Staff profile

Georgina Robinson (AFHEA) is a PhD student within the Department of Theology and Religion and Centre for Death and Life Studies at Durham University. Her research focuses on the prospective introduction of alkaline hydrolysis as a funerary option in the United Kingdom, studying how the process may become accepted and normalised in the future, consolidating cultural, religious, and non-religious beliefs about life, death, and funerals. Her PhD questions whether the British public, secular-religious institutions, and funeral industry will accept alkaline hydrolysis as a new funerary form. Georgina has a Master of Arts in Religion and Society and Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Religion, both awarded by Durham University. Her interest in death studies began to blossom in the final year of her undergraduate degree and became consolidated as a primary research interest during her masters degree. In 2018, Georgina was awarded the Cremation Society of Great Britain’s Cremation and Burial Communication and Education Bursary. Georgina began her Theology PhD, supervised by Professor Douglas Davies and Professor Mathew Guest, in October 2020. Georgina is a Teaching Assistant at Durham University, primarily leading seminars for undergraduate modules including ‘Death, Ritual and Belief’, ‘Emotion, Identity and Religion’, 'Sects, Prophets, Gurus' and ‘Worldview, Faith and Identity’. She has given guest lectures for ‘Death, Ritual and Belief’ based on her ongoing PhD research, and for ‘Sects, Prophets and Gurus’ based on the work of her undergraduate dissertation. Georgina is a Council Member of the Association for the Study of Death and Society, acting as the Postgraduate Representative of the Association.

Chapter in book

• Robinson, Georgina M. (2023). Alkaline Hydrolysis in the United Kingdom. In The Sustainable Dead: Searching for the Intolerable. McManus, Ruth Cambridge Scholars Publishing. 76-92.

Conference Paper

• Robinson, Georgina M. (2022), Sustainable Deathstyles: Alkaline Hydrolysis in the United Kingdom, Redesigning Deathcare. University of Melbourne, Australia.
• Robinson, Georgina M. (2021), Resomation: the UK's Fourth Funerary Option?, The 15th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal: Diversity and Decolonisation. Manchester, England.

Journal Article

• Robinson, Georgina M. (2021). Dying to Go Green: The Introduction of Resomation in the United Kingdom. Religions 12(2): 97.
• Robinson, Georgina (2020). The Disposal of the Body: Environmental Concerns. Pharos International 86(1): 42-46.