Since its beginning in May 2020, Rituals in the Making has developed in myriad ways, guided by the generosity of individuals and communities who have shared their experiences with death and mourning during the pandemic.
Here is a sampling of some of those conversations and observations from our fieldwork. They include excerpts from interviews, brief write-ups of events we attended and observed, as well as photo essays.
A Celebratory Virtual Launch
At noon EDT, we gathered—editors, contributors, our website designer, friends and family, students and colleagues—to celebrate the humble but monumental arrival into the world of the Cambridge Handbook for the Anthropology of Death.
The War within the Pandemic: An ICU Nurse’s Experience as a Frontline Worker
Date Posted: October 8, 2026
It was a war. And we were at the forefront, the front line of the war, and it hasn’t been recognized as one… when we’ve had a war, we have to debrief. And so, in World War II, the guys came home, and they made a lot of war movies…
The House
Date Posted: 08/18/2026
During those first months, Katherine would press her skin to the door frame and watch her dad work for hours with his tools, fixing things around the house, here and there, coming and going with his hands full of collectible toy cars, repositioning them millimeter by millimeter on the shelves after hours…
Americans won’t let COVID be erased from our memories
Date posted: 8/13/26
The losses at the height of the pandemic were real. The peril and exhaustion of essential workers. No effort to punish Anthony Fauci changes that.
Glossed Over: On Attending the Symposium at the Library of Congress
By Ed Koenig Edited by Martha Greenwald On March 12 and 13, 2026, the American Folklife Center, a part of the Library of Congress, in Washington, DC, presented a symposium entitled “From Lived Experience to Public Memory: Commemorating, Documenting, and Archiving Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” The event coincided with the sixth anniversary of the…
Why Caring for the Dead and Aid for the Living Matter: The Ebola Outbreak in the DRC
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, where people are living close to the dead body.” “These burial rituals must change. Local authorities … have limited the size of funerals.” – NPR, “Why are people…
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…
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…
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…
“Compassion and advocacy in the face of COVID”
Date posted: July 29, 2025.
An interview with Dr. Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez on adapting care during the pandemic and her commitment to long covid research.
“They looked at me as if I knew everything—but I was just trying to survive”
Date Posted: 12 July, 2025.
Egypt confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on Valentine’s Day, 2020. Since then, different measures were actively endorsed to contain the pandemic: schools and universities closed their doors, social distancing became the norm, a nationwide curfew was enforced, and many public hospitals were repurposed to isolation wards. As of…
A Spring of Unravel and Confusion: Drinking from the Firehose of COVID (and Vaccine) Media Coverage, April – June 2025
Date Posted: June 26, 2025.
An overview of the COVID (and vaccine) media coverage we’ve been tracking this spring and early summer (2025).
The Fabulous Fifth Floor
Date Posted: June 13, 2025.
When I sat down to interview Dene Garbow, I was surprised to discover that she had started the building museum gift shop in the 1980s. Dene has been living in a newly renovated apartment at Ingleside, a retirement community in northwest Washington, DC, since early 2020. My job was…
From World War II to Covid-19
Date Posted: June 13, 2025
For Page Hawk, 2020 began like any other year, with the exception, she told me, “of massive construction at Ingleside and the rapid spread of COVID-19.” Hawk spent the majority of her life in Washington, DC. She described her decision to move into independent living at Ingleside as a practical…
A Visit to the “Naming the Lost Memorial” on Opening Night 5/8/25
Date posted: May 30, 2025
Ed Koenig lives in New York City. Retired from a career in information systems, he is exploring writing and music. His partner of 33 years, Jody Settle, died during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. He has found solace in sharing stories on the WhoWeLost website…
LouVax, Four Years Later
Date posted: Abril 16, 2025
From January to late April 2021, the city of Louisville, Kentucky ran an elaborately coordinated COVID-19 vaccination site at Broadbent Arena within the Louisville Exposition Center grounds. The clinic administered over 100,000 shots and employed volunteers who put in over 76,000 hours.
