ABSTRACT
The different countries that death and dying researchers reside within often shape not only research agendas but also research methodologies. The United Kingdom and the United States are two examples of countries that share a common language and intellectual history but their discourses on death have been very different. These differences are partly explained through cultural practices, and also government funding of research, definitions of death and end-of-life planning education. In this article, we argue that early death scholarship in the United States impacted death research and outcomes in both the US and the UK, but that recent scholarship in both countries has caused the two countries to diverge in two major areas: (1) the methodological approaches to death studies and (2) the educational training of medical and hospice personnel in direct contact with the dying. We argue that in order for death studies to fully benefit from trans-Atlantic dialogue on death, both countries need to move towards a more integrated trans-disciplinary model.
