After studying gothic literature at various points in both my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees I absolutely fell in love with the genre and the study of death began to really intrigue me.
Therefore, when the opportunity for an internship as student support for the Death Online Research Symposium (DORS) at Northumbria University I jumped at the chance.
The conference took place across three days and my internship was comprised of various roles. On the beginning of the first day my main role was to register everyone and make sure they knew where they were going and had everything they need. This gave me an opportunity to become familiar with those attending the conference and those who will be presenting on a panel or as a keynote speaker.
Across the three days my primary role was to aid with the technical side of the conference. Whilst the conference was primarily an in person event there were also several people who joined online and presented online through Blackboard. Having completed part of my undergraduate degree online during the pandemic I was familiar with blackboard. This meant that I could help with uploading and playing presentations for each of the panellists.
Whilst the panels were happening, I monitored the chat for any messages or questions which came through. This meant I was able to sit in on a lot of the panels and listen to them. This was a wonderful experience and I found them very interesting.
Another of my roles for the conference was to run the social media account. There was a Twitter page dedicated to DORS6 and my job was to keep it up to date with everything that was happening over the course of the three days. This included sending tweets which detailed which panels were taking place and who was presenting on those panels. I also included photos which other members of the team had taken throughout the day.
I think that my favourite talk I was lucky enough to view was by Xavier Aldana Reyes. This keynote was on ‘Digital Death and the Rise of Screenlife Cinema’. I found the concept of screenlife cinema to be fascinating and something I would love to look into more.
Overall, this was a wonderful experience and one I hope to repeat in the future.
ABOUT DORS
“Digital media are now integral to death, grief and memory, from personal illness blogs and live-streamed funerals to online support groups and virtual memorials. Studying ‘death online’ involves attention to cultural change, identity performances, social bonding, legal matters, design innovations, business opportunities and more.
The Death Online Research Network was founded in Copenhagen in 2013 to encourage international collaboration and conversation around the study of death and digital media.
The meeting will explore Death Futures in relation to Death Online research and practice. We warmly welcome new members to the network as well as old friends.
The future of death is entangled in uncertainty with technologies and human nature shifting in ways that are only just becoming apparent to us. Our legacies are now blended sites of on- and offline identities that come with questions of privacy, ownership and control, continuously being redefined both socially and legally. Fields of medical and genetic research offer us dreams of immortality while ecological concerns and cultural shifts are driving us towards new forms of dispersing human bodies at the end of life. Design and emerging technologies are at the forefront of these futures, driving forward developments and supporting rich imaginations and media representations of what the future of death might hold for societies.”
Extract from: https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/news-events/events/2023/05/death-futures/
Northumbria Englishes 