OUR STORY

When a flame flickers out, does the wax know it was lit? is a digital archive created in Fall 2025 to record memorials and forms of memorialization during the SIT IHP Death and Dying Fall 2025 program, across three countries: Ghana, Mexico, and Indonesia. Memorials are markers of a person’s life on earth and usually reflect the deceased’s impact on their family and community. The individuality of memorials between ethnic groups and individuals creates a medium for cross-cultural comparison as well as inter-cultural comparison regarding socioeconomic status, gender, and age. By putting the memorials in conversation with one another using the filter options, site visitors engage with questions such as: Who is remembered? Is everyone remembered equally? Who remembers the dead? Questioning what it means to be memorialized in a society, by whom, and in what manner is a necessary conversation in a world where people are more disconnected than ever before.