Kari Lerum publishes on death rituals in Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy

IAS faculty member Kari Lerum recently published an article in Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy about her class, “Death Rituals” (previously featured as a UW Bothell news story). The article, “Teaching death rituals during states of emergency: Centering death positivity, anti-racism, grief, & ritual,” provides an overview of dominant and divergent disciplinary pathways in which death and dying are typically taught, and argues for incorporating expansive epistemologies which center death positivity, anti-racist/oppression principles, grief, and ritual.

The article summarizes the theoretical and activist inspirations for each of these areas, explains how each were operationalized in class, and assesses their pedagogical effectiveness. As a supplement to the article, Lerum also created a publicly accessible supplementary digital site which summarizes the course themes, readings, and activities.