What’s the episode about?
In this episode, hear Dr Hannah Gould on death and the dead in Japan, changing death rituals, necromaterials, death rites, caring for the dead, death technologies, vertical burial, material culture and ethnographies of things.
Who is Hannah?
Dr. Hannah Gould is a cultural anthropologist studying religion, materiality, death, and discarding with a regional focus in North-East Asia and Australia. In her words, “she studies the stuff of death and the death of stuff.” Dr. Gould has degrees from The University of Melbourne and Oxford University, and completed her doctoral research into the transformation of contemporary Japanese death ritual. Dr Gould currently serves as the President of The Australian Death Studies Society and holds the Melbourne Postdoctoral Fellowship for the project “Mobile Mortality: Transnational Futures of Deathcare in the Asia Pacific”.
Dr Gould is also the author of When Death Falls Apart (University of Chicago Press, 2023) and co-editor of Aromas of Asia (Penn State University Press, 2023). Alongside academic research and publishing, she facilitates and engages in public and media-based conversations about death, dying, religion and technology, and is an advocate for more equitable systems of deathcare.
The Book from this week’s Introduction is: Radical Mindfulness by James K. Rowe, Associate Professor at the School of Environmental Studies in the University of Victoria examines the root causes of injustice, asking why inequalities along the lines of race, class, gender, and species continue to exist. Specifically, James Rowe examines fear of death as a root cause of systemic inequalities and proposes a more embodied approach to social change as a solution.
Where can I listen?
How do I cite the episode in my research and reading lists?
To cite this episode, you can use the following citation:
Gould, H. (2024) Interview on The Death Studies Podcast hosted by Michael-Fox, B. and Visser, R. Published 1 July 2024. Available at: www.thedeathstudiespodcast.com, DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.26139067
What next?
Check out more episodes or find out more about the hosts! Got a question? Get in touch.