SOCI 335 - Sociology of Death, Dying and Grieving (RI)

Focuses on the structural and cultural elements surrounding death and dying. Students examine death from the perspective of US- based health-care professionals, family members, institutions, the funeral industry, and the dying themselves. In so doing, students discuss who has access to “a good death,” ethical issues in how death is defined, how these realities are shaped by structural inequalities, and policy suggestions for the future. Initially, students focus on intersections between death and dying, COVID-19, race, gender, and age. From there the course readings expand out to biographical, journalistic and social science sources to explore cross-cultural rituals of death, dying, and grieving. This course fulfills a community-based (CB) learning component, as students visit (in some cases, virtually) a hospice home for the dying and/or a funeral home, and a local cemetery, participate in a Death Café, and explore writing their own obituaries. This course also counts as a Research Intensive (RI) course.

Credits: 1.0
Prerequisites:

SOCI 201

SOCI 250

Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: None
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts CORE: None

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