IHP Death & Dying

Dying to Know: Interdisciplinary Seminar on Death – syllabus
(IDST3500 / 4 credits)

This core interdisciplinary seminar takes the conversations of critical death studies and expands them across the globe. Students will learn about cross-cultural death rites, the rise of the death avoidant attitudes, the operations—and exploitations—of deathcare industries across cultural contexts, the forensic and social post-mortem processing of the dead body, elderhood, and the complex emotionality of death. Students will trace out deathways in each location to explore the many routes dead bodies and their mourners may take. Students will also engage with diverse texts, media, and art that reflect, shape, and challenge attitudes toward death and dying. Through these multipronged lines of inquiry, this course will equip students with the functional knowledge and skills to integrate end-of-life planning into their life and career plans.

Cross-cultural Perspectives on Death, Dying, and Bereavement – syllabus
(ANTH3000 / 4 credits)

Although death is universal, there is no universal experience of death and dying. Dissatisfaction with deathways at home has led many to imagine othered, better deaths elsewhere. This course demystifies “the elsewhere.” This course explores death, dying, and bereavement from the perspective of comparative cultural anthropology with an emphasis on beliefs, ontologies, funerary rites, and post-mortem practices. The course will broadly survey different regional and cultural contexts accompanied by in–depth discussion of the attitudes, symbols, practices, and positionalities of participants. Through the process of learning anthropological perspectives in the context of death practices, the course will challenge imagined indigeneities and clarify how explorations of the unfamiliar may operate as a reflexive tool to show that a person’s own culture or worldview is one among many, rather than a norm through which difference is understood.

Sociology of Death: Deaths that Count and Lives that Matter – syllabus
(SOCI3000 / 4 credits)

Death comes to us all—but not equally. This course examines necropolitics, or the social and political structures that dictate who becomes “fit to die.” These valuations of life are often captured in stark differences in mortality and morbidity rates across populations. Often, such deaths may appear natural. In reality, they tell us more about the power structures that affirm or deny people’s humanity, and segregate people’s lifeways so that some may die slowly, less theatrically, and away from view. Deep dives into global, national, and local mortality/morbidity rates will expose the presence of structural violence that leads to slow death. While these data often highlight problems, they do not always tell us about the why, how, or what next, which are instead rendered visible through a more qualitative lens favored in experiential learning. In this course, students will look deeper into how categories of “subaltern” come to be, how political deaths are naturalized, how deathways diverge by inequalities, and how death drives social movements as we seek to revalue lives lost to quiet violence. On site visits, students will engage with sites of active social memory and activists advocating for social change. Students will also examine how structures of valuation of human life are tied to political and scientific histories, and explore other trajectories in Indigenous science and technologies studies that lead to differing valuations of life.

Project Death: Community Engagement and Ethical Inquiry – syllabus
(ISIH3000 / 4 credits)

This course incorporates two modalities of project-based learning—community action and self-directed inquiry—to enhance students’ understanding of death and dying. Project Death is an uncommon opportunity for students to curate their own engagement with death through research, partnership, and creative or academic outputs. At each location, students will have opportunities to engage with local organizations and contribute to relevant community-initiated projects. Through their participation and guidance from host communities and partners, students will gain experience in respectful collaboration and intercultural communication as they gain insights into how local communities care for their dead, dying, and bereaved. Students will further apply what they have learned about ethical and appropriate engagement with host communities to their inquiry-based projects wherein they explore divergent responses to their research questions. Through these forms of project-based learning, students will develop a holistic and informed perspective on death and dying.