[Air-L] Fwd: Call for Abstracts: Death, mourning and the internet (Thanatos vol. 3 1/2014)

[Anna E. Haverinen]

Dear all,

A reminder of an approaching deadline of the spring issue of Thanatos! The
deadline for abstract proposals is 3rd of January and we welcome also book
reviews, columns, research reports as well as (the traditional) articles.

Best,

Anna Haverinen

PhD student

Digital Culture, University of Turku, Finland

_____________

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 (www.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 at utu.fiby 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).