Kalima CARRIGAN

Contact
Ph.D. in Sociology - Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam; Representative for Early-Career Researchers - National Platform for Research on the End of Life
Looking for collaboration opportunities national and international
Assignment
  • Amsterdam Institute for Social Sciences Research (AISSR)
    AISSR
    Departement de sciences sociales et comportamentales, Université d'Amsterdam
    Roetersstraat 11
    1018 WB Amsterdam
Disciplines
Research topics
Keywords
  • Biography
  • Semiotics
  • Existential Distress
  • Autonomy
  • Euthanasia / Assisted suicide
Populations
Types of Research
Research activities

My research focuses on narrative, biographical, and identity changes at the end of life. In particular, I am interested in the non-rational aspects of choosing to die by assisted suicide, the debate on autonomy, narrative plurality, and the search for meaning at the end of life. My theoretical contributions include the concepts of “biographical contraction” and “biographical closure” at the end of life. I have collaborated on several research projects in the semiotics of death at the Center for Semiotics, Aarhus University (Denmark), as well as on psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies for the treatment of existential distress.

Publications

  • Carrigan, K. (2026). The Last Stop. A Biographical Approach to a Chosen Death in Switzerland. Doctoral Thesis. Successfully defended at the University of Amsterdam, March 31 2026. 

  • Carrigan, K. (2023). One-way ticket to Zürich: Presentations of Suicide Tourism in European News Media. Mortality.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13576275.2023.2242791

  • Carrigan, K.; François, M.; Dubus, Z.; Fauvel, B. (2022). L'anxiété et la dépression liées à la fin de vie soulagées par psychothérapie assistée de psychédéliques, in Auriac-Slusarczyk, E. (dir.), Revue Education, Santé, Sociétés,  Vol. 8, No. 2. La mort. Comment l’aborder ? Aspects sanitaires, pédagogiques, cliniques et culturels, pp. 151-170 https://hal.science/hal-03787453

  • Carrigan, K. (2022). Drinking the Moksha: A short history of the use of psychedelics at the end of life. Book chapter. Borrowed Time: on Death, Dying, and Change. Art.Earth https://artearthbooks.com/bookshop/borrowed-time/

  • Carrigan, K. (2020). Sperling, D. Suicide Tourism: Understanding the Legal, Philosophical and Socio‐Political Dimensions. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2019. Book review. Sociology of Health and Illness. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9566.13151

Mes propositions de partenariats / collaboration

La quête de sens en fin de vie
Biographie et questions identitaires
Recherche narrative
Détresse existentielle
Epistémologie et phenomenologie de la fin de vie
Interventions artistiques
Psychothérapie assistée par psychédéliques

Scientific networks and/or associations
  • European Sociological Association
  • Plateforme nationale pour la recherche sur la fin de vie
  • Centre for Death and Society (Bath University)