SOCIOL 138
Death, Dying, and Afterlife
Description: (Formerly numbered M138.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. 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.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Winter 2025 - I found this class interesting and worthwhile. You can tell Timmermans is enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about the class content. I found the first half of the quarter where we learned about things like what it means to die a good death and the politics behind hospice care the most interesting. If you put some effort in to take thorough notes in lecture and understand the main ideas of the readings (which some might say are a lot, but this is college after all) this class is totally do-able. Reaction papers were a breeze and we could use some notes for the midterm and final.
Winter 2025 - I found this class interesting and worthwhile. You can tell Timmermans is enthusiastic and very knowledgeable about the class content. I found the first half of the quarter where we learned about things like what it means to die a good death and the politics behind hospice care the most interesting. If you put some effort in to take thorough notes in lecture and understand the main ideas of the readings (which some might say are a lot, but this is college after all) this class is totally do-able. Reaction papers were a breeze and we could use some notes for the midterm and final.
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