Dr Mórna O’Connor is a researcher and educator specialising in grief, bereavement, and digital culture. Her work explores how contemporary technologies intersect with experiences of grief, with a particular focus on how people engage with the digital traces of the dead over time.

She completed her PhD in Health Science at the University of Nottingham, where she conducted a longitudinal qualitative study on grief and deceased-related digital culture. She has since held research roles across the UK, Ireland, and Denmark, including a postdoctoral fellowship at Aarhus University, Denmark on the four-country project, Digital Death: Transforming History, Rituals and Afterlife.

Currently, she holds a Research Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship (2025-2027), examining technologies that simulate the dead and their role in grieving, in the project Incongruous afterlives? A theoretical and empirical examination of the pursuit of fidelity to the dead in the modern Digital Afterlife Industry’.

Mórna’s research spans digital afterlives, end-of-life care, and evolving cultural understandings of grief. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections, contributes to interdisciplinary collaborations, and delivers teaching and workshops to academic, professional and industry audiences.

Alongside her academic work, she is passionate about engaging with and learning from diverse audiences. She is a member of the international FutureMaking consortium, with whom she designs and curates public installations about digital citizenship, creator of interactive events about grief at music and arts festivals, and regular facilitator of Death Café events.