Hi, I’m Rafaela
I am a writer, researcher, and author. My work is death-adjacent and very, very grounded in Portugal, my deceptively macabre homeland. My writing has appeared in Atlas Obscura, Catapult, The Order of the Good Death, and TalkDeath, among others.
I hold a degree in Criminology and a master’s in Forensic Sciences. While I’m not currently affiliated with any academic institution, I continue to pursue independent research.
My first co-authored book, “Death and Funeral Practices in Portugal,” is out now from Routledge.
I’m interested in Death
(& related practices)
For my master’s thesis, I traced the past and present of Portuguese funerary practice, and tried my hardest to imagine a future inclusive of new funeral technologies like alkaline hydrolysis and natural burial.
My first co-authored book, “Death and Funeral Practices in Portugal,” is out now from Routledge.
The Dead
(& their display)
Some people get to rest in peace; others get slipped into glass cases in museums.
Over the years, I have profiled a number of dead bodies we can’t stop looking at: from Diogo Alves, the serial killer whose head is in a jar, to Saint Aurelius, a skeleton saint from the Roman catacombs.
& Bad Criminologists
Are criminals born or made? Ask a 19th century anthropologist and he might tell you they are born—as demonstrated by all those bumps in their skulls.Francisco Ferraz de Macedo was one such anthropologist, and I’ve been trying to peek over his shoulder.