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
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will learn to: 1. Read, discuss, and interrogate theories and methods of death studies scholarship 2. Develop original qualitative and quantitative research questions through collaborative interactions with peers and the instructor 3. Find, analyze, and interpret primary historical documents, including both qualitative and quantitative evidence 4. Properly cite documentary evidence and develop an understanding of why citation is central to the development of knowledge 5. Think critically about the use of digital tools for data visualization and humanistic inquiry 6. Compose well-organized, insightful, original narrative prose in formats appropriate to publication 7. Develop critical perspectives on the ethics and intellectual consequences of pursuing and publishing humanities research in a digital environment
Topical Outline
Every iteration of the course is unique because it is created collaboratively between students and faculty, usually around a semester-long common research project. In the past, typical topics have included: 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?