‘Decolonising’ ‘grief’? Death and its continuing aftermath in the UK today

‘Decolonising’ ‘grief’? Death and its continuing aftermath in the UK today

What do ‘we’ ‘know’ and how? (Part 1*)

Tuesday 2nd December 7-8pm GMT

Online

Asking what we know about death and its continuing aftermath raises issues about what counts as ‘knowledge’, what is ‘known’, and how it is known, in regard to lived experiences of human mortality and death’s continuing aftermath in the everyday relational lives of the living - more generally referred to as ‘bereavement and grief’. There is increasing recognition of the extent to which existing ‘knowledge’ about ‘bereavement and grief’ is dominated by perspectives and experiences from affluent Anglophone Minority world countries, rooted in coloniality/modernity and Whiteness. But, in seeking to address this dominance, the depth and breadth of what ‘decolonising’ may mean in response is profound and complex, not least in terms of the need to situate this work in ways that take account of particular geopolitical contexts.

In 2023 the CDAS conference hosted two panels exploring these topics, leading to three publications** in the special conference issue of the journal Mortality in May 2025. This webinar will build on and extend this work to continue the discussion about what ‘decolonising’ might mean and what is ‘known’ in regard to ‘grief’ in the contemporary UK, framed more broadly as death and its continuing aftermath (Ribbens McCarthy, Woodthorpe and Almack, 2023). The discussion will consider the implications of the powerful historic and ongoing processes and patterns of coloniality/modernity, addressing its significance for the Whiteness of what counts as ‘knowledge’ of death and its continuing aftermath, its significance for diverse lived experiences across time and generations, and the limitations this creates for all.

Panel speakers:

Foluke Taylor – writer, *therapist, philosopher of the feels https://foluketaylor.com/

Samira Ben Omar – Community Organiser; Space Maker; Co-Founder Community Voices: Conversations for Change

Jane Ribbens McCarthy – relational sociologist; Visiting Professor, CDAS, University of Bath; Honorary Associate, The Open University; Visiting Fellow, University of Reading. https://profiles.open.ac.uk/jane-mccarthy

Chair and discussants:

Ana Cecilia Dinerstein - Professor of Political Sociology and Critical Theory, University of Bath, Centre for Decolonising Knowledge in Teaching, Research and Practice (DECkNO)

Maria Jose Ventura Alfaro – Research Associate, Institute of Policy Research, and member of the DECkNO community.

Hosts:

Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath and Centre for Decolonising Knowledge in Teaching, Research, and Practice, University of Bath.

* This is the first webinar of a two part collaboration between the University of Bath and The Open University. Part One is hosted by the University of Bath, building on and extending the first article below, Hamilton et al. Part Two will be hosted by Open Thanatology at The Open University early in 2026, building on and extending the second article below, Stedmon et al.

** Decolonising the aftermath of death in UK contexts: theoretical approaches, institutional ‘constraints’, and everyday experiences. Hamilton, S., Keenan, J., Pusey, L., Ribbens McCarthy, J., Stedmon, J., & Taylor, F. (2025). Mortality, 30(2): 466-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2025.2458588 Available on request from Jane McCarthy.

‘If I break your leg, you won’t ask me to fix it for you’: innovative explorations in ‘decolonising’ UK bereavement services. Stedmon, J., Hamilton, S., Pusey, L. D., & Ribbens McCarthy, J. (2025) Mortality, 30(2): 489-509. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2025.2451080 Open Access

Contemporary responses in Africa to the aftermath of death: developments and decolonising challenges Antonia Nannyonga-Tamusuza, S., Evans, R., Klass, D., Okoth, H. O., Pendle, N., Ribbens McCarthy, J., & Riek, J. J. (2025). Mortality, 30(2)355-76

https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2025.2477611 Open Access

Cited reference:

Ribbens McCarthy, J., Woodthorpe, K. and Almack, K. The aftermath of death in the continuing lives of the living: extending ‘bereavement’ paradigms through family and relational perspectives (2023) Sociology, 57(6) pp. 1356–1374. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221142490