Death Rituals and Death Technologies: Questioning the Old and the New Symposium at University College Cork, 28-29 May 2026.

22 Apr 2026

Death is the great unifying force for all life — human and non-human. Death shapes our experiences of life as it signals materially and culturally that our existence is finite. In response, human societies have developed complex death, disposal, and mourning rituals over millennia to cope with the temporal reality of death and the corpse it is represented by. However, we are living in a time of flux — environmental degradation, economic precarity, and migrating populations are all upending how we respond to and subsequently ritualise death and the dead body. So-called ‘new’ death technologies such as pyro- and hydro-cremation, body composting, eco burial, and cryopreservation are disrupting traditional concepts of deathly rituals. In the traditional narrative of society’s unilineal development, the role of ritual and history is framed as being antithetical to these new technologies (and vice-versa). This symposium disrupts this notion. Its aim is to locate the emerging rituals that come with new death technologies, as well as consider the unique value that new death technologies can bring to old rituals.

Death is the great unifying force for all life — human and non-human. Death shapes our experiences of life as it signals materially and culturally that our existence is finite. In response, human societies have developed complex death, disposal, and mourning rituals over millennia to cope with the temporal reality of death and the corpse it is represented by. However, we are living in a time of flux — environmental degradation, economic precarity, and migrating populations are all upending how we respond to and subsequently ritualise death and the dead body. So-called ‘new’ death technologies such as pyro- and hydro-cremation, body composting, eco burial, and cryopreservation are disrupting traditional concepts of deathly rituals. In the traditional narrative of society’s unilineal development, the role of ritual and history is framed as being antithetical to these new technologies (and vice-versa). This symposium disrupts this notion. Its aim is to locate the emerging rituals that come with new death technologies, as well as consider the unique value that new death technologies can bring to old rituals.

Highlights of this international, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral event include:

• Keynotes from Professor Ciara Breathnach (School of History, UCC) and Associate Professor Marietta Radomska (Department of Thematic Studies, Linköping University);
• Papers given by presenters from Ireland, Australia, the US, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Nigera;
• And a panel of death care industry professionals that speaks to the past, present, and future of Ireland's funerary landscape.

A full programme will be made available shortly.

This event will be held in person. Please register for catering and accessibility purposes.

We would like to thank the National University of Ireland, the Future Humanities Institute, the Radical Humanities Laboratory, and the School of English and Digital Humanities for their generous support of this event. 

Tickets available here:  https://buytickets.at/deathritualsanddeathtechnologies/2177232