Christine Valentine

Christine holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Bath, which focused on the social-cultural shaping of grief and bereavement.

The findings from her PhD are published in the book Bereavement Narratives: Continuing Bonds in the 21st Century (See CDAS publications for details). She has undertaken further bereavement research in the Japanese context, interviewing bereaved Japanese people to explore how they negotiated traditional ancestral ideas in a secular, post-industrial context. Findings from both UK and Japanese studies have been published in various articles and edited collections (see publications list).

Working with Dr Kate Woodthorpe and Dr Hannah Rumble, on a project sponsored by Axa Sun Life Direct, Christine has examined systems of funeral welfare for people on low income both nationally and internationally. Funding from the HEIF has supported the dissemination of the research through conference presentations and academic articles (See CDAS research for further details).

Christine has supervised the bereavement aspects of the PhD ‘Offerings at the Wall: An exploration of the Artefacts at the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial, Washington’, University of Cardiff, which was successfully completed by the Revd Dr Paul Fitzpatrick in Oct 2011

She is a member of the supervision team for the PhD ‘A study of the lived experience of hope in relation in older people with advanced cancer in relation to end of life care in different settings’, successfully completed by Hong Chen in May 2013 through the Open University.

She was the external examiner for doctoral thesis: Bereavement after parental suicide: transcending chaos and disorder, by Dr Caroline Simone, University of Derby, July 2010 She was the internal examiner and chair for the doctoral thesis: The Grief of Nations: An analysis of how nations behave in the wake of loss, by Dr Ann Malamah-Thomas, University of Bath, Nov 2011.

Christine is a founder member of the Association for the Study of Death and Society (ASDS).

Research interests:
Individual, social, cultural and policy aspects of bereavement
Disadvantaged groups of bereaved people
Death policies and practices in cross-cultural comparison
Methodological and ethical challenges of death-related research