about care after death. When someone dies do you stop caring? No, you don’t. We have to just, the way you’re still respectful, you still treat them with, you know, with respect and it’s a dignified approach but you just, it’s got a slightly different take on it. You’re not asking, “Are you […]

Language of the Dead

When you start to talk and write about death, you realise that choice of language is both difficult and impossible. I want to write about deceased bodies, but if I refer to a ‘person’s/their’ body then I could be accused of giving deceased bodies personality, and perhaps ownership, to the dead. At the same time, […]