The Work of Remembrance, 5 Years On: Rami’s Heart 5th Annual Lighting Ceremony
Date posted: March 31, 2025
Rituals in the Making joined Rami’s Heart Memorial for their fifth annual lighting ceremony on March 15, 2025.
Vignettes of Time: Reflections on the Week COVID Came to Be with Hanaan and Avery
Date posted: March 14, 2025
For Hanaan, COVID began in December when the news began reporting it, working as a volunteer in the ER and seeing people come in droves, fearing they had contracted this virus. But the world officially ‘ended’ when everything in the United States shut down. For Avery, it was a slow…
“This was History and we were her unwilling participants.”
Date posted: March 11, 2025
A small time capsule from GW Anthropology’s department captured the day in March 2020 when the campus stood still.
“All of Us Were Willing to Run into the Fire”
Date Posted: Feb 2, 2025.
An interview with Dr. Ashwin Shankar on Forging Community Bonds and Pediatric Healthcare during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Grief, Art, and the Pandemic: My Months in Mexico
Date Posted: May 4, 2025
As I traveled through Mexico, I became deeply interested in how often I encountered themes of death and grief within Mexican art. I visited Frida Kahlo’s historic Casa Azul and discovered that in her still life paintings, she hinted at deeper themes of death and pain. I toured the Casa…
For Noni and countless others, the pandemic reshaped daily life
DATE POSTED: MARCH 9, 2025
Moving to an assisted living home in the midst of a global pandemic might seem like a controversial choice, but for Ilona Lund (“Noni”) and her husband, the decision was simple. “The isolation, and not knowing how the pandemic was going to end, played a large role in our decision…
Lecture Recap with Jay Winter: “Surviving the Holocaust: The Mir Yeshiva from Vilna to Shanghai and Beyond”
Date Posted: Jan 31, 2025.
On January 16th, the Rituals in the Making team invited Jay Winter to discuss his current research on the history of the Mir Yeshiva and their story of survival.
Book Recommendation: COVID Chronicles
Date Posted: Jan 2, 2025.
Recently, I picked up the graphic novel COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology by various comic artists, who all experienced the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown differently [as we all did]. Grief, anxiety, hope, community, anger, frustration, love, care, creativity, politics, and despair are all themes touched upon through art in this…
Gift Baskets and Memory Making: Rami’s Heart COVID Memorial Holiday Bazaar
Date posted: December 23, 2024
RIM team members attended Rami’s Heart COVID Memorial holiday bazaar in November 2024.
Transience: Reading Freud Before and During the Pandemic
Date posted: December 14, 2024
Lear tells us that he read “On Transience” differently before and during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, he considered it merely a poignant meditation on ephemeral beauty, and the imagined losses of the impending war. After the pandemic, he read it as an allegory of Freud’s own process of mourning.
What We Were Reading and Writing: COVID Coverage in the Run-up to the 2024 Presidential Election
Date posted: November 17, 2024
In the run-up to the 2024 presidential election, RIM paid close attention to how and when the pandemic got mentioned.
“People want perfect healthcare; not good, perfect”
Date Posted: NOV 11, 2024.
On October 8, 2024, Avery Nennmann and Hanaan Khabir interviewed Dr. Bill Morris on his experiences during the early months of the pandemic for the More than a Healthcare Hero Initiative.
A Present Absence
Date Posted: OCT 1, 2024
Three years after In America: Remember installation was dismantled, Suzanne and her team of volunteers returned to the Mall for two days (September 21 and 22, 2024) to write down their memories of the installation and record oral histories.
“It Was the Most Stressful Year of My Career. Hands Down.”
Date Posted: Sep 16, 2024
An Interview with Dr. Eileen Gavin on Serving Native Communities During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“Our Day Was Just Trying to Get Through”
Date Posted: Sep 16, 2024
An Interview with Pulmonologist Corrine Moreland, NP on Caring for the First COVID Patients in Texas.
