Centre for Open Thanatology

This may be of interest to @openthanatology.bsky.social folk!

One of our members, Korina, has written about the narrative practices of death, dying and mourning in her recent book chapter. oro.open.ac.uk/102428/ #ThanatologyThursday

Opening Conversations On Assisted Dying, Death and Grief A joint Open University in Scotland and University of the West of Scotland event, where assisted dying, death and grief will be explored.

Still time to register for an in-person evening of conversation about death and dying in Dumfries on Nov 25th - looking forward to meeting some of you there! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/opening-co...

The bitter taste of death: mourning for the young in ancient Rome --- intrigued? Read more by Valerie Hope on ORO. oro.open.ac.uk/104224/ #ThanatologyThursday

And we all know there's a lot of death and grief in drama! OU staff and students have access to amazing performances filmed at the Globe.

Still some time to register and find out how to do a doctoral degree with at The Open University in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (which hosts Open Thanatology). More details below.

Did you go to DDD? A few Open Thanatology members were there, and the @deathstudiespod.bsky.social is co-hosted by one of our members, the one and only Beth Michael Fox!

DDD17: The 2025 Death, Dying and Disposal Conference

Re-live DDD17 through our special conference episode!

The episode includes a myriad of soundbites from attendees including @ericaborgstrom.bsky.social @lucyhyde.bsky.social @katewoody.bsky.social @hoodcp.bsky.social and many more!

@ddd17-2025.bsky.social

open.spotify.com/episode/2AX2...

The Open University

Co-authored by one of our members - From Writing to Doing: Strategies for Approaching Loss, Dying and Grief in Auto/Biographical Writing. oro.open.ac.uk/103894/ #ThanatologyThursday

Want to do a doctoral degree with us? Join a postgraduate open day to learn about the different degree opportunities, funding, and how to apply. Next one: 16th October 2025 (10-15.30 UK time - Online via MS Teams) Register via email to WELS-PGRs@open.ac.uk

New open access handbook including my chapter “Homing in on societal changes in meanings around place of death”

www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-o...

Dr. Kaylee Alexander on digital humanities, being a research data librarian, visual culture, cemeteries, French cemetery laws, cemetery sculpture, ethically sound data visualisation and survival bias

This month marks our 4-year anniversary! We are working hard on a special DDD17 episode to celebrate which will be released asap!

In the meantime: do enjoy our back catalogue!

open.spotify.com/show/4n3l0Z7...

Ancient ideas: where does the soul go? Humans have grappled with the question of what happens after death for millennia. Across the ancient world, many different cultures developed their own answers and underworlds. The Ancient Greeks ...

New article added to our Open Thanatology Hub on OpenLearn - Ancient ideas: where does the soul go? www.open.edu/openlearn/wh...
Short, fascinating read for this #ThanatologyThursday

Open Thanatology playlist

We also have a playlist of songs people in Open Thanatology have shared - give it a listen and we'd love to hear what you'd add to the list open.spotify.com/playlist/4hX...

To accompany the OU-BBC co-produced segment on Morning Live about music at the end of life, check out the further resources on OU Connect connect.open.ac.uk/health-wellb...

And thank you for following us!

🚨🚨🚨The CfP for the 2025 BSA #Death, #Dying and #Bereavement symposium is now open! This year's theme is #Care and #Caring, and the University of Nottingham is hosting us. Please submit your abstracts by Tuesday 30th September to bsaddb@gmail.com. We're looking forward to reading them!

BBC One - Morning Live Join Gethin Jones, Helen Skelton, Michelle Ackerley and the team for conversation, advice and tips to make your day that little bit easier.

Watching Morning Live on BBC One this morning? You'll see our Dr Sam Murphy on there talking about palliative care and music playlists. If you can't watch it live, if you live in the UK you'll be able to catch it on iPlayer from later today. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

You can find out more from our preliminary report, which is freely available: Bereavement during employment in Higher Education (UK) oro.open.ac.uk/88719/14/Ber...

Staff reported that managers' discretion around bereavement leave could benefit them in accessing additional leave or securing workload cover. Although some line managers were unwilling to deviate from stipulated time periods (eg 2 days leave max), & assumed workers would quickly resume 'as normal'.

Based on Open Thanatology's work on UK university staff experiences of bereavement, knowledge about existing leave policies and entitlement is mixed. It is often only known if needed, although others who needed it said they couldn't find or understand their institution's existing policies.

Today, the House of Lords is considering the Employment Rights Bill, which includes extending bereavement leave beyond existing parental bereavement leave contexts.

Making sense of sudden mass deaths Sudden, brutal death; and so many deaths, at one time. What does it do to you to be one of the bereaved in such a traumatic event such as the 9/11 attacks or a pandemic like Covid-19?

September 11th - for some, this day brings up questions about how do we make sense of the loss from sudden events. This article gives some insights and reflects on several examples www.open.edu/openlearn/he... #ThanatologyThursday

Opening Conversations On Assisted Dying, Death and Grief A joint Open University in Scotland and University of the West of Scotland event, where assisted dying, death and grief will be explored.

Come join us for a free, in-person event in Dumfries, Scotland - Opening Conversations On Assisted Dying, Death and Grief. Nov 25th 16:45 - 19:00 GMT
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/opening-co...

You do not need to reside in the UK to take this course. There's support throughout - each student will have a tutor (associate lecturer) assigned to them and will be part of the tutor group and the wider module student cohort, with forums and tutorials/seminars.

Registration for our online module - K220 Death, Dying and Bereavement - closes on Sept 11th (for October start). This is an undergraduate degree level course and is 31 weeks long. More info here: www.open.ac.uk/courses/modu...

Registration for our online module - K220 Death, Dying and Bereavement - closes on Sept 11th (for October start). This is an undergraduate degree level course and is 31 weeks long. More info here: www.open.ac.uk/courses/modu...

This #ThanatologyThursday, we'd love to hear from you abou what you'd like to see from Open Thanatology over the next academic year! Events, topics, new OpenLearn materials? Let us know here or via email!

The @oulibrary.bsky.social is an amazing resource - not just for books and articles, but also training, study skills and even access to media and various archives.
The also host the Open University Digital Archive where people can explore the history of the university www.open.ac.uk/library/digi...

YouTube video by The Open University Library Exploring Generative AI: critical skills and ethical use #openuniversity training sessions #shorts

Students may be turning to Generative AI... but do they know the risks? 🤖🤔

Our 'Exploring Generative AI: critical skills and ethical use' session helps them think critically and use AI responsibly.

Our latest YouTube Short provides a quick overview 👇

youtube.com/shorts/rt7WI...

#OUstudents