About the book
Julie Rugg (University of York) and David Ocón (Singapore Management University)
are co-editing a text for Boydell and Brewer’s “Heritage Matters” series and are issuing a call for chapter proposals.
The themes can include:
- the cemetery as a locale for tangible and intangible funeral heritage;
- the principles of cemetery interpretation;
- the emotional, social and economic impact of cemetery tourism;
- contested sites, where the site’s purpose desire for preservation is compromised by
the site’s purpose; and - the interaction between funeral heritage and sustainable development.
A fuller rationale for the text sits below.
Funerary Heritage
Funerary heritage comprises tangible and intangible evidence of ways in which past
societies have come to an accommodation with mortality. This text focuses on the
considerable funeral heritage associated with cemeteries and other places of
interment.
Over the past thirty years, interest in such sites as heritage assets has
expanded substantially, provoking similar substantial growth in cemetery tourism.
Cemeteries draw local, national and even international audiences, creating demand
for interpretative elements: tours, signage, apps and websites. However, literature
making a case for the heritagization of cemeteries pays very little attention to the
inherent contradictions and tensions that lie within that process. This text seeks to
reframe cemetery heritage as a critical field of study, addressing its multifaceted
dimensions, including the intersection of preservation, interpretation, and sustainable
development.
This text will draw together chapters from an international array of scholars, defining
critical issues for cemetery heritage, and, in doing so, reframe this area of academic
study as a more vibrant arena for critical analysis.
The book will explore five
substantive and interconnected themes mentioned above.
Chapter proposals
Please submit a 250-word abstract by November 30th, 2024.
The deadline for
completed chapters is September 2025. The chapters will have an 8.000-word limit and will be blind peer reviewed. The text will include academic contributions
from across the globe, and all submissions must be in English.
Send abstracts to: julie.rugg@york.ac.uk or davidocon@smu.edu.sg.
You can find the original call for chapters HERE.