Socialising (with) the Dead (THEM309)
| Staff | Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou - Convenor |
|---|---|
| Credit Value | 15 |
| ECTS Value | 7.5 |
| NQF Level | 7 |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Co-requisites | None |
| Duration of Module | Term 2: 11 weeks; |
Module aims
This module has three aims: (1) to enable you to better understand death as a culturally-inflected social process, rather than only a physiological event; (2) to enable you to better understand the intersection of materiality and sociality in constructs of the body, personhood and identity; (3) to enable you to employ interdisciplinary approaches in analysing ancient and contemporary cultural preferences.
ILO: Module-specific skills
- 1. Demonstrate critical understanding of the diverse approaches taken in the broad field of death studies
- 2. Demonstrate reflective and critical skills in the analysis of a selected mortuary site, event, or associated practice
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
- 3. Demonstrate awareness of the intersection of materiality and sociality in selected cultural constructs and practices
- 4. Demonstrate awareness of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding ancient and/or contemporary cultural preferences
ILO: Personal and key skills
- 5. Offer critical reflection on academic literature and/or material data in an oral presentation
- 6. Analyse and/or discuss challenging topics with cultural sensitivity and emotional care
- 7. Plan, structure, and produce to deadline a piece of critical and reflective written work
Syllabus plan
While the content may vary from year to year, this module will usually include:
- Dynamics of death
- Refashioning the dead and making new bodies
- Disarticulating skeletons and re-organising bones
- Dismembering and defleshing
- Preservation and transformation
- Agency and ashes
- Troublesome corpses
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | 133 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 16 | Seminars variously led by module-leader and students |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching | 1 | 2 x 30 min 1:1 tutorial discussion of assessment plans |
| Guided Independent Study | 133 | Students working independently and/or in groups preparing for seminars and assessments |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presentation Outline | Up to 250 words | 1-4, 6 | Oral (tutorial) |
| Essay Outline | Up to 1000 words | 1-4, 6, 7 | Written and Oral (tutorial) |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oral presentation with PPT | 20 | 15-20 minutes | 1-6 | Oral and written |
| Essay | 80 | 4000 words | 1-4, 6, 7 | Written |
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oral presentation (15-20 minutes) | Illustrated essay (1500- 2000 words) | 1-6 | Referral/Deferral period |
| Essay (4000 words) | Essay (4000 words) | 1-4, 6, 7 | Referral/Deferral period |
Re-assessment notes
Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.
Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will be capped at 50%.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
- Jenny Hockey, Carol Komaromy and Kate Woodthorpe (eds.), The Matter of Death: Space, Place and Materiality (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
- Glennys Howarth, Death and Dying: A Sociological Introduction (Cambridge: Polity, 2007)
- Nicola Laneri (ed.), Performing Death: Social Analyses of Funerary Traditions in the Ancient Near East (Chicago: Oriental Institute, 2007)
- Colin Renfrew, Michael J. Boyd, Iain Morley (eds.), Death, Rituals, Social Order and the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World (Cambridge: CUP, 2016)
- John Robb and Oliver J. T. Harris, The Body in History: Europe from the Palaeolithic to the Future (Cambridge: CUP, 2013)
- Antonius C. G. M. Robben (ed.), A Companion to the Anthropology of Death (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell, 2018)
- Sarah Tarlow and Liv Nilsson Stultz (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial (Oxford: OUP, 2013)
- Aubrey Thamann and Kalliopi M. Christodoulaki (eds.), Beyond the Veil: Reflexive Studies on Death and Dying (New York: Berghahn, 2021)
- Tony Walters, Death in the Modern World (London: Sage, 2020)
- Howard Williams and Lorna-Jane Richardson (eds.), Death in the Contemporary World: Perspectives from Public Archaeology 8.2 (2018), Special Issue 3
Module has an active ELE page?
Yes
Available as distance learning?
No
Origin date
07/01/2022
Last revision date
18/05/2022
Key words search
Death, Body, Ritual, Culture