Because You Have Already Buried Your Dead
Date Posted: August 2, 2024
Elsa Maldonado’s quest to bury her mother reveals the human cost of institutional failures during Ecuador’s COVID-19 crisis. Her story of dual loss – a misplaced body and unidentified ashes – exposes the struggle for dignity in death amidst overwhelming casualties.
Memory Loss: COVID as a Slow Disaster
DATE POSTED: AUGUST 2, 2024.
On March 5, 2024, the Rituals in the Making team kicked off its pandemic reflection series with a virtual seminar and discussion on historicizing COVID-19 and its global commemoration.
Across Pixels and Wi-Fi Connections: Making Zoom Funerals Sacred
Date Posted: June 25, 2024
Does language always fail us when we struggle to communicate about loss, or grapple with the discomfort of online funerals?
Ritual in motion: Rami’s Heart Covid-19 Memorial 4th Annual 5k “Walk to Remember”
Date Posted: June 20, 2024
RIM team member Sarah Wagner joined in the memorial’s annual remembrance walk at Belmar Beach.
Observations from the RIM’s 2024 Pandemic Reflections Series finale
DATE POSTED: JUN 18, 2024.
Members of the RIM team participated in the March 6th event, “Where the Flags Are Today: A Visit to the Home of In America: Remember.”
In America: Remember “Sleuthing” – Tracing and Tracking Down Flags from the Installation
DATE POSTED: May 16, 2024.
Volunteers archiving the In America flags reflect on how they solve even the most challenging puzzles among the flag collection and database.
Pandemic Revisionism and Social Forgetting: Intersections and Reflections
DATE POSTED: May 16, 2024.
Research assistant, Paige Gavin, invited Dr. Nancy Bristow and Dr. Katelyn Jetelina to present their thoughts on this new phase of the pandemic.
“‘The Living Record of Your Memory’: Mourning and Memorializing Pandemic Loss,” a seminar and discussion hosted by Rituals in the Making
DATE POSTED: November 29, 2023.
On October 27, 2023, the Rituals in the Making team hosted its first virtual seminar and discussion on efforts to memorialize pandemic loss in the United States.
Contested Terms of Engagement: The House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Debates the So-called Sacred Doctor-Patient Relationship
DATE POSTED: November 13, 2023.
Researchers from the RIM team attended a third subcommittee hearing assessing government involvement in the local implementation of pandemic-era policy—and, (un)surprisingly, reproductive rights.
Expertise under Debate: Observations of Dueling Facts before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic
DATE POSTED: August 21, 2023.
Team members returned to the Rayburn Building on July 27, 2023, to attend a second subcommittee hearing, this time on COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
United We Stand, Divided We Fall: Notes on Rituals of Remembrance at the Kentucky COVID Memorial Dedication Ceremony
DATE POSTED: August 21, 2023.
Special advisor to “Rituals in the Making” and author of Who We Lost: A Portable COVID Memorial,Martha Greenwald reflects on one state’s decision to memorialize the pandemic.
Autism and the Challenge of grief during the COVID-19 pandemic
DATE POSTED: June 26, 2023.
Team member Roy Grinker met with a psychotherapist to talk about how neurodivergent young adults at a residential therapeutic boarding school coped with loss during the pandemic
From Tragedies to Talking Points: Observing Congressional Attempts to Assert Authority over COVID Grief and Blame
DATE POSTED: June 26, 2023.
Reflections on a recent House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on COVID deaths in nursing homes.
Memory and Affect: Comparing Experiences of COVID Loss in Brazil and the United States
DATE POSTED: May 29, 2023.
Sarah Wagner and Andreia Vicente presented a joint paper at a memory studies conference on “cut-off” ritual and its effect on mourning and commemoration.
RIM Research Assistant Bawi Par Presented Her Research, “Mediated COVID Grief in the Laizo Chin Community,” at GW’s Sigur Center for Asia Studies
DATE POSTED: May 29, 2023.
