About

The Digital Legacy Conference (DLC) and the Death Online Research Symposium (DORS) will come together in Birmingham in May 2027 for a major international event examining how digital technologies are transforming death, bereavement, end-of-life planning, identity and legacy. 

This is the first time that DORs and the DLC will host their international conferences together. They will take place over the course of three days.The conference will be hosted at the University of Birmingham, a leading Russell Group university which, in July 2026, ranked first in the Russell Group and among the UK’s top ten universities in the National Student Survey.

The combined conference will bring together approximately 90–100 daily delegates from academia, professional practice, policymaking, technology, healthcare, palliative care, bereavement support and the charitable sector.

The programme will include:

• international keynote speakers;
• academic and professional panels;
• practitioner workshops and policy roundtables;
• up to three parallel conference streams;
• approximately 55–65 research and professional presentations;
• exhibition and networking opportunities;
• a public-facing session examining the social and regulatory implications of digital death.

About the Digital Legacy Conference

The Digital Legacy Conference is an international, not-for-profit conference organised by the Digital Legacy Association. It examines society’s changing attitudes and practices in relation to technology, end-of-life planning, death and bereavement.

The conference supports professionals working in palliative and hospice care, healthcare, social care, bereavement, law, estate planning, policy and technology. Previous editions have taken place in London, Berlin, New York, Rotterdam, Bern and Taipei.

Further information: https://digitallegacyconference.com/

About the Death Online Research Symposium

The Death Online Research Symposium is the principal symposium of the international Death Online Research Network.

Established in 2013, the network supports interdisciplinary research on death, digital media and digital culture. DORS brings together scholars working across law, media and communications, sociology, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, cultural studies, human–computer interaction and death studies.

Further information: https://conferences.au.dk/dors8

Conference themes

The programme will address emerging questions including:

• professional standards for digital legacy and end-of-life planning
• digital assets, digital remains and estate planning;
• succession law and fiduciary practice;
• online memorialisation and social-media legacies;
• generative AI, deathbots and digital resurrection;
• technology-supported bereavement and continuing bonds;
• marginalised representations and digital death
• challenges in studying digital death
• interrelations between online and offline practices in mourning
• histories and religion of digital death.