Kate Morris

Research project

Archaeologies of Bereavement: The use of objects during grieving, 1850-1900

Supervisor/s: Dr Penny Bickle, Dr Jon Finch

Objects created, and used by, the bereaved following a death, have received comparatively little scholarly attention compared with objects related to the burial and subsequent commemoration of the deceased. The late-nineteenth century represents a period where material culture related to mourning and grieving reached an unprecedented level, both in regard to the amount and variety produced, and in societal acceptance of highly visible mourning. In contrast, it was also a period with a dichotomic relationship to emotion, in which art and literature often displayed highly sentimentalised themes, but overt, physical emotional reactions were generally not socially acceptable. Though contemporary grief theory has been used as a theoretical framework for understanding past grieving behaviours little attention has been paid to material-focused contemporary research. This thesis aims to explore the use of contemporary grief theory as an interpretive lens, through four case studies, and to then evaluate the effectiveness of this lens in the interpretation of past material culture.

Profile

Kate completed a BA (Hons) in Historical Archaeology and an MA in Funerary Archaeology at the University of York. Their thesis focuses on the affective and mnemonic properties of objects used during grieving in the late-nineteenth century. Their wider research interests are focused on urban social culture, consumerism, and social class in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They work as a specialist academic tutor for neurodivergent university students and as an assistant administrator for the Participatory Museums project.

Publications

Morris, K. (2023) ‘Dualities of Function: Archaeological Approaches to the Study of Movement and Space within late-Victorian Department Stores, Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens, 97 Printemps, [Online] https://doi.org/10.4000/cve.12906                             

Morris, K. and Bickle, P. (2022) “Finding Difference in Emotional Communities: New Feminisms of Women's Lives in the Nineteenth Century ce and Sixth Millennium bce” Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 32(2). pp.309-319 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0959774321000585

Conferences

2024                                                                        

• ‘Mourning and Grieving in Victorian England’, Copmanthorpe Women’s Institute (Invited Talk)
• Writing through Grief: Narrative Meaning-Making in Nonconformist Death Memoirs’, Centre for Eighteenth Century Studies Conference, University of York (Paper)

2023

• ‘The Victorian Memoir (and what it can tell us about death and meaning- making)’, PGR Symposium, Department of Archaeology, University of York (Paper)
• ‘Archaeologies of Bereavement: the creation of objects following bereavement in the second half of the nineteenth century’, HRC Doctoral Fellowship Presentation Competition, University of York (Presentation)

2022                                                   

• ‘Difference Defined but not Defining: Utilising emotional communities to access varied lifeways’, Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference, University of Edinburgh (Paper)
• ‘Archaeologies of Bereavement: The use of objects in grief and mourning, 1850-1914’, Archaeological Research Forum, University of York (Presentation)
• “Visitor or Consumer?: The Curation of Women’s Movement within Retail Leisure Spaces”, Société Française des Études Victoriennes et Édouardiennes Annual Conference (Paper)

2021

• “‘Nothing left to recall her to us’: Grief, Masculinity and the Material”, Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference (Paper)
• “Archaeological Approaches to the Study of Victorian Mourning”, Funerary Archaeology Research Group, University of York (Presentation)

Memberships

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Early Career Member of the Royal Historical Society

Member of the British Association for Victorian Studies

Member of the Société Française des Études Victoriennes et Edouardiennes

Academic Awards

HRC Doctoral Fellow, 2023-4

Prize for Best Dissertation, MA Funerary Archaeology, 2016-7

Teaching and Impact

Undergraduate

1st Year: Artefacts and Materials (2020-2022)

1st Year: Archaeological Theory (2020-2022)

2nd Year: Themes is Historical Archaeology: Archaeology of the Modern World (2022)

Specialist (ASC) Study Skills Tutor for Spectrum First Ltd (2022-Present