Seminars

Death

  • Founded
    1971
  • Seminar Number
    507

This interdisciplinary seminar critically engages with aspects of death, dying, disposal and grief. Presentations and discussions explore topics from both academic and clinical perspectives in areas as diverse as medicine, psychology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, religion, law, politics, architecture, and the media. In recent years the seminar has focused on contemporary developments in technology, culture and society. Attendance is maintained at a level that provides members with ample opportunity for active participation.

Seminar Website

Co-Chairs
Karla Rothstein
kmsr16@columbia.edu

Christina Staudt
christinastaudt@gmail.com

Rapporteur
Nikita Shepard
ns3307@columbia.edu

Meeting Schedule

10/11/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:15 PM

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11/08/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:15 PM

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12/13/2023 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:15 PM

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01/14/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:15 PM

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03/13/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:15 PM

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04/10/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:15 PM
The Torments of Despair Masquerading as Hope: Anticipating Medical Aid in Dying and Discovering Hope, Differently
Ashley Moyse, Columbia University Medical Center




05/08/2024 Faculty House, Columbia University
7:15 PM
Aesthetics: Expanding Life through/beyond “Life’s Ending”
Kei Okada,
Abstract

Abstract

This presentation introduces aesthetics as a missing aspect in end-of-life care. Finding beauty (vs. doing right) is an attribute of human life that offers value and meaning -- a quality that even fulfills life. Kei Okada examines the relational and transformative nature of our sense of time and symbolic associations as important context and "media" in end-of-life communication; and explores holistically how we may expand our body-mind-spirit senses with curiosity to notice, attend, and encourage new connections in meaning-making and experiential knowledge, in order to reconcile reason with intuition, health with illness, gain with loss, joy with grief, ending with beginning, life with death, becoming whole.