Coffin and coffin furniture on the first floor of the building.

Call For Papers – Funeral Study Day 2019

(This is now closed)

As part of the annual ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ festival brought to you by BrumYODO, the object of the funeral study day is to bring together academics, funeral industry professionals and the general public, to explore themes of death, dying and celebration of death.

Last year the first funeral study day included papers on a range of topics covering the 19th century to the 21st century in Britain, with sessions on folk customs, literature, legislation, burial monuments and landscapes, personalisation of funerals and more. The day also included a presentation about the Coffin Works collection, a taster tour of the museum and an interactive workshop. This year confirmed events include a coffin decoration workshop, a presentation about the history of embalming in the UK based on research by Coffin Works volunteers and a talk from Laura Joyce, our Writer-in-Residence entitled “The Purity of Shrouds: A Creative-Critical Reflection”.

Abstracts of 250 words are encouraged on any topic related to current or historic funerary practice, from academics, funeral industry professionals and other researchers including local historians and cemetery friends. For 2019 we would like to broaden the geographical and chronological scope of this event so abstracts covering pre-19th century and Non-British topics are also encouraged.

Deadline for submission is 15th March 2019, acceptance will be confirmed by 1st April 2019.

Coffin and coffin furniture on the first floor of the building.

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2 Responses

  1. I believe it is important that the Coffin Works work closer with the Friends of Key Hill Cemetery & Warstone Lane Cemetery.

    1. We totally agree and it was lovely to have two members of the Friends at the study day last year – we very much hope that they can be involved again this year – hopefully presenting some of their fantastic work.

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