May 14, 2020

Funeral and burial service for Pandemic

By Dian Prasetyawati (dianp@uw.edu)
University of Washington

The author will give this presentation at the Pandemic Urbanism Symposium in a session titled “Virtual Culture,” from 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM on May 29, 2020.

COVID-19 pandemic disrupts daily activities from the cradle to the grave. In ‘normal’ period, the dying, the sick, and the old expect face-to-face contacts in preparing their end-of-life service, where family members could gather in hospice care aid or attend religious services and burial process in designated spaces. As the pandemic oversee an increase numbers of the dying in the daily statistic that overburden the health system and city services, many overlooked the unmet needs in end-of life services and burial process. Notably as social restriction tightens across the globe, family members abroad and those who abide the quarantine measures must now rely on the digital platform as the only means of connection. Reflecting from the perspective of International students in the US when dealing with family member’s death in Indonesia, the discussion seek to understand the extent of the use of digital platform in bridging connection across different countries in the Global South and the Global North and ask how public and private institutions adapt to the new normal in providing end-of-life services.