Mobilities in Life and Death

Avril Maddrell is Professor of Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Reading, UK. She is a feminist geographer, with research interests in spaces, landscapes and practices of death, mourning and remembrance; diversity issues; sacred mobilities; and historiography.  She is author/co-author/editor of numerous books, including, Deathscapes. Spaces for death, dying, mourning and remembrance (Ashgate, 2010), Consolationscapes … (Routledge 2019); Memory, Mourning, Landscape (Rodopi, 2010); Sacred Mobilities (Ashgate 2015) and Contemporary Encounters in Gender and Religion (Palgrave 2017). Sonja Kmec is Associate Professor in Luxembourgish Cultural Studies and History at the University of Luxembourg. She obtained her DPhil in modern history at the University of Oxford, UK in 2004 and undertook postdoctoral research on memory politics and nation-building processes using Luxembourg as case-study in a transnational perspective. In 2014 she was Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley (Fulbright award). Her areas of expertise include gender and religious history as well as popular culture and material culture.Tanu Priya Uteng is a Chief Research Officer at the Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo, Norway.  She has worked extensively across a host of cross-cutting issues in the field of urban and transport planning in the past 18 years. A few of her areas of expertise include: inclusive cities, mobilities, social exclusion, evaluation and gender studies. In her various research undertakings, she attempts to build a nuanced and structured understanding of designing and creating inclusive cities. Her edited books include Gendered Mobilities (2008), Urban Mobilities in the Global South (2017) and Gendering Smart Mobilities (2020).Mariske Westendorp is a cultural anthropologist and religious studies scholar. She was awarded her PhD at Macquarie University, Sydney, in 2016 and is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands. She is co-editor of New Perspectives on Urban Deathscapes (Edward Elgar 2023) and her interests include the study of urban religion, lived religion/spirituality, and death studies.

“Mobilities in Life and Death is one of many outputs from a major HERA-funded project that examined the funeral practices of migrants and minorities in Europe. … This book draws together the experience of migrants and of minorities. … The chapters deal with migrant groups that include Muslims and Hindus but also contain reference to Chinese migration and minority groups including the Jewish community and Travellers.” (Julie Rugg, EuropeNow, europenowjournal.org, September 12, 2023)

• Part 1. Hypermobilities and Immobilities: Local-Global Relations in European Cemeteries.- 1. Hindu Mobilities and Cremation: Minority, Migrant and Gendered Dialogues and Dialectics in English and Welsh Towns (Avril Maddrell, Brenda Mathijssen, Yasminah Beebeejaun, Katie McClymont & Danny McNally).- 2. Cemeteries as Translocal Contact Zones: Navigating Regulations, Unwritten Rules and Divergent Expectations in Luxembourg City (Mariske Westendorp & Sonja Kmec).- 3. Managing Migrant Border Deaths in Southern Italy: Medico-legal, Ritual and Burial Practices (Daniela Stauffacher).- Part 2. Migrants and Minorities Past and Present in European Cemeteries.- 4. Dundee, Migration, and the Historic Jute Trade: Interweaving Bengali-Dundee Cemetery Practices and Spaces (Yasminah Beebeejaun, Danielle House & Avril Maddrell).- 5. Minorities In, Minorities Out: Cemeteries, Religious Diversity and the French Body Politic in Contemporary and Historical Perspective (Alistair Hunter).- 6. Cultural Jewishness and Geographically Bounded Identity: Negotiating Jewish Identity and the Jewish Cemetery in the Local Context of Trondheim, Norway  (Ida Marie Høeg).- Part 3. Changing and Contemporary Practices in European Cemeteries.- 7. Contemporary ‘Outsiders’ in Narratives of Belonging in Cork’s Cemeteries: Reflections on experiences of Irish Travellers and Recent Polish Migrants (Katie McClymont & Danielle House).- 8. Co-Creating and Co-Producing Multicultural Cemeteries in Norway and Sweden: A Comparative Study with Insights from Drammen, Eskilstuna and Umeå  (Helena Nordh, Marianne Knapskog, Tanu Priya Uteng & Carola Wingren).- 9. The Economics and Politics of Dedicated Funerary Provision for Migrant and Minority Groups: A Perspective from the Netherlands  (Christoph Jedan).- Afterword: Mobilising Death Studies.