Donna Parlby

I am interested in the reactions to and representations of death and grief in everyday life. I am also interested in how identities can fractured due to bereavment. 

I enjoy researching, reading and analysing academic and fictional attempts to represent those topics and concepts.

My PhD is entitled Can the Dead Ever Stay Dead? Zombies, Contemporary Fiction and Monstrous Grief.

My thesis aims to disrupt traditional ways of thinking about and acknowledging death through the creation of a novel with associated critical commentary.

My PhD explores themes of death, bereavement, grief, and identity loss through the concept of the zombie. Through introducing zombie characters, it explores the presence of death in life, and the varied reactions that other characters have towards being faced with death in this way.

I belive my personal experiences and hearing about other people's experiences of death, grief and bereavement has helped create and develop this deep interest in why and how representations are created and can influence other people's expectations and experiences too. Therefore, both of my previous degrees dissertations have also been in a similar vein as my current PhD thesis.

My BA dissertation focused on the unreliability of narrators and the effects of the death of someone close to you.

My MA dissertation looked at sentient zombies and their alternative perspectives about death. 

I believe research should be made as accessible as possible and in the future I aim to continue to  instill that idea in everything I do within the academic field when it comes to presenting and writing research.