Death and Dying

Catalog description

In the midst of life's many unknowns, one thing is inevitable: we are all going to die. And yet despite death's unflinching certainty, many of us are uncomfortable with considering, addressing, preparing for, or reflecting on death's undeniability. We'd rather ignore our mortality, only thinking about it when we're surprised by bad news or tragedy. This class aims to disrupt this avoidance and raise alternative perspectives about death and dying by providing space and structure for us to explore death as a physical, interpersonal, psychological, vocational, political, and spiritual phenomenon. By analyzing the experience of doctors, morticians, artists, lawyers, terminally ill patients, and journalists, this class asks: What is death? How do people journey toward their own death and through the deaths of others? What perspectives about death can we gain from people who confront death as part of their daily work? How has death become politicized? How do we respond to death's mysteries and unknowns? By raising these questions, this class aims to empower students to understand death's realities and complexities, to gain confidence in how they might make end-of-life choices, and to find mooring within the difficulties death raises. Senior standing required.