Death, Dying, and Afterlife

(Formerly numbered M138.) Social analysis of social inequities in death, understanding of what constitutes good death, how we make sense of bad deaths, how to dispose of death, and what constitutes appropriate grieving. Death remains at foundation of discipline of sociology. Suicide does not occur randomly but is stratified according to social factors such as age, gender, race, sexual orientation, and class. Review of strength of sociological argument and evaluation of explanatory potential of different theories to make sense of death. Examination of historic and contemporary studies to examine how research and conceptualizations of death and dying have changed, and social responses to these phenomena.

P/NP or letter grading.