Course Description
DEATH is a roving, reading-intensive, discussion- and
activity-based course that provides a topical tour of the
history of death and dying from the Neanderthals to now.
Students are expected to participate vividly in class projects
and to be less dead at the end of term.
Athena Title
DEATH: A Human History
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about the history of death by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of death shaped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward religion, ethics, and mortality, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
Topical Outline
- INTRODUCING THANATOLOGY: What does it to mean to take an historical approach to death and dying? In what sense is mortality the foundation of, well, everything? What was death and dying like in the Stone Age? How have past cultures differently imagined the beginning and end of themselves, and of time itself?
- DEATH BY DISEASE: How has what we die of changed over time? In what sense has disease been the prime mover in human history? How has disease shaped American history specifically? What is the "consumptive sublime" and how is it a key to understanding Victorian America? What exactly happened in 1918? How does contagion continue to haunt our imagination?
- DEATH BY WAR: How have technologies and "ways of war" changed between and within different cultures over time? How did the Civil War change American death ways? In what sense was World War I "midwife to modernity"? What went into the decision to drop the bomb on Hiroshima? How do we make war now? What role does the media play in our understanding of combat and its casualties?
- DEATH BY MALICE: In what sense is a duel or lynching a "social drama"? What role does death play in each of these dramas? How has our understanding of "murder" and "murderer" changed over time? How does the "spectacle" of death shape and reveal a culture that's processing an act of assassination or terrorism? Why are we fascinated by violent death?
- DEATH BY TIME: Medicine can certainly prolong life, but can it also protract death? How do we die now? What rituals do we practice, and what needs do they serve? Do we, in our health care policies, effectively made collective decisions about who lives and who dies in America? In what sense can we talk of the "death of dying"? Why are we so fascinated by the undead lately?
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
