Renske and Bethan met via the the Association for the Study of Death and Society and soon became fast friends talking online. Not long after, Renske took the train to visit Beth in Cornwall and they began to hatch their plans for this podcast on a cold day drinking carboot coffee at the beach.
Check out our episodes to see what we’ve been talking about ever since!
DR. BETHAN MICHAEL-FOX
Bethan is an experienced academic balancing a busy family life with teaching, research, management and administration. She is passionate about interdisciplinary research and has a particular interest in Death Studies, Screen Studies and Critical Theory at the intersections of the Humanities and Social Sciences. Her research and practice are focused on writing, representation, cultural theory, and the study of popular culture (especially television).
She works at the Open University and is the Managing Editor for the academic journal Mortality, which promotes the interdisciplinary study of death and dying. Bethan lives in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK. To learn more about her work and research check out her website.
DR. RENSKE VISSER
Renske is a Medical Anthropologist specialised in ageing, dying and death. She is interested in how place and space shape end-of-life experiences, and particularly in the meaning of home in later life. Her recent research explores cancer care in English Prisons, highlighting the need for greater attention to the needs of people living and dying in the margins of society. Previous research has looked at homemaking in later life, ageing in secure forensic settings, and parental bereavement in young adulthood.
Renske currently works for the Dutch Embassy in Helsinki, Finland. For her blog Dead Good Reading she reviews books (ranging from novels to academic literature) about death.