Exploring the Role of Remembrance Photography in Parental Grief - Faustine Dufka
Faustine Dufka, a senior pursuing a degree in anthropology with College Honors, is featured on UW Today for her Honors thesis research.
Dufka investigated remembrance photography as a way to reveal how contemporary families cope with infant death. She interviewed parents, photographers and health care workers and volunteered at the Seattle-based nonprofit Soulumination, which provides free photography services to families with children 18 years old and younger facing life-threatening illnesses.
"Faustine's thesis is medical anthropology at its best," said Daniel Hoffman, a UW associate professor of anthropology and faculty adviser to Dufka's project. "She used careful observation to explore a real problem: How people experience and make sense of a personal tragedy within a larger social and medical context that doesn’t generally honor or assist them in grief."