![]() | Isabelle Perreault |
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01.04.2025-25.04.2025
Unclaimed Bodies: a social and political autopsy.
This research focuses on the phenomenon of unclaimed bodies in Quebec over the past two decades. While the vast majority of studies on the subject are based on medical and quantitative data, produced in other national contexts, this qualitative study will focus on two types of unclaimed bodies: 1) the anonymous deceased, whose identities and links with relatives are unknown, or whose family members are all deceased; and 2) the deceased, whose bodies are refused or unclaimed after the formal death notice has been sent to members of the extended family. Using coroner's inquests, ethnographic interviews and a literature review, this research aims to produce a "social and political autopsy" of unclaimed bodies, i.e. a) to collect and analyze qualitative data on unclaimed bodies (socio-demographic data, living conditions and circumstances of death) and b) to uncover the processes, discourses and different actors (experts, interveners, volunteers) involved in their treatment before and after death.
The aim of this research is therefore to gain a better qualitative understanding, in the social sciences and humanities, of the phenomenon of unclaimed bodies in Quebec. More specifically, we aim to produce a social and political autopsy of unclaimed bodies.