Moderator: Susana de Noronha (CES)


About

This final doctoral internship workshop presents the preliminary results of a qualitative study aimed at investigating the representations of death in our society. The specific case study concerns 20 dialogical and in-depth interviews with people who have gone through the experience of cancer (or were going through it at the time of the interview). Indeed, going through such a profound experience, which evokes anguish, can be a privileged observatory to capture the irruption of the thought of death in life. Cancer and the pain it causes in people's life trajectory are experiences that, more than others, make visible the forms and representations of dying. This project is, therefore, threefold: in the first part, there is an analysis of the state of the art of the three concepts: death, illness and mourning; in the second part, the interviews are analysed, following a thematic division; and in a last part the conclusion is presented, a synthesis that puts the first in dialogue with the second.


Bio note

Elisa Castellaccio is a final year PhD student in Sociology and Social Research at the Department of Sociology and Law, University of Bologna. Her research interests focus on health, ageing, ethics of care and studies on death. In particular, her doctoral thesis focuses on the social impact of Alzheimer's disease; the self-awareness of the disease; and the role of caregivers. Castellaccio carried out her doctoral internship at CES between February and July 2023.