Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Research
Description
The paper examines the ‘disappeared deaths’ of the Covid-19 pandemic through accounts of families and friends of those who died during this period, and how, in some cases at least, the usual rituals of last goodbyes and mourning were absent. Like truth commissions after conflicts or enforced disappearances, justice demands an impossible accounting: a full recognition of each life lost, an acknowledgement of those groups disproportionately impacted, and an answer to the questions of how and why. The paper explores the potential impact on contemporary politics when many members of the public have faced traumatic loss and may not be prepared to accept ‘closure’ or to ‘move on’.