Dr Edina Harbinja
Associate Professor of Law
Birmingham Law School
Academic profile of Dr Edina Harbinja, Associate Professor at Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham
Call for Papers, Panels and Practice/Policy Contributions
University of Birmingham is hosting the Digital Legacy Conference and Death Online Research Symposium 2027.
- DateThursday, 27 May 2027, 09:00 - Friday, 28 May 2027, 17:00 (UK)
- LocationEdgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre, 53 Edgbaston Park Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2RS
- Contact
Join us for the Digital Death in Context and Practice: Care, Legacy, Culture and Society.
The Digital Legacy Conference (DLC) and the Death Online Research Symposium (DORS) will come together in Birmingham on the 27-28 May 2027. Through a new collaboration and in partnership with University of Birmingham, the conference will explore how digital technologies are reshaping death, dying, bereavement, memory, legacy and relationships with the dead.
The Death Online Research Network was established in 2013 to foster an international and cross-disciplinary research environment concerned with death in an increasingly digital society. DORS has since developed into an international forum for research on digital death across disciplines and methodological traditions. The Digital Legacy Association has supported professionals and the general public in areas relating to digital assets and digital legacy since 2015. Their Digital Legacy Conference brings a complementary professional and public-facing perspective, connecting research with practice across end-of-life care, bereavement, law, policy, technology, digital legacy and digital estate planning.
The 2027 collaboration deliberately brings these two communities together while retaining each community's distinctive identity. DORS will continue to provide a space for rigorous academic research and interdisciplinary exchange, while DLC will foreground professional practice, policy, care, public engagement and the practical consequences of living and dying in a digital society. The combined programme will create opportunities for dialogue across these communities, including dedicated academic and practice-oriented sessions and, where appropriate, mixed panels that bring different perspectives into conversation.
Conference theme: Digital Death in Context and Practice
Digital technologies are no longer simply an additional environment in which death and mourning take place. They increasingly shape the social, cultural, legal, professional and material contexts in which people prepare for death, experience bereavement, remember the dead and manage the digital traces, assets and identities that remain.
We therefore invite contributions that examine both the contexts through which digital death acquires meaning and the practices through which individuals, communities, professionals, institutions and technologies respond to it.
We particularly welcome contributions that cross disciplinary or professional boundaries and create dialogue between research, policy and practice.
Submission deadline: 27 November 2026
Notification of decisions: 18 December 2026
Themes
Themes
We invite proposals addressing, without being restricted to:
- online mortality and post-mortem digital lives
- electronic inheritances, virtual remains, digital assets, and online estates
- automated technologies, autonomous systems, and end-of-life care environments
- virtual preservation and digital resurrection technologies
- bereavement, mourning expressions, and ongoing connections in online spaces
- networked commemoration spaces and virtual cemeteries
- collective grieving practices and digital mourning networks
- intersections connecting physical and virtual bereavement customs
- advance planning and preparations concerning a digital death
- inheritance arrangements, succession legalities, and fiduciary responsibilities
- jurisprudential, governance, and policy frameworks regarding post-mortem data
- industry benchmarks and professional practice concerning digital remain management
- hospice support, medical care, social work, and grief guidance
- faith traditions, ceremonies, and electronic mortality
- sociocultural and historical insights on mortality in technological eras
- technological accessibility, inclusion, and underrepresented voices
- memorial service innovations and webcasting funerals
- synthetic environments, extended reality, and simulated spaces
- ethical technology creation, system design, and provider accountability
- methodological approaches and hurdles when studying online death
- evolving practitioner roles within increasingly tech-mediated end-of-life settings
Submissions outside these focus areas are equally welcomed provided they engage the central dialogue between death, digital technologies, care, legacy, society and culture.
Types of contribution
Reflecting the collaborative character of DLC × DORS, we welcome several forms of submission.
Academic papers
Academic papers
Please submit:
- title
- abstract of up to 250 words
- author name(s), affiliation(s) and contact details
- a short biography up to 100 words of each presenting author
Practice and policy contributions
Practice and policy contributions
We particularly welcome contributions from practitioners, policymakers, professional organisations, charities, healthcare and bereavement professionals, legal professionals, technologists and others working directly with issues of digital death and digital legacy.
