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 - There is a lot of reading but honestly you can skim the books he assigns and as long as you can correlate the readings to what he discusses in lecture you will be fine. The slides are dense and there is a lot of material but he keeps it interesting and if you show up to class and take notes it's relatively easy. The sections really help to clear up anything confusing or the more dense topics. Midterm and final could both be done open note (2 pages back and front). Very low maintenance class overall, just take notes on the slides during lecture and you'll be fine. also timmerman's is a very interesting and engaging prof and makes class really fun and the material itself is super interesting to learn about.
Winter 2025 - There is a lot of reading but honestly you can skim the books he assigns and as long as you can correlate the readings to what he discusses in lecture you will be fine. The slides are dense and there is a lot of material but he keeps it interesting and if you show up to class and take notes it's relatively easy. The sections really help to clear up anything confusing or the more dense topics. Midterm and final could both be done open note (2 pages back and front). Very low maintenance class overall, just take notes on the slides during lecture and you'll be fine. also timmerman's is a very interesting and engaging prof and makes class really fun and the material itself is super interesting to learn about.
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