Encountering Corpses (Symposium, Manchester, 26 March 2014)

Research Summary: Encountering Corpses Symposium

Event Type: Academic symposium on death studies and human remains

Date & Location: 26 March 2014, Manchester Museum, Manchester, UK

Primary Focus: Materiality of the human corpse in display, exhibition, memorialisation, burial, and disposal across cultural and institutional contexts

Key Topics: Museum ethics and curation, genocide tourism, war memorials, mortuary practices, media representation, and artistic display of human remains

Conveners: Dr Craig Young (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Helen Malarky (IHSSR Project Manager)

Notable Speakers: Paul Koudounaris (author), Julie Rugg (York), Emma Fox (cemetery historian), and institutional scholars from Manchester Metropolitan University

Pedagogical Component: Active viewing and group discussion of human remains within Manchester Museum collections

Encountering Corpses
Wednesday 26th March 2014

Convened by Dr Craig Young (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Helen Malarky (IHSSR Project Manager)

12 noon – 7 pm, The Manchester Museum

**BOOK TICKETS HERE**

This event will discuss a wide range of issues in contemporary society surrounding the human body after the point of death. We will specifically address how the materiality of the human corpse is treated in and through display, exhibition, sanctification, memorialisation, burial and disposal.

How do we deal with the ethics of displaying bodies in museums (as with the mummies of Manchester) and in art (as with the infamous ‘Bodyworlds’ exhibits)? What are the public services challenges of managing the increased numbers of deaths amongst our ageing population? Is it right to dig up and move Richard III or to view the bones and death sites of genocide victims as a form of tourism? How do corpses function as socio-political subjects in contemporary politics and subject formation? What are the issues raised by their display in news media and social networking?

These questions and more will be debated in a day that will also involve the active viewing of human remains within the Manchester Museum collections and then discussing this experience as a group. Topics under consideration will include:

Burial, commemoration, ritual

• Handling the dead: mortuary and cemetery
• Public services and the corpse
• Rituals and burials
• War memorials (unknown soldier, Flanders Field, First World War dead)
• Mobile corpses (disinterment and reinternment)

Curation and tourism

• Museum display of remains
• Genocide tourism and curating
• Grave tourism
• Archaeology – Richard III, public engagement
• Facial recreation, privacy and respect

Art, aesthetics and ethics

• Ossuary
• Ethics of handling and display of remains
• Display of remains as art
• Corpses in news media, social networking

Confirmed speakers:

• Emma Fox (Southern Cemetery tours)
• Paul Koudounaris (Author of ‘The Empire of the Death’ and ‘Heavenly Bodies’)
• Duncan Light (MMU)
• Samantha McCormick (MMU)
• Campbell Price (Manchester)
• Julie Rugg (York)
• Faye Sayer (MMU)
• Bryan Sitch (Manchester)
• Craig Young (MMU)

For further information, click here.