My doctoral research focuses on the impact of digital platforms on grief processes, digital remains (photos, videos, and messages left behind by deceased users), and the ethicalities of the rising digital death industry. My research includes exploring digital platforms (i.e., Instagram, TikTok, etc.) used for the purpose of mourning and continuing bonds with the deceased; the necessity for critical social and legal norms for guidance pertaining to access, ownership, and privacy of digital remains; and considerations for the societal and theoretical discourses surrounding the practice of digitally memorialising the dead.

My research amplifies the necessity for considering how and why online platforms are used as memorial spaces and whether current regulations in Canada adequately protect the digital dignity of the dead and the rights of their survivors.

Research interests

• Digital Remains and Postmortem Data Management
• Death, Mourning, and Remembrance on Digital Platforms
• The Digital Dignity, Ethicalities, and Potential for Commodification of Digital Remains

Dinneen, J. D., Krtalić, M., Davoudi, N., Hellmich, H., Ochsner, C., & Bressel, P. 2024. “Information science and the inevitable: A literature review at the intersection of death and information management.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 1-30.

Davoudi, N. 2023. “An Uncharted Liminality: The Transformative Impact of Social Media On Mourning in the Digital Age.” The iJournal: Student Journal of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, 9(1): 14 -34.

Davoudi, N. 2022. “Remember Death: An Examination of Death, Mourning, and Death Anxiety Within Islam.” Open Theology 8(1): 221–36.

O’Brien, H.L., Roll, I., Kampen, A., Davoudi, N. 2022. “Rethinking (Dis)engagement in human-computer interaction.” Computers in Human Behaviour 128,107109.