Originally born in Chin, Myanmar, Bawi came to the United States as a refugee with her family in 2010. Drawing on this background, in her presentation Bawi explored her community’s experience with COVID death, mourning, and funeral practice.
A Conversation with Dr. Christina Schwenkel on Vietnam’s Pandemic Soundscapes and Modes of Listening and Attunement
DATE POSTED: May 29, 2023.
Professor of Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies, Dr. Christina Schwenkel discussed a chapter from her forthcoming book on the sensorial and sociopolitical experiences of COVID-19 in Vietnam during the first months of lockdown.
May Research Team Retreat
DATE POSTED: May 29, 2023.
The Rituals in the Making team gathered at principal investigator Richard Grinker’s home in DC for the day.
2023 Conference for the American Comparative Literature Association
DATE POSTED: May 10, 2023.
Principal Investigator Dr. Joel Kuipers attended and presented his findings at the recent 2023 ACLA conference in Chicago.
Observing Remembrance: The third annual lighting ceremony at Rami’s Heart COVID-19 Memorial
DATE POSTED: April 17, 2023.
Five team members (Sarah Frieman, Paige Gavin, Maura Kelly-Yuoh, Sebastian Sirais, and Sarah Wagner) traveled up to the Allaire Community Farm in Wall, NJ to join the commemorative ceremony at the first permanent national memorial to COVID victims on March 19, 2023.
Voices of Funeral Service, Iowa
DATE POSTED: April 17, 2023.
Voices of Funeral Service, New York – African Diasporic Identity
DATE POSTED: April 17, 2023.
2023 GW Anthropology Department Symposium
DATE POSTED: April 17, 2023.
Several of our Research Assistants and Principle Investigators had the opportunity to present their independent research findings at the annual GW Anthropology Department Symposium.
Voices of Funeral Service, Virginia
DATE POSTED: April 17, 2023.
Voices of Funeral Service, Baltimore
DATE POSTED: April 10, 2023.
Voices of Funeral Service, New Jersey
DATE POSTED: April 10, 2023.
Culture Keepers
DATE POSTED: January 13, 2023.
Showcasing the “Culture Keepers” Research: Dr. Fletcher presents a preview of the oral history project on African American funeral homes
“It Feels Like We’re Putting Them to Rest”: The final day of cleaning and ordering the flags from the In America: Remember installation
DATE POSTED: January 13, 2023.
The 20,000 flags enter a new stage as a physical-digital archive of COVID loss and remembrance.
Voices of Funeral Service, Missouri
DATE POSTED: January 13, 2023.
Passed down through the generations in the African American community, funeral Service is a network of families forged by blood and bond.
Coding, Plotting, and Analyzing the Language of Misinformation: A deep dive into contested knowledge on social media
DATE POSTED: January 13, 2023.
Examining thousands of posts about COVID on social media, the CIC subteam is using qualitative database software to analyze them.
Materializing the Virtual: Engaging in Online and In-Person COVID-19 March to Remember Memorial Events
DATE POSTED: October 27, 2022.
Signs of Insistence and Resistance: Clashing Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic
DATE POSTED: October 27, 2022.
Field Notes from ‘In America, how could this happen…’
DATE POSTED: March 15, 2021.
In a way, these two signs create a moment of ironic condemnation. These are two institutions toward which many Americans look for safety and yet suspended between them is a representation of a quarter-million deceased citizens.
‘When Everything is Stripped Away, What is Left is All We Really Need’
DATE POSTED: March 15, 2021.
“I cut sprigs and then tucked them in the grave by the coffin. I think these were more meaningful than store-bought flowers because they were her flowers. Her azaleas.”
‘These Are Grievous Times’: In Memoriam at a Lutheran Church in Upstate New York
DATE POSTED: March 15, 2021.
“One of the most important human things we do is honor our dead and grieve.”
From Croatia to Rhode Island and Back: Struggling to Celebrate a life during the Pandemic
DATE POSTED: February 26, 2021.
“I also want to celebrate my mom’s life and I’m afraid Zoom would just be about her death. My parents had a beautiful life.”