Professor William Dooley’s Gerontology 314 class hosted a Death Cafe on Thursday, April 5, in room 343 of Gooch Hall. The Death Cafe is a discussion group with the objective of increasing awareness of death to help people make the most of their lives.
The Death Cafe is an open discussion about death with no agenda, objective or theme. The event, which was coordinated by the students of Gerontology 314, gives people a comfortable place to talk about uncomfortable topics. Attendees are encouraged to talk about anything they want or choose a random topic or fun fact from a bowl on the table. Around the room, groups talked about how to explain death to children, opinions on physician-assisted suicide, the phenomenon of elderly couples dying within a short time of one another and much more.
When asked what he hopes attendees got out of the event, Dreon Cash, a junior Family and Consumer Science major from Memphis, said, “I hope people understand the concept of death more and will be open more to talk about it because it is essential to life and everybody goes through it.”
The Death Cafe model was developed and first hosted in 2011 by Jon Underwood and Sue Barsky Reid in Hackney, East London. Since its inception, the Death Cafe has grown to over 50 countries around the world. The Death Cafe was first introduced to the U.S. by Lizzy Miles in Columbus, Ohio.
Information about the global Death Cafe and a guide to running your own Death Cafe can be found at their website www.deathcafe.com, on their Facebook facebook.com/deathcafe and on their twitter @deathcafe.
Attendees of Death Cafe discuss different topics of death in room 343 of Gooch Hall on Thursday, April 5. (Photo credit: Justin Lagace)
