July 28, 2026 “There are a lot of customs, but traditionally, funerals are multi-day affairs. . . . which sometimes could take one, two or three days,… Read more “Why Caring for the Dead and Aid for the Living Matter: The Ebola Outbreak in the DRC”
Author: ritualsinthemaking
We’re Not Done Yet: Taking Stock and Charting a Path Forward
It’s been a little over a year since we learned that the National Science Foundation grant supporting the Rituals in the Making project was “terminated, effective immediately.” As we wrote in a recent essay for Anthropology News, just because we lost our funding doesn’t mean we’ve lost our drive to research and write about the lasting effects of pandemic loss on American society.
March 2026 – Steeped in the Yellows of Early Spring: Rami’s Heart COVID-19 Memorial Sixth Annual Lighting Ceremony
On March 28, 2026, Rituals in the Making traveled to Wall, NJ to attend the sixth annual lighting ceremony hosted by Rami’s Heart COVID-19 Memorial.
The Relentless Bully
Date Posted: March 23, 2026.
In the process of finding her voice as “a writer, observer, critical thinker, resister, and ally,” Dawn is continuing to evolve “as each new story finds its way into existence, continuously changing and transforming.”
At Naming the Lost Memorial, St. Mark’s in the Bowery
Date posted: November 16, 2025.
On November 2, 2025, a beautiful autumn afternoon in New York City, I attended the annual Día de Muertos ceremony sponsored by Mano o Mano, a New York City based Mexican cultural association. As part of this event, the COVID remembrance project, Naming the Lost Memorial, held its final presentation honoring the more than 46,000 New York City residents who have died from COVID-19. This concluded five years of work, throughout the five boroughs, putting names and faces to those who have been lost.
Ordinary Necropolitics: Presenting Loss at the 17th International DDD Conference in Utrecht, Netherlands
Date posted: September 19, 2025
The interdisciplinary space of the conference in the Netherlands provided members of the project a chance to present findings, learn from other scholars, and exchange ideas about death, mourning, and memorialization.
Reinventing the Wheel
Date posted: Sept 18, 2025
Hanaan Khabir interviewed Brett Hartford (he/him) on his experiences working with unhoused populations during the official years of the pandemic (March 2020-May 2023).
When tradition meets crisis: Egyptian Weddings during COVID-19
Date posted: September 9, 2025
Given the plethora of weddings I have attended, I naively thought that weddings were a fixed ceremony, a ritual with a durable sequence that brings two people together.
On Obscurity: Pandemic Memory Work and the National COVID Memorial Wall (UK)
Date posted: August 8, 2025
A reflection on the visibility, values, and demands of pandemic memory work at the UK’s national COVID memorial.
The Privilege of Hesitancy
Date posted: August 4, 2025
On May 16, 2025, Hanaan Khabir interviewed Eddy (she/her) on her experiences working with unhoused populations during the official years of the pandemic (March 2020-May 2023). She currently works as the director of a university-based organization that supports survivors of sexual violence, intimate-partner violence, and stalking. Before becoming director, she worked as a case manager on a sexual assault response team, providing the advocacy response for survivors of sexual assault, an agency that also included advocating in hospitals where SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) exams were conducted.