NU faculty, students participate in International Death Festival

Last month, Nipissing University was an official sponsor of the International 'Lifting the Lid' Death Festival. Dr. Susan Srigley, Professor and Program Chair of Religions and Cultures at Nipissing, partnered with her colleagues in the United Kingdom, Jo Dagless and Victoria Keen, who founded the event. . A total of 1300 people registered for the festival from 42 countries with 157 collaborators and presenters. 

Dr. Srigley organized a panel with nursing students, Joren Wilcox and Haley Gignac, where they discussed the importance of death awareness and some of the specific needs related to death education in nursing. 

Another panel featured three Nipissing professors who spoke about their collaboratively taught course, "Death and A Dying Planet." Dr. Srigley and Professors Renée Valiquette and Sal Renshaw, combined their expertise in Death Studies, Environmental Humanities and Animal Studies to teach an interdisciplinary, applied course on the 'Wicked Problem' of climate change. 

Dr. Srigley moderated numerous panels, including an interfaith panel on death and dying, and a Q&A on Medically Assisted Dying (MAiD) with Dr. Stefanie Green. 

Registration is still open for a "replay" ticket for the Lifting the Lid Death Festival, which gives you access to all the recordings from the event: https://hopin.com/events/liftingthelid/registration  

Visit Dr. Srigley's newly launched website to learn more about "Death Ambassador" students