GRADE - Die (Post-)Graduiertenakademie der Goethe-Universität

New research agenda on grief and artificial intelligence (AI)

The Interdisciplinary Ageing Research working group (IAW) at the faculty of education is currently developing a new research agenda on grief and artificial intelligence (AI), situated at the intersection of environmental gerontology, cultural theory, digital sociology, and media studies. Within this planned project, we aim to explore how AI technologies (e.g., griefbots, grieftech) may transform mourning practices, concepts of authenticity, and social relationships around death and memory. As a first step towards the project, we are organizing a series of workshops. The first online workshop is entitled: 

 “Grief Practices and Artificial Intelligence: Transformations of the (Im)Perishable”. 

We would like to cordially invite you to join our workshop and to contribute your perspectives to the discussion. The workshop aims to provide a forum to share reflections and explore critical perspectives on how AI is transforming mourning practices, memory, and the meaning of loss.

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Ignacio Brescó de Luna (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Spain) and Dr. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) as our invited speakers, who will contribute their expertise and engage in discussion on the following topics:

• “Continuing Bonds in the Digital Age: Distributed Agency and Cultural Mediation in Griefbots” (Dr. Ignacio Brescó de Luna)
• “Deadbots: Exploring Grief Practices and Digital Immortality Across Cultures” (Dr. Katarzyna Nowaczyk-Basińska)

The workshop will take place on 26th of November 2025, 15:00 - 18:00 (CET) via Zoom. (For the link and program, please see the attachment.)

Further information is provided here.

If you are interested in participating, we kindly ask you to send a short confirmation by email to Klara Kümpfel (Kuempfel@em.uni-frankfurt.de).

We look forward to your response and to an inspiring discussion!