Digital Legacy Conference 2018 Organisers
⇝ James Norris
Digital Legacy Association, The Digital Legacy Conference and DeadSocial
James Norris is founder the Digital Legacy Association, The Digital Legacy Conference and DeadSocial. James’ goal is to help raise awareness and provide support around digital end of life planning. James and his work been featured in a range of publications and TV shows ranging from BBC Click to Jon Richardson’s Ultimate Worrier. His work has also featured on the Queen Latififa Show, Joan Bakewells, We Need to Talk about Death the Wall Street Journal and many more. James is also a guest lecturer at University College London (UCL) and sits on various healthcare, social care and legal steering groups.
⇝ Dr. Carla Sofka
Professor of Social Work at Siena College
Dr. Carla Sofka is a Professor of Social Work at Siena College in Loudonville, NY. A former medical and hospice social worker, she has been teaching death education courses since 1993. Carla coined the term “thanatechnology” in 1996 to describe the role that online resources were playing in death education and grief counseling and co-edited the book Dying, Death, and Grief in an Online Universe (Springer, 2012). She has presented her research internationally and has published book chapters and journal articles about her research on the role of digital and social media in coping with life threatening illness, impending death, and grief as well the topic of digital immortality. Her current research focuses on digital survivor advocacy as a strategy for coping with tragedy. Carla served as president of the Association for Death Education and Counseling from 2011-2012.