JINS 332 - Death and Dying

Death is a part of life. We all grieve, mourn, memorialize, and eventually, die ourselves. Despite the essential nature of death, how it is understood and addressed depends upon social and historical contexts. This course maps shifting attitudes toward death, the body, and mourning through U.S. history, as well as the business of death in contemporary United States. Topics include the funeral industry, cremation, the green burial movement, and evolving memorial practices. Attention will also be paid to social inequalities in deathcare and the political power of the corpse. We will draw from scholarship in sociology, religious studies, geography, anthropology, and ritual studies to demystify the intra and interpersonal dimensions of death and dying.

Prerequisite: JINS eligibility (55-95 credits applied).
Credit(s): 3
Course Attribute(s):

This course fulfills the Junior Interdisciplinary Writing-Enhanced Seminar Interconnecting Perspective of the Dialogues.
This is a writing-enhanced course.