Disruptive Bodies: Death and Burial in Early Modern England and WWI France

This conference brings together two international speakers to illuminate the disruptive potential of dead bodies in different contexts. Martin Christ (University of Erfurt, Germany) will talk about the plague epidemic that struck London in 1665, asking how dead bodies were placed, analysed and used. He argues that while initially disruptive, these times of crisis were also highly dynamic. Meriam N. Belli (University of Iowa, USA) will examine French funeral practices during the First World War, paying particular attention to Muslim colonial soldiers. She shows that while the science of body disposal could and can technically adapt burial methods to religious prescriptions, French institutions did not then, and do not now, seek to do so.