Dr. Joy M. Giguere

Sometimes a chat with your local butcher can lead you down a very curious rabbit hole and that is exactly what happened to this week's returning guest, historian Joy Giguere, on this latest episode of the Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery podcast. Some history is easy to miss until you know what you’re looking for. In the 1920s, a surge of organized intolerance swept through American towns. It showed up in parades, in politics, and in the way some communities marked their dead. This episode traces how that movement tried to make itself permanent, and what the grave markers left behind can still teach us today. Joy has been looking at archival records, historical newspapers, and local histories to understand how extremism became normalized, and in some cases, has been engraved in stone. This episode is heavy. It’s important. And it’s not ancient history. Content note: This episode discusses historical racism and extremism in the 1920s. It is presented for educational purposes. W…

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne are excited to share Part 2 of our discussion with author Joy Giguere on "Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-century America". They explore how the rural cemetery movement transformed the funeral industry, especially following the civil war. The rise of funeral homes to handle the duties surrounding the deceased, hospitals as a place for the dying, and h...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. This week on The Ordinary Extraordinary Cemetery, Jennie and Dianne welcome Joy Giguere back to discuss her new book "Pleasure Grounds of Death: The Rural Cemetery in Nineteenth-century America". They chat about the rise of rural cemeteries in the United States, including Mount Auburn Cemetery's pioneering design to the nationwide movement it inspired. Tune in for part one of a conversation about...

Send us a text! We love hearing from listeners. If you'd like a response, please include your email. Jennie and Dianne are joined by first time guest Dr. Joy Giguere to learn how American burial grounds changed from merely Ordinary Extraordinary places of interment, to rural landscapes meant to appear natural and ease the burden of grief, to the streamlined lawn cemeteries we often see today. Dr. Joy M. Giguere is an associate professor of history at Penn State York where she teaches courses in ...