Death Across Cultures Working Group

The Death Across Cultures working group (said: DEATH CULT) is a space for graduate students working in the humanities to present their work dealing with issues of dying, the dead, and the undead. Meetings in Fall 2026 are held monthly in which a presenter submits their work (an article or dissertation chapter) to the group and receives productive feedback.

Death Across Cultures seeks to cultivate a community of scholars working in or adjacent to the field of death studies, and to encourage the sharing of scholarly approaches to death across field or discipline. Our hope is to build a shared language around death studies, bringing together works that are conceptually similar but separated by disciplinary and cultural divides. 

Subjects of interest to us include: mass death and epidemics, the disposition of dead bodies, religious discourses on the afterlife, and the persistence of life after death in all its forms. Any humanities work that deals with death is welcome for discussion.

SCHEDULE:

Death Across Cultures meets on the first Thursday of every month at 2:00PM, at the CUNY Graduate Center, Room TBD. Lunch and refreshments are provided.

JOIN THIS WORKING GROUP:

To join, please fill out this form here or below to join this working group.

Bret Windhauser

Bret Windhauser is a PhD candidate in history. He studies corpse smuggling in the British Mandate of Iraq.

Ian Gregory

Ian Gregory is a PhD candidate in History. They work on séances and ghosts in the French Third Republic.