CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: Thanatos vol. 3 1/2014

Theme issue: Death, mourning and the internet

Computer and mobile technologies have now provided a new space and medium to connect and share at the time of loss and bereavement. People seek out for places of ritualised actions, such as lighting candles, writing eulogies, visit memorials during anniversaries and feeling the sense of community at the time of loss. Internet provides a new space for rituals, feeling of co-presence and communality, where memorials are being erected in various online environments.

This new way of expressing mourning and honoring are rising interesting questions about value, family, identity, friendship and love. Who is allowed to create a virtual memorial? Who has access and ownership to the material we leave online? Is it only the young people, the Web 2.0 generation, and the digital natives, who are appropriating internet technology to cope with loss and bereavement? What are the problems of using the internet in hospice care? How virtuality, death and/or the after world are being conceptualised through the Web?

Thanatos (www.thanatos-journal.com) is a peer-reviewed, multi-disciplinary and a scientific webjournal published by the Finnish Death Studies Association (kuolemantutkimus.com). We publish twice a year a journal that consists of articles, short and long research reports, book reviews, columns and seminar reports. The primary publication language is Finnish, but we do accept manuscripts in English and Swedish as well, however, the costs of proofreading are the responsibility of the author.

We now invite abstracts in English, Swedish or Finnish (max 400 words) for articles (max 8000 words) and research reports (max 5000 words) from the following example themes:

• Digital afterlife

• Internet and hospice care

• Space and spatiality in virtual memorials

• Identity and virtual memorials

• Online memorials and heritage

• Memorials and online gaming

• Death and Facebook

• Memorial videos in Youtube (Vimeo etc.)

• Online funerals

The above mentioned topics are only examples and we encourage you to send your own ideas as well. Abstracts are to be sent to anna.haverinen@utu.fi by 3rd of January 2014.

 

Schedule:

• 3.1.2014: Abstract deadlines (max 400 words)

• 28.2.2014: Full manuscript deadlines (articles max 8000 words, research reports max 5000 words)

• 15.4.2014: Writers receive referee and editorial comments on their first drafts

• 31.5.2014: Deadline for second drafts

• June/July: Journal publication

The head editor of the first issue in 2014 will be doctoral student of digital culture, Anna Haverinen (M. Phil.), who has studied virtual memorials and online death rituals extensively since 2007 in her thesis Virtual Memorials – death and mourning rituals in online environments (Forthcoming, 2014).