Heather Conway – President

Heather Conway – President

Heather Conway is Professor of Law at Queen’s University Belfast, and specialises in the legal issues around funerals and dealing with the recently dead.

Key areas of interest include new and emerging bodily disposal technologies; the resolution of family disputes surrounding funerals and post-cremation ashes; exhumation and commemoration of the dead; and – more recently – how coronavirus restrictions and emergency powers have altered funerals, and how we deal with the dead.

Heather is the author of The Law and the Dead (Routledge, 2016) and numerous articles on the law and the dead. She has presented her work at international conferences, and delivered talks to a range of deathcare professionals including the National Association of Funeral Directors, the Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors and Cruse Bereavement UK.

As well as being current President of the Association for the Study of Death and Society, Heather is also a Council Member and trustee of The Cremation Society of Great Britain.