These contributions might present:
- an emerging professional challenge
- a case study or example of practice
- policy or regulatory developments
- professional guidance or standards
- service or technology design
- lessons from implementation
- an issue on which dialogue with researchers would be particularly valuable
Please submit a proposal of up to 250 words, explaining the issue, experience or intervention you would like to share and its relevance to the conference theme.
Panels
Panels
We welcome proposals for complete panels of up to four contributions. Panels may be wholly academic, wholly practice/policy focused, or deliberately combine academic and professional perspectives.
Panel proposals should include:
- a panel title;
- an overall description of up to 250 words
- individual abstracts of up to 250 words each
- names, affiliations, contact details and a short biography (up to 100 words) for all contributors and the proposed chair
Alternative and interactive formats
Alternative and interactive formats
We also welcome proposals for workshops, roundtables, facilitated discussions or other formats that encourage dialogue across academic and professional communities. Please explain the proposed format, participants and intended outcomes in up to 250 words.
Building the programme
Building the programme
Submissions may identify themselves primarily with DORS/research, DLC/practice and policy, or both. This will help the organisers develop a programme that preserves the character of both events while creating meaningful points of overlap.
The organising committee may group individual submissions into thematic panels. Where appropriate, we may also develop mixed academic–practice panels in order to bring complementary perspectives into dialogue.
We particularly encourage submissions from doctoral researchers, early-career researchers and professionals at earlier stages of their careers, as well as contributions from disciplines, communities and professional settings that have historically been less visible in digital death research.
Important information for DORS#8 accepted abstracts
Important information for DORS#8 accepted abstracts
The Birmingham event represents a new collaborative edition and a revised conference concept. Abstracts previously accepted or submitted for the planned DORS#8 event in Denmark 2026 will therefore not transfer automatically.
We warmly encourage previous DORS#8 contributors to join us in Birmingham, but all proposals must be resubmitted through the new 2027 submission process. Authors are welcome to resubmit their previous proposal unchanged where appropriate, or revise it in light of the new conference theme and collaborative DLC × DORS format.
Submission and review
Deadline for submissions: 27 November 2026
Academic submissions will be reviewed for quality, originality and relevance to the conference themes. Practice and policy submissions will be assessed for relevance, contribution to professional or policy discussion, and potential value to the interdisciplinary conference audience.
Applicants will be notified of decisions by 18 December 2026.
To support a broad and diverse programme, participants will normally be accepted to present one contribution as first/presenting author, although they may additionally participate as a co-author, chair, panellist or roundtable contributor.
Registration and conference dates
Notification of decisions: 18 December 2026
Registration: January–March 2027
Conference: 27–28 May 2027
Venue: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Park Hotel, Birmingham, UK
Registration information, fees and accommodation details will be published separately.
The conference is planned as an on-site event only. It will not be live-streamed.
About the collaboration
The 2027 conference represents the first collaborative edition bringing together the Digital Legacy Conference and Death Online Research Symposium.
Rather than merging the two events into a single model, the programme will retain their complementary strengths: DORS as an international interdisciplinary research forum and DLC as a space connecting research with professional practice, policy, care and public engagement.
Our ambition is to create sustained dialogue between those who study digital death and those who encounter its consequences in professional and everyday life, and, in doing so, to develop new ways of thinking together about care, legacy, society and culture in an increasingly digital experience of death.
About the host
The conference will be hosted at the Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham, a leading Russell Group university with established strengths across law, artificial intelligence, digital technologies, health, ethics and interdisciplinary research.
The Birmingham co-host, Dr Edina Harbinja, Associate Professor of Law at Birmingham Law School, is an internationally leading scholar of digital death, digital assets, post-mortem privacy, and AI-mediated afterlives, and has co-led major European work on the succession of digital assets, data, and other digital remains.
For questions about submissions or the conference, please contact Dr Edina Harbinja at e.harbinja@bham.ac.uk.
Location
Address
Edgbaston Park Hotel and Conference Centre53 Edgbaston Park RoadEdgbastonBirminghamB15 2RS