Reimagining Death Education at Queen's University

Abstract

University can be a tumultuous time for many students, bringing new opportunities, responsibilities, and independence into the forefront of our lives. This time of significant life change and can be stressful enough as is, but when you add grief and loss into the equation, things can become quickly overwhelming. Death is not given space in public discourse, resulting in a greater society that is in denial of the realities of loss, how it affects us and the inevitability that we will experience it in our lives. With the supervision of Dr. Dan Vena, I have created an online resource, Conversations with Death, designed to fill the gap on our campus, and provide critical, comprehensive and diverse information under the umbrella of grief, death and dying to stimulate open conversation and curiosity amongst our student body. Through consultations with various industry professionals such as funeral directors, charity organizers, death doulas, professors, and chaplains, I created various sections of this resource including international funeral practices, death positivity, body disposition, helpful grief practices and more. Furthermore, throughout this website there are a plethora of resources for students to investigate, whether this is for grief support or curiosity to learn more. By showcasing this resource, I wish to communicate how critical death education and death positivity are to creating a community on the Queen’s University campus where students are encouraged to be open about their experiences with death and grief while being supported by their peers and the university.