Marian Caulfield

Dr. Marian Caulfield Researcher in Ritual, Sound, Well-being, Eco-grief, Eco anxiety Marian's research explores the intersections of ritual, sound, and well-being, with a particular focus on the reimagining of traditional lament practices, especially Irish 'keening', as contemporary tools for emotional expression and communal healing.

Marian's work explores the intersections of ritual, sound, and well-being. Her PhD thesis, 'The Reimagining of Irish Lament for the Contemporary World' (April 2025), involved ethnographic fieldwork in Ireland and Finland, investigating how improvised vocal expressions of grief can foster therapeutic and transformative experiences.

This project examines how cultural traditions such as keening can be meaningfully adapted in modern contexts to support emotional expression and communal healing.

Marian's current research interest explores the emotional and psychological dimensions of ecological crisis, including eco-anxiety and eco-grief. She is particularly interested in how collective expression through lament and sound making in groups can support individuals and communities in processing environmental loss and climate-related distress.

Marian is a member of the COST Action CA23113 CliMent (Climate Change Impacts on Mental Health in Europe), contributing to a multidisciplinary working group focused on the cultural and psychological impacts of climate change.

Marian also serves as a third member of a support committee for a PhD student whose research investigates the effectiveness of ritual theatre and expressive arts, including keening, sound, and movement, for grief transformation in individuals experiencing ambiguous loss. This project draws on psychology, neurobiology, ritual praxis, leadership, cultural anthropology, and expressive arts-based therapeutic methods, aligning closely with Marian's own interdisciplinary approach. 

Marian is drawn to the area of 'sound' as a 'well-being' tool and her PhD project examines the budding efforts of those who are 're-imagining' the practice of sounding grief together, through improvised cry/singing otherwise known as 'lament'.

Marian has carried out fieldwork in both Ireland and Finland with groups who re-imagine older lament traditions to fit modern purposes. She particularly focuses on the recent efforts being made to re-imagine Irish lament 'keening' (or 'caoine' in the Irish language).

Marian examines the reported therapeutic effects of this non-musical vocality, brought forth by the body from deep within, and how it is considered as a tool for healing bodily and mental tensions. Marian utilizes fieldwork and ethnographic methodologies to analyze her participants reactions to 'sounding' together in somewhat 'risky' ways (such as crying and wailing).

In these settings, people tend to open up to witness with each other, their insecurities, fears and traumas. Marian is very interested in the challenges that these revival groups face when attempting to re-invent a lost or dying tradition to be repurposed in the modern world.

Marian has previously carried out a fieldwork project during her Masters studies in 2014 with experimental musicians in Ireland in search of the ‘spirituality’ which appeared to initially inspire many of the experimental musical luminaries of the sixties and seventies such as Stockhausen, La Monte Young, John Cage and Terry Riley. Marian's findings from this project have been published.

Teaching Undergraduate and Post-Graduate student to improve their academic skills such as: Reflective Writing, Cultures of Writing, Note--taking, Paraphrasing, Unpacking the Question, Building and Argument, How to Write an Essay, Presentation Skills, Assignment Planning and Structur,e Referencing

Delivery weekly tutorials to undergraduate students in the 'study of religions' covering: Indigenous religions Hinduism, Christianity, Paganism Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese religions, Islam, Judaism Sikhism Tutoring on second and third-year courses in : Indigenous Religions Hinduism and religions of India and South Asia’ Christianities in Global Age Examining theories and methodologies in: Anthropology, Sociology, Gender, Authority, Ritual, Terminology, Modernity, Identity, Colonialism, Asceticism, Orality/Literacy, Eco-Cosmology, Ancestor Worship