Finally, often accounts about doing sensitive research focus on the potential for harm to participants and researchers whilst generating data in the field. These are not always easy to negotiate in reality and within the constraints of a pre-approval ethics regulatory framework. It is not easy watching two of your grandparents struggle—my grandmother with brain cancer who could barely get off the toilet and regressed to an infant-like state before she died, and my grand-father who was tied to 15 liters of oxygen on a BiPAP at home struggling to breathe—before dying. The sun was searing as we walked down the dusty road toward the cemetery. (2007) report that research managers in end-of-life care are concerned about factors that shape research environments – specifically the lack of career structure for researchers – and make it difficult to retain skilled personnel that are most appropriately equipped to work in this complex field. Get free access to newly published articles. pedagogically in death education and financially in research and health care funding), the paper aims to open up conversations about how to generate new and integrated approaches that can benefit both countries. As early career researchers studying the end of life, we recognise that scholarly activity in the field of death studies – an umbrella term for research spanning all aspects of death, dying and bereavement, including end-of-life care – is growing in popularity. It is a platform to encourage other accounts that focus explicitly on the doing of death research, and in particular, the relationship between how research is done and experienced, the kinds of knowledges it produces and the social impacts it can have. [Web of Science ®]View all references. By placing these articles together and in dialogue with one another, we hope to encourage further substantive publications that deal with methodological aspects of death research, and that can continue these conversations. December 2017, Vol 48, No. Some suggest that less experienced (Woodthorpe, 2009) and non-clinically trained researchers (McKenzie et al., 2016) in particular, may experience negative and challenging feelings. As an anthropologist, I study death and dying from a cross-cultural perspective, and I wanted to create a course that would allow students to interact with these topics firsthand. By Henry Fersko-Weiss July 19, 2018 In Category: INELDA Articles | 2018. Although death’s definition is an issue that arises in these papers, the authors are also concerned with the bigger picture. Indeed, a sense of ambivalence about being awarded a PhD based on observations of many individuals who have now died, is a complicated feeling which we have both struggled to make sense of and articulate publicly. Reflections on access: Too vulnerable to research? The concept of death and dying is a typical concept that interlinks the aspects of medical science and philosophy. ethics processes) fail to adequately prepare researchers for the emotional ramifications of possible ongoing engagement with participants once a project has ended. For example, in the late 1960s and early 1970s (in the United States in particular), we saw a plethora of research in the field which produced seminal works that are still regularly cited in research, teaching and professional education today (e.g. In doing so, they offer practical tips and guidance – with the authors including key points and summary boxes at the end of each article. [Web of Science ®]View all references. Full-text available. In the 1990s, many important theoretical (e.g. 12-1-2014. With a macro focus on how approaches to ‘managing’ death differ between the US and the UK, Cann and Troyer ‘position methodologies as a series of concepts, as well as practices, that articulate different conditions of possibility’ for death-related research in each national context (p. 106). This is also the case in Rebecca Scott Bray’s paper, which explores a myriad of ethical issues related to the scholarly (and artistic) use of criminal evidence for ‘extra-legal’ purposes such as research. Their work can resonate with personal losses and exacerbate feelings of grief, and also prompt pertinent questions about professional roles and how researchers ‘should’ feel when their participants die (Visser, 2016) – including deliberations about ‘appropriate’ courses of action to take with implications for researchers and ethics committees (e.g. As a collection, the articles seek to generate discussion about techniques, practices and sociocultural contexts of death research, and the implications that these have for knowledge production. If this contributes to opening up novel empirical directions in the field and aids the development of new avenues of research that would be one aspiration met. Read by both academics and practitioners, and with an increasingly international authorship and audience, it is an ideal space to consider contemporary methodological issues and challenges. Introduction As early career researchers studying the end of life, we recognise that scholarly activity in the field of death studies – an umbrella term for research spanning all aspects of death, dying and bereavement, including end-of-life care – is growing in popularity. These usually appear as stand-alone chapters or articles drawing on experiences from a particular research project (e.g. Furthermore, lesser discussed complexities can arise around issues to do with what are usually considered ‘best practice’; for example, asking participants to verify interview transcripts or sending details of study findings once the research has ended. However, in the aforementioned accounts a number of issues that relate particularly to death studies have been identified. Aims To understand very old people’s preferences regarding care towards the end of life and attitudes towards dying, to inform policy and practice. 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