Free workshop on David Bowie's Death

You are invited by Centre for Women's Studies and Sociology to an afternoon of discussion on David Bowie, focusing on personal & media reactions to his death.

David Bowie 'Lazarus' 

Is it a ‘Diana moment’, a distraction from war, floods, January, Cameron?

Is Bowie a genius, recognised in his own time? Is he someone who,as Grayson Perry commented, “sucked up the zeitgeist and gave it to us kids to feast on”.

(11 January, Guardian).

How did his music move us, his style affect us? Which Bowie is your Bowie?

How can we approach seventies ‘baby groupies’ and assess his flirtation with fascism?

Please send ideas for 10 minute discussion-starters by 20^th January to:  ann.kaloski-naylor@york.ac.uk & ruth.penfold-mounce@york.ac.uk 

Date: 3^rd February, 1.30-4, VX330, 3^rd floor, Grimston House (by Market Square). FREE EVENT, tea & coffee from 1.15.

Popular Culture, Forensics and Corpses

Ruth Penfold-Mounce has a new article 'Corpses, popular culture, and forensic science: public obsession with death' that has been released online in Mortality. Mortality is currently her favourite journal and not just because they have published her work but because it provides an interdisciplinary approach to death studies allowing for and and encouraging cultural explorations of this field.

The article considers how forensic science portrayals in popular culture fuel public obsession with death and corpses. It suggests that watching the dead is societally acceptable when seen through forensic science which provides a softening lens. It is this softening lens and popular culture representation that is leading to a normalisation of consuming the dead by the public.