Blog Posts

Death and Dying During the Pandemic

Last January the nation was suffering from an unimaginable number of deaths from Covid-19. Thousands were dying every day, terrible deaths, often alone. That same month I was teaching a class titled Death and Dying. So, what could our class say about the pandemic?

It was overwhelming to me at first. I knew that we had to talk about thousands of deaths but how? We had less than three weeks to cover an already difficult topic. We were in the middle of ongoing trauma. What would help most?

I decided that what I needed to do was to let go. I needed to let students find their own way. To discover their own voices.

While several students chose to reflect on their personal beliefs, some used art and poetry to express their feelings of loss and their own relationship with the dead. Some wrote more traditional research papers and others found creative applications a useful way to learn the material. There was so much to discuss that our daily meetings in the course were both substantive and active.

I’d like you to see this video about student work from this class. I am proud of them all. https://youtu.be/BSkXO5KfGNA.

Thank you Jeffrey Pohorski for producing this video.