The next Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal conference (DDD17) will be held in Utrecht next year, and registration is now open. The conference theme is ‘The politics of death’:

The politics of death

Despite appearing as a universal biological event, death is and has never been neutral. Instead, it is deeply entwined with issues of (in)equality, access, and power dynamics. In today’s world, death is perhaps more politicized as it ever was before. Wars, environmental crises, global migration patterns, and failing states bring death close to our homes. At the same time, technological, digital, and medical advancements alter our approaches to dealing with, thinking about, researching, and working with death. Such developments are equally inherently political, both in their origins and their applications.

As practitioners and scholars, how do we navigate the political dimensions of death? How does the political shape our engagement with death? And how can we reflect on and potentially change our own positions within this political landscape?

Death is political and performs the political. This is evident not only in death itself, but also in the dead (who can become political actors), their bodies, the process of dying (which is, amongst others, infrastructurally related to political discourse and inequalities), and bereavement (which can also become a political act). The political aspects of this theme extend beyond national or international political institutions (such as governments, state actors, multinational corporations, or political or religious alliances) to encompass everybody and everything that has to do with (the exercise of) power and moralities, e.g., families, kin, neighbourhoods, friendship networks.

Further information is available on the conference website.

Institute of Art History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Nov 5–06, 2025
Deadline for call for papers: May 31, 2025

The Institute of Art History of the Czech Academy of Sciences cordially invites you to participate in an international interdisciplinary conference focused on funerary culture, which will take place on 5 and 6 November 2025 in Prague. This conference builds upon a long-standing tradition of International Sessions on the Issue of Sepulchral Monuments, aiming to expand both the thematic and methodological scope of the discussion. This year’s theme is Cemeteries as Part of the Landscape Through the Centuries, focusing on the role of burial grounds in social, urban, and natural environments. The conference seeks to create a space for scholars from various academic fields and methodological backgrounds and to offer a platform for discussing cemeteries’ historical, anthropological, artistic, and social aspects.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Cemeteries as part of the anthropological landscape – the role of cemeteries in collective memory and social identity
• Cemeteries as part of the cultural landscape – the role of burial sites in urban and natural environments, their preservation and transformation
• Cemeteries as part of the social landscape – the social role of burial grounds and their place within human communities
• The “sepulchralization” of public space – from individual graves to family chapels, from churchyards to large cemeteries and memorial complexes, their development and functions across different cultural contexts

Contributions may address all aspects of the above topics, with a preference for materials or methodological approaches relating to Central Europe. We especially welcome contributions by early-career researchers, as well as studies on Jewish or Muslim sepulchral monuments, which may be included in a dedicated conference session.

Conference languages: Czech, Slovak, German, and English

No conference fee will be charged.

Presentation formats:
• Individual papers (20 minutes)
• Research reports (10 minutes)
• Panel presentations (including student panels)

Further information is available on the ArtHist.net website.