Dr. Julie Rugg heads the Cemetery Research Group at the University of York (UK).
Dr Rugg specialises in cemetery history and cemetery policy in England, specifically within the UK, and across Europe generally. Her work has explored the cultural contexts for cemetery development, including patterns of urban development, religious political difference and the public health discourses.
Her book Churchyard and Cemetery: Tradition and Modernity in Rural North Yorkshire (2013) explained elements of the legal history of burial in England from 1850 to the present and also charted ways in which the burial landscape changed over time.
Dr Rugg’s interest in policy encompasses aspects of cemetery management including measures to protect and conserve burial landscapes. She sits on the Ministry of Justice Burial and Cremation Advisory Board and the Ethics Committee of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Each year in May she hosts an international cemetery colloquium at the University of York.
More on the website: http://www.york.ac.uk/chp/crg/