Transmortale – New Research on Death

Organized by the working group transmortality X of the Museum for Sepulchral Culture and the University of Hamburg.

transmortality

New Research on Death

The topics of dying, death and mourning have increasingly become the focus of interdisciplinary research in recent years. Disciplines such as archaeology, ethnology or art history have always been concerned with graves and burial places. In the meantime, however, very different disciplines are interested in the change of mourning and burial culture, such as sociology, psychology, but also history and health sciences, cultural studies, gender studies and media studies.

Under the title transmortality, a workshop was held for the first time on February 6, 2010 at the University of Hamburg in order to link the many-sided and multi-layered research approaches to the topic of dying, death and mourning. The events transmortality II to IX have taken place in an expanded framework as a conference and workshop at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture in Kassel.

In 2017, there was an international conference in Luxembourg with Transmortality International, organized by the Research Project: Material Culture and Spaces of Remembrance. The transmortale is open to young scholars from the field of early career research (students in the final phase or PhD students), but also to postdocs and interested researchers.

Here the programs and proceedings of previous transmortale events can be viewed. A selection of contributions was published in: Moritz Buchner und Anna-Maria Götz (Hrsg.): transmortale. Sterben, Tod und Trauer in der neueren Forschung (Kasseler Studien zur Sepulkralkultur Band 22), Köln: Böhlau, 2016. The volume brings together a selection of transmortale-contributions from different disciplines such as history, art history, ethnology, cultural anthropology, sociology, theatre, film and music studies as well as cultural and media studies.

Publication

to the publication shop

transmortale XIV - New Research on Dying, Death and Mourning

21/22 March 2025 at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture (Kassel)

The transmortale XIV is organised by the Central Institute and Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel, and the Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies at the
University of Hamburg in co-operation with the Stiftung Deutsche Funeral Culture Foundation. This year it is being organised in collaboration
with the Chair of Children's and Young Adult Literature at the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies at Bielefeld University and the Professorship
for Children's and Young Adult Literature and its Didactics at the Institute for German Language and Literature II at the University of Cologne.

The transmortale XIV is a two-day face-to-face event at the Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Weinbergstraße 25-27, 34117 Kassel. The first day (21 March) is dedicated to the topic of "Death and mourning in children's and youth literature". The second day (22 March) is thematically open to young academics for the presentation of their
to present their research project focussing on sepulchral culture or their their qualification thesis.

Dealing with death has accompanied mankind since the beginning of time. It is a problem of the living, which is why all scientific disciplines that deal with the (co)existence of people also have points of contact with dying and death, farewell and remembrance, finiteness and attempts to come to terms with the inevitable.
In recent years, the topics of dying, death and mourning have increasingly become the focus of interdisciplinary research. Disciplines such as archaeology, ethnology, cultural anthropology and art history have always been concerned with graves and burial grounds. Nowadays, however, very different disciplines are interested in the changing culture of mourning and burial, for example sociology, psychology, history, medicine (ethics), health and care sciences, gender studies as well as cultural and media studies.

The transmortal workshop offers a platform for the research field of dying, death and mourning. It is aimed at young academics who are in the final stages of writing a qualifying thesis, but also at postdocs and other interested researchers. They are given the opportunity to develop new perspectives and discuss them in a larger group. The aim is an interdisciplinary discussion that brings together empirical and theoretical approaches and opens up an intensive exchange. In this way, current questions and results can be examined from an interdisciplinary perspective and commonalities in content can be brought together in a transdisciplinary manner.

The transmortale takes place annually and will be organised for the 14th time in 2025.

Further Information and the detailed program in German can be found here.

General information:

Registration deadline:

until 18 March 2025

Catering:

Catering (lunch, fruit, cake) can be provided for 30 euros per person per day if ordered in advance by 18 March 2025. Without this, self-catering is required.

Costs:

50,- / 25,- Euro reduced (students). Separate registration is required for the workshops on Friday at the e-mail address: lbachma9@smail.uni-koeln.de.

Registration at:

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal e. V.
Central Institute and Museum for Sepulchral Culture
Weinbergstraße 25 - 27, 34117 Kassel
E-mail: info@sepulkralmuseum.de
Phone: 0561-91893-40

Cancellation policy:

If you are unable to attend after registration, please let us know at least seven days before the start of the conference. Otherwise we will have to charge the full fee. You have the option of nominating a replacement participant at any time free of charge.

Data protection:

Your registration data is required solely for the purpose of registration and is subject to data protection.

A project in co-operation between

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal e. V.
Central Institute and Museum for Sepulchral Culture, Kassel

University of Hamburg
Institute for Empirical Cultural Studies

with the kind support of the Stiftung Deutsche Bestattungskultur

This year in co-operation with the Faculty of Linguistics and Literary Studies at Bielefeld University and the Institute for German Language and Literature II at the University of Cologne.

The members of the transmortal XIV working group are:

Dr Dirk Pörschmann, Kassel
Dr Dagmar Kuhle, Kassel
Prof. Dr Norbert Fischer, Hamburg
Dr Simon Walter, Düsseldorf
Karla Alex, Heidelberg
Dr Moritz Buchner, Berlin
Stephan Hadraschek M.A., Berlin
Jan Möllers M.A., Berlin

The Museum for Sepulchral Culture is funded by:

The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Berlin
Hessian Ministry for Science and Research, Art and Culture, Wiesbaden
documenta City of Kassel
Protestant Church in Germany, Hanover
German Bishops' Conference, Bonn
Senate Department for Mobility, Transport, Climate Protection and Research, Federal State of Berlin

The transmortale XIV is kindly supported by the Stiftung Deutsche Bestattungskultur.