From Mourning Veils to Veiled Mourning

A Brief History of American Death Culture

Kate Sweeney tours folks through nineteenth-century American death culture and reveals how the Victorians invented nearly everything we think of when we think "mourning." It also explores the reasons we have come so far from that mourning culture. This fun and thought-provoking talk touches on many of the interesting facets of death and mourning, from Victorian hair craft to how embalming got its start.

About Kate Sweeney

Kate Sweeney is a writer and podcast producer living in Atlanta. Her book American Afterlife (University of Georgia Press) won a Georgia Author of the Year Award. Her writing has appeared in Paste, Full Grown People, Oxford American, Atlanta magazine, Utne Reader, New South, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, among other places. A journalist with 90.1 WABE for more than a decade, Kate produced the first season of the podcast Buried Truths, which won Peabody and Robert F. Kennedy awards. Her radio features have earned five Edward R. Murrow Awards and numerous Associated Press awards. She teaches Creative Writing at Emory Continuing Education.

Headshot from Kate Sweeney

Event image credit: isitsharp from Getty Images Signature via Canva.com

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