Professor Erica Borgstrom
Professor of Medical Anthropology & Open Media Fellow, School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care (WELS), The Open University
Biography
Erica Borgstrom is a Professor of Medical Anthropology at The Open University (OU). She is internationally renowned for her research on palliative and end-of-life care and her leadership in death studies. Her latest book - Critical Approaches to Death, Dying and Bereavement - is co-authored with Dr Renske Visser and published by Routledge.
Aligned with the Jame Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership work with Marie Curie, she led a project identifying research areas in palliative and end of life care for the social sciences and humanities (available via the To Know Dying report).
She co-directs the Centre for Open Thanatology, The Open University’s interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to the study and education of death, dying, loss, and grief across the life course and in diverse contexts.
She has previously been a council member for the Association for the Study of Death and Society, and study group lead focusing on Death, Dying and Bereavement for the British Sociological Association.
She is a book editor for the Death and Culture series (published by Bristol University Press) and was recently co-Editor in Chief for Mortality, an interdisciplinary, international death studies journal.
Prof Borgstrom is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).
​
Session
Friday 12 March
09:10-09:50
Quays Theatre
​
Morning Plenary - Dying on Whose Terms? Science, Society, and Politics at the End of Life
We often hear that people should be able to "die on their own terms" – a hope and promise of individual choice and autonomy. But what actually shapes these terms, and ultimately, how one dies? Drawing on anthropological research, Professor Erica Borgstrom explores how end of life choices are shaped by science, society and politics and how this plays out in healthcare systems and family life. By considering how medical practices, policy frameworks and relational dynamics influence how the end of life plays out, this session encourages us to critically question how the current management of dying enables and limits how dying is experienced and what choices can exist in this context.
​