Candi K. Cann, Ph.D.

Candi K. Cann, Ph.D., a professor of religion in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core in the Honors College, is a highly respected “death scholar” with expertise in the culture of death and dying, including funerary practices and the grieving process. She was named Baylor University’s Newsmaker of the Year (2021–2022) for her insights on how COVID-19 changed the way we mourn the loss of loved ones. 

With nearly one million lives lost to COVID-19 in the United States, the pandemic brought death into sharp focus, pushing conversations about mortality to the forefront – especially in the months before vaccines became available. Cann’s expertise brought a human-centered perspective to a topic that many find difficult to discuss. 

During her Newsmaker year, Cann was quoted in numerous national media articles on death-related topics, including how ideas of grieving are changing in Next Avenue, honoring the wishes of loved ones in Business Insiderand the experiences of Black funeral directors in the Kansas City Star.

A sought-out expert on death, dying and remembrance, Cann also has appeared twice on NPR’s Science Friday to discuss subjects ranging from social media platforms helping people memorialize the dead to the digital afterlife, as a guest on the BBC program Digital Planet about how the COVID-19 pandemic updated death rituals and moved grieving online and as an expert on how food is used in grieving rituals on Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio. In addition, her research has been covered in major outlets such as National Geographic, and her expertise on death and dying has been called upon by The Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, The Financial Times and many others.

ABOUT CANDI K. CANN, PH.D.

Candi K. Cann, Ph.D., is a noted death scholar and associate professor of religion who teaches in both the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC) in the Honors College and the Department of Religion at Baylor University. Her research focuses on death, dying and grief, and she is especially interested in the intersections of marginality, diversity and death technologies. Cann’s books include "Virtual Afterlives: Grieving the Dead in the 21st Century," "Dying to Eat: Cross Cultural Perspectives on Food, Death and the Afterlife" and "The Routledge Handbook of Death and Afterlife." She is called on often by media outlets for her expertise, including NPR Science Friday, various BBC radio programs, CSPAN's Book TV and Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio.