As we hit the midway point of the spring semester, we’d like to remind you of all the exciting events we have for Spring 2022, especially our conference coming up soon on March 31-April 1, “The End of Life and What Comes Next: Perspectives from Healthcare, History, Anthropology, and Religion.” We have an exciting line-up of speakers and performances across disciplines and media. Check out the video at the link below for more information and head over to our website for schedule, details, and registration. Plus, stay tuned for some of our speakers to appear as guests on our Why Study Religion? series on the blog!

Dying Well Spring Events with Interim Director Hannibal Hamlin

Questions? Send an email at religion@osu.edu.

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Video Transcript:

Hi, I’m Hannibal Hamlin, the Director of the Center for Studies in Religion, and I’d like to announce the amazing group of events we’ve got planned for next term, Spring 2022. This is the last term of our two-year project, “Living Well, Dying Well,” sponsored by a generous grant from the Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme. This year is “dying well.” Last year, we focused on various aspects of health and life and living. This year, we’re focusing on the second part of the equation: dying well, death. And we have a variety of one-off events focusing on different aspects of death and dying in different cultures.

We also have a terrific conference planned March 31 and April 1 called “The End of Life and What Comes Next: Perspectives from Healthcare, History, Anthropology, and Religion,” where we’re bringing together a brilliant group of scholars who all address aspects of the big question, but again from their particular perspective. Our keynote lecture will be by Thomas Laqueur, the eminent historian, and our final event, a reading and talk by Thomas Lynch, will feature some of his poetry. He is, in addition to being a celebrated poet and a popular bestselling author, he is a former undertaker, and so his perspective on death and dying and what comes next will be particularly interesting.

In between, we have a variety of different events featuring topics related to East Asian and Asian funeral, death, and burial practices; we have a panel focusing on contemporary issues, ethical issues related to the healthcare industry and end of life; and we have another session that brings together some fascinating scholars who are going to be addressing a wide range of topics, including burial practices and the migration crisis in Europe, African American women and religious practices involving death and the afterlife, and in fact, Hoodoo conceptions of the afterlife. This will be a very exciting couple of days. There’ll be something for everybody, and I’m sure we’re all going to discover much more than we knew coming in with. I hope you will come to at least a few of these events, and if you’re like me you’ll want to attend them all.