As part of a service project, students from the Perspectives on Death and Dying course paint pumpkins at Welcome Home of Chattanooga. Photo by Chapel Cowden.
While discussing death is a taboo subject for many, for Chapel Cowden it is a course topic she embraces.
Cowden, a health and science librarian and UC Foundation professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, teaches Perspectives on Death and Dying.
She said the course is one of the most requested every year. Available to students in the Honors College, the course examines death from various angles.
“There are other courses on campus—there’s one in philosophy that looks at death from a philosophical standpoint. There’s one in health and human performance that looks at some of the medical aspects. We pull a lot of those aspects into a single class,” she said.
When is someone dead? Does death come with brain death? What is a good death? How would someone choose to be memorialized? These are among the questions students consider, according to Cowden.
“The root of why we teach the class is that we want them to be comfortable thinking and talking about death,” she explained. “Death is a taboo topic in our society. It’s not one that we want to talk about. When we do elect to talk about it, we’re often seen as morbid.
“How do we talk about it in relation to how we live our lives? Understanding more about death helps us live better lives.”
The course looks slightly different from past years.
Assistant Professor of Sociology Natalie Blanton joined the course to teach alongside Cowden, providing a different perspective on death.
“I’m bringing in some context of here’s where we’re at environmentally,” Blanton said. “This is what it really means. How are we going to keep living and making meaning and thriving under the current circumstances? Taking that forward and having some death literacy, being able to talk about it more comfortably, and also positioning it under this macro-global setting.”
This fall, Cowden and Blanton added a service-learning project.
Partnered with Welcome Home of Chattanooga—a local nonprofit serving individuals facing serious illness or death, many of whom experienced houselessness—students painted pumpkins for the organization’s residents’ room.
“This year, we thought it would be good for us to actually see the work on the ground a little bit, and understand what it is they’re doing and what purpose they’re serving in the community,” Cowden said.
The organization helps people in the lowest socioeconomic environment, according to Cowden. There is a cancer respite center that provides access to health care for people who may not be able to afford treatment.
She explained that the organization offers more than just medical treatment or shelter to program participants.
“It’s about connection,” she said. “These people have been living on the streets with no one and no access to their families. Many of them do find their way back to their family, to smooth over past family troubles or traumas—just be there for each other in the end.”
Welcome Home of Chattanooga honors every resident with their name on a tree mural.
“It’s just a very reverent, powerful thing to witness when you first come in,” Blanton said. “I feel like they’ve done such a brilliant job of making it feel so comforting. It does feel like a home when you walk in.
“Watching that type of memorialization and celebration of life be centered and made really important for students to sit with because we have them talk about what they would envision for their own end of life. If they could make a good death happen, what would it look like or how would they memorialize their loved ones if they could choose to do so in their own ways?”
Cowden hopes students take away an appreciation for these difficult conversations and realize the necessity of being prepared.
“In society, we don’t talk about death,” she said. “We don’t want to talk about death. We don’t want to think about that being something that hovers out here. We don’t want to think about our family dying, and nobody wants to spend all their time doing that—but we can’t make conscious decisions unless we know what’s out there and what to expect.”
