About the Nonprofit
Death Scholars, Inc.
Death Scholars, Inc. is an interdisciplinary nonprofit network connecting scholars, practitioners, and organizations engaged in the study of end-of-life, death, and grief. We foster collaboration across silos, translate research for public audiences, and amplify both emerging and established voices in communication-based death studies. Through partnerships, programming, and archival work, we advance more inclusive, accessible, and impactful scholarship.
What is the Communication Studies academic discipline?
Communication Studies (also called Communication or Communication Science, depending on the institution) is an interdisciplinary social science and humanities field that examines how meaning is created, transmitted, interpreted, and contested across contexts.
At its core, the discipline analyzes symbolic processes, including (but not limited to) language, media, discourse, and interactions through which individuals, groups, and institutions coordinate action and construct reality. The academic discipline draws theoretically and methodologically from areas like Sociology, Psychology, Linguistics, Political Science, and Anthropology, and spans both humanistic (interpretive/critical) and social scientific (empirical/quantitative) traditions.
Topics of Scholarship
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Memorialization/Community Memory
- Indigenous Death and Dying
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Marginalized Death
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LGBTQIA+ Issues in Death/Dying
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Disenfranchised Grief
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Ambiguous Loss
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Rhetorics of Death
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Suicidality
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Death and Religion
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Death and Atheism/Humanism
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Performance Studies; Bereavement, Grief, Dying, and Post-Mortem
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Necropolitics
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Palliative Care
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Hospice Care
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Funeral
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Industry/Professionalization/Organization(s)
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Death Doulas
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Infant Death and Dying
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Maternal Mortality
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Technology and Death
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Social Media and Death
Methods
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Applied Research
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Archival Research
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Trends in Death/Dying - Quantitative Research
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Ethnography - Qualitative Research
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Rhetorical Approaches/Criticism - Qualitative Research
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Autoethnography - Qualitative Research
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Mixed Methods
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Critical Research
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Discourse Analysis
Nonprofit
Information
This website is operated by Death Scholars, Inc. Our organization is a registered nonprofit in the state of Kentucky, USA, connected to the Omicron Sigma Kappa honors society at Murray State University. Omicron Sigma Kappa is a student organization designed to foster leadership development and provide networking opportunities for organizational communication students, facilitated by Geoffrey Luurs, PhD.
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Our leadership team is comprised of university professors, independent scholars, industry leaders, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Our membership contributes to research projects within our internal lab structure. More information about our history, leadership team, values/vision, and membership can be found below.
