Maybe I should return to this blog more often, since this morning I could not remember neither my username nor my password. And my browser history did not recognize the blog URL. Oopsie!

But I have been a busy (academic) bee this summer!

I had a small informal lecture at the opening of a memorial firm in Turku in the beginning of June. Sadea is a small company based in the city of Turku which creates beautifully original glass memorials for tombstones. Sadea wishes to provide a more unique and individual way to remember and honor a lover one, where glass memorials are a way to portray the person being remembered in a more contemporary way, than the traditional marble tombstones can. “Our lives are different from each other, why should we be so similar when we die?” the founder of Sadea, Minna Haataja, notes in their website.

Eveliina Tommola, Minna Haataja and Katja Pellikka.

Later in June I had the pleasure of attending Death & Media -seminar in Helsinki, where mostly media researcher gathered together to discuss the various aspects of death and media. We also had the pleasure of hearing the keynote lecture of thanatologist Tony Walter, who is always a delight and inspiring in his presentations.

I got back to my roots in the museum field when the newly founded Ritual Museum in Salo invited me to speak about death rituals in online environments together with media-anthropologist Johanna Sumiala, who spoke about death rituals and media. I highly recommend visiting the museum, which is only some 60km from the city of Turku.

All and all, it has been a busy summer with the thesis manuscript, since my current deadline for submitting the manuscript is this autumn, and there is a lot of work to be done. Having the opportunity to work in an entirely different environment for the spring gave me both inspiration and motivation to finish the thesis, and find new projects to continue in the future.