Author: Timothy Knepper

Lucy Bregman

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The central focus for Christians has been on the death of Jesus Christ; it is his dying and death and resurrection that have shaped what Christians have believed, taught, and hoped. In this lecture, some of the implications and limits of this model for death will be brought to light. While we recognize enormous diversity in practice and actual experiences of Christians, some issues persist in the way this tradition has understood how death fits within the totality of human existence.

Lucy Bregman has been at Temple University since 1974 and is the author of several books on death and dying, including Death in the Midst of Life, Beyond Silence and Denial, and Preaching Death. She has also chaired the American Academy of Religion’s program unit on Death, Dying and Beyond.

To listen to the audio of the lecture:

Eduardo González

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The “cult of Santa Muerte” (Saint Death) is the fastest growing and most prominent religious movement in Mexico today. Prof. González’s Comparison Project lecture explores the worship of Santa Muerte in the city of Guadalajara, focusing both on the general ways in which the church of Santa Muerte offers “a place for everyone” and on the specific ways in which Santa Muerte serves the needs of migrants attempting the crossing to the United States.

Eduardo González Velázquez is is a Research Professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. He won the Jalisco Journalism Award in 2009 and 2007 in the category of reporting and writing respectively. He has published thirty articles and book chapters, including “Ciudadanos a la Mitad.” His current area of research is US-Mexico migration.

View Gonzalez’s PPT and listen to his lecture.  

Dr. Allen Zagoren, DO, MPA, FACOS, FACN
Associate Professor of Public Administration in the College of Business and Public Administration, Drake University

Thursday, September 17th
Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center, Drake University

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Dr. Zagoren’s Comparison Project presentation takes the audience on a journey through humanity’s continued confrontation with death, with an emphasis on our attempts to prolong the inevitable.  Along the way, the audience will gaze at western society’s attempt to define and depict the dying process, inspect the role that human technology has played in redefining and ultimately confusing the end of life, and look out at the potential impact of future technology.  Influenced by the bestselling book How We Die by Sherwin Nuland, Dr. Zagoren’s presentation, like Nuland’s, is grounded in a physician’s observations.  But Dr. Zagoren’s presentation travels beyond medicine and science to art and music, underscoring the central mystery that is our death. 

Dr. Allen Zagoren is Associate Professor of Public Administration in the College of Business and Public Administration at Drake University, where he also serves as Chairperson of the Department of Management and Public Administration and the Graduate Curriculum Committee.  He is a trained General And Trauma Surgeon with subspecialty training in Interventional Nutrition and Wound Healing.  He currently serves as the Medical Director of the Wound Healing Collaborative at Unity Point Health System, Central Iowa.  Dr. Zagoren’s areas of expertise include health education in health policy and bio-ethics.

Dr. Zagoren’s powerpoint and audio