SWRK - 250. Death, Diversity & Pop Culture

3 credit(s)
This Franciscan Concern - Diversity course will facilitate a student’s ability to compare and contrast beliefs, practices, and legal/ethical issues related to life-threatening and terminal illness/the dying process, death, and rituals/customs related to funerals and grief from historical, religious/spiritual, and cultural perspectives. Factors that influence individual and societal reactions to death-related and non-death loss events will also be examined. Since digital and social media are changing how our society deals with these thanatology-related issues, the ways that “thanatechnology” is being used across the lifespan by those who are ill, dying, and grieving will be explored. Potential benefits, risks, and ethical dilemmas regarding the availability of these resources will be discussed. Field trips will provide opportunities to learn about the process of planning a funeral and options for the disposition of human remains (burial vs. cremation) as well as how museums (e.g., the NYS Museum - World Trade Center exhibit) serve as healing spaces to cope with tragedy. The presence of thanatology-related issues in popular culture will also be explored.

Attribute: ARTS, AMSB, CFD