"Grief and mourning in a global world: cross-cultural reflections"

The recent pandemic presented a challenge for those who lost friends or family members but were unable to attend their funeral. Digital technology was used as a substitute which allowed people to ‘get together’, pay tribute to the deceased, share their memories and feelings. Terms like ‘viewneral’ or ‘econdolence’ were introduced to describe ‘virtual funeral services’, which, unlike the counterpart of a real funeral could bring people across the globe together. In this workshop we propose to discuss and draw attention to the different aspects of honoring the dead that emerge across different intellectual backgrounds, trace their historical origins, but also their survival on traditional practices, and associate them with contemporary theories of emotion.