The Collective for Radical Death Studies
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Stress, Sacrifice, and Empire in Ancient Peru Benjamin J. Schaefer, PhD | 1 July 2026 In the arid coastal deserts of Peru, centuries-old strands of hair have begun to speak. At first glance, they seem ordinary: fine, dark, brittle with time. But within them lies a record of human experience more intimate than bones, pottery, or burial goods. These strands carry traces of cortisol, the body’s…
Uplifting Bereaved Trans Students in Higher Education: Part 2 M V. Pease and Karoline J. Trovato | 22 June 2026 Part 2: Supporting Trans Communities and Advocating for Inclusive Practices in Grief and Bereavement Loss is universal; the ways bereavement impacts marginalized communities are not. Understanding how loss manifests within the marginalization experienced by trans people is essential to…
Uplifting Bereaved Trans Students in Higher Education | Part 1 M V. Pease and Karoline J. Trovato | 1 June 2026 Part 1: The Unique Experiences of Grief in Trans Communities Loss is universal; the impact of bereavement on marginalized communities is not. Understanding how trans students experience loss is essential to increasing awareness and engagement among university stakeholders. Trans people…
Jeffery Smith, PhD. | 1 May 2026 When noted African American abolitionist minister John Berry Meachum died while preaching from his pulpit in February 1854, his burial at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis forced the cemetery’s board to confront its views on racial segregation in the City of the Dead. The problem grew out of the seemingly innocuous creation of a special lot for Baptist clergy and…
June Hobbs, PhD | 1 April 2026 Tombstone for David L. Adams and Jimmy Chou in Rose Hill Cemetery of Bloomington, Indiana. Photo by Casey Winningham. Used by permission. Perhaps no cliché is more obvious in American cemeteries, starting with the nineteenth century, than the idea that families belong together—even in death. But what if that family included homosexual partners in a time when same-sex…
Sarah E. Lirley, PhD | April 14, 2025 When conducting research for my 2024 book, Sudden Deaths in St. Louis: Coroner Bias in the Gilded Age , I came across a number of coroner’s inquests that fascinated and puzzled me. Most cases from the research for the book did not make it into the text—or even the endnotes—including the suicide of Josephine Langlet. And while her specific inquest is not…
Jessica L. Orzulak, PhD | April 30, 2024 In the center of an expansive gallery space featuring an installation by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, bubbles gently tumble to the floor from high above audiences’ heads. Descriptions from the event recollect the sound of children, their laughter and feet pounding as they run through the space while bubbles burst on their skin. Bubbles connote any…
Corinne Elicona | March 28, 2024 In early June of 2020, a few coworkers and I from Mount Auburn Cemetery (Cambridge, MA) sat around a picnic table, masked between bites of our lunch, and strategically sitting six feet apart thanks to the helpful masking tape guides. The mood was somber as the world seemed sick in more ways than one. George Floyd had just been murdered when a police officer stood…
Jeffrey Smith, PhD | February 19, 2024 It happened in every city in America. When the new interstate highways came through, people were displaced, buildings razed, neighborhoods destroyed or divided as state departments of transportation and city planners sought to superimpose a highway system on existing cities. East St. Louis, Illinois, had one notable difference from others. An exit ramp…
Daniel W. Everton | January 29, 2024 For decades, the field of anthropology has caused irreparable harm to Indigenous communities. From exotification to grave robbing and supporting racialized or eugenic pseudoscience, the list of unethical and criminal behavior among anthropologists is a long one. Remains of Indigenous ancestors, kept away from their homelands and final resting places, are held…
