Three members of the Centre for Open Thanatology share their insights, experiences and advice on death and loss.

The Open University has a long-established history of researching death-related topics, and the Centre for Open Thanatology, an interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to the study and education of death, dying, loss, and grief across the life course and in diverse contexts. The Centre’s vision is to use research and education to foster open dialogue and critical engagement with death and loss.

In this podcast, Centre director Erica Borgstrom is joined by Sophie Michell, a post graduate researcher and historian, and Sara Mackian: a senior lecturer in health and wellbeing. The episode dives into their experiences of what it is like to do research into death and loss. They discuss how others react to their research, what has shaped the work that they do, differences they’ve learned about, and what it is like when a death researcher experiences death in their personal life.

The recording mentions several projects, online items, and publications – links to these can be found in the further resources below.

• Find out more about The Open University's ⁠⁠Health and Social Care courses and qualifications⁠⁠.
• Follow the Centre for Open Thanatology is on Bluesky
• You can find publications written by Centre for Open Thanatology members via the Open University library.
• Sophie’s Substack where she shares stories based on what she’s found in the archives. You can also follow her on Bluesky
• See Sara’s project on Talking with the dead

Erica’s publications on ‘sensitive’ research and doing death studies research includes:

• Borgstrom, E., & Ellis, J. (2021). Internalising ‘sensitivity’: vulnerability, reflexivity and death research(ers). International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 24(5), 589–602. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1857972 [free-to-access version: https://oro.open.ac.uk/71096/3/71096.pdf]
• Borgstrom, Erica; Mallon, Sharon and Murphy, Sam eds. (2022). Unpacking Sensitive Research: Epistemological and Methodological Implications. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003252320
• Borgstrom, E. (2018). Using an Ethnographic Approach to Study End-of-Life Care: Reflections from Research Encounters in England. In: Garnett, E., Reynolds, J., Milton, S. (eds) Ethnographies and Health. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89396-9_5
• Borgstrom, E., & Ellis, J. (2017). Introduction: researching death, dying and bereavement. Mortality, 22(2), 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2017.1291600