ABOUT

The collaboration between the three research centers explores the theme of “dark matters.” We began in September 2015 with a co-organized international meeting on “heritage of death” whose success yielded this edited volume.   Routledge, 2015The co-PIs of the Dark Matters Project are:
Dr. Helaine Silverman (Anthropology, UIUC: helaine[at]illinois.edu)
Dr. Mattias Frihammar (Ethnology, SU: 
mattias.frihammar[at]etnologi.su.se)
Dr. Mike Robinson (IIICH, UBham: m.d.robinson[at]bham.ac.uk). 

The Dark Matters Project focuses on places, histories, heritages, culture, events, sensory expressions and scientific and lay knowledge that raise conflicting emotions or evoke dark associations. Dark matters shape meanings and values globally, nationally and locally. How people and societies cope with dark matters has been a human endeavor and performance for many thousands of years. And dark necessarily implies its opposite: spaces and opportunities for light, brightness, warmth, openness, reconciliation — and so forth.

This website presents some of the infinite range of topics that can be encompassed by the Dark Matters Project. The project welcomes participants from all fields.