Dr Christine Valentine
Teaching Fellow &
Research Officer
3 East 4.13
Email: c.a.valentine@bath.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 1225 38 3885
ESRC Research Funding
Christine has secured a large research grant from the ESRC to carry out a 3 year qualitative study entitled ‘Understanding and responding to those bereaved through their family members’ alcohol or drug misuse’ based in the Centre for Death and Society and in collaboration with the University of Stirling. The project will run from July 2012 to July 2015.
Profile
Christine holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Bath, which focused on the social and cultural shaping of grief and bereavement.
The findings from her PhD research form the basis of her book published in 2008 by Routledge as Bereavement Narratives: Continuing Bonds in the 21st Century (See CDAS publications for details). Christine’s interest in the social and cultural aspects of bereavement has included carrying out further research in the Japanese context. Based at the University of Tokyo from October 2007 to September 2008, she interviewed bereaved Japanese individuals about their experiences of losing loved ones and how they negotiated traditional ancestral ideas and forms in a secular, postindustrial context. The findings from her research in both UK and Japanese contexts have been published in various articles and edited collections (see publications list).
Christine is currently engaged in research, based in the Centre for Death and Society, sponsored byAxa Sun Life Direct to examine the process and experience of applying to the Funeral Payments Scheme as part of the Department for Work and Pensions' Social Fund. The research team, which also includes Dr Hannah Rumble and Dr Kate Woodthorpe, is interviewing applicants to the Scheme in the UK and investigating international comparisons. Funding from the HEIF will support the dissemination of the research through conference presentations and academic articles. The project runs from Jan 2012 to May 2012 (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’, by Hong Chen, 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
Teaching
Foundation Degree in Funeral Services
- SP10059 Workplace Learning 1
- SP20019 Workplace Learning 2
- SP20188 Global Funeral Ritual and Ceremony
- SP20197 Understanding Grief and Bereavement
Undergraduate
- SP10059 Principles and Uses of Social Science
- SP10043 Introduction to Sociology
- SP10002 Social Problems and Social Policy
- SP10159 Social Research Presentation and Communication
- SP10044 Introduction to Sociology B
- SP10001 Social Policy, Welfare and the State
- SP20177 Sociology of the Body
- SP20069 Philosophy of the Social Sciences
Publications
Book/s
Valentine, C., 2008. Bereavement narratives: continuing bonds in the 21st century. Abingdon: Routledge.
Book Sections
Valentine, C. A., 2009. Ancestor Veneration, Japanese. In: Bryant, C. D. and Peck, D. L., eds. Encyclopaedia of Death and Human Experience. Vol. 1. London: Sage, pp. 45-48.
Valentine, C. A., 2008. Contemporary perspectives on grief and bereavement. In: Jupp, P., ed. Death Our Future: Christian Theology and Funeral Practice. London: Epworth Press, pp. 55-67.
Articles
Woodthorpe, K., Rumble, H. and Valentine, C., 2013. Putting ‘the grave’ into social policy : state support for funerals in contemporary UK society. Journal of Social Policy, 42 (3), pp. 605-622.
Valentine, C. and Woodthorpe, K., 2013. Forthcoming. From the cradle to the grave : funeral welfare from an international perspective. Social Policy & Administration
Valentine, C., 2013. Forthcoming. Identity and postmortem relationships in the narratives of British and Japanese mourners : Identity and Postmortem Relationships. Sociological Review
Valentine, C. A., 2010. The role of the ancestral tradition in bereavement in contemporary Japanese society. Mortality, 15 (4), pp. 275-293.
Valentine, C. A., 2010. Identity and the Good Death in the Narratives of Bereaved Japanese People. Grief Matters: The Australian Journal of Grief and Bereavement, 13 (3), pp. 82-86.
Valentine, C. A., 2010. The role of the corpse in bereavement. Funeral Director Monthly, 93 (11).
Valentine, C. A., 2009. Negotiating a loved one's dying in contemporary Japanese society. Mortality, 14 (1), pp. 34-52.
Valentine, C. A., 2009. A Contemporary Ars Moriendi? Death Studies, 33 (4), pp. 382-388.
Valentine, C. A., 2009. Continuing bonds after bereavement: a cross-cultural perspective. Bereavement Care, 28 (2), pp. 6-11.
Valentine, C. A., 2009. Japanese ambivalence about traditional mourning requirements. Pharos International: the Official Journal of the Cremation Society of Great Britain and the International Cremation Federation, 2009 (Autumn), pp. 42-43.
Valentine, C. A., 2009. The Role of the Funeral in some Contemporary Bereavement Narratives. Funeral Director Monthly, 92 (1).
Valentine, C., 2007. Methodological Reflections: attending and tending to the role of the researcher in the construction of bereavement narratives. Qualitative Social Work, 6 (2), pp. 159-176.
Valentine, C., 2007. The "moment of death". Omega: Journal of Death & Dying, 55 (3), pp. 219-236.
Valentine, C., 2006. Academic constructions of bereavement. Mortality, 11 (1), pp. 57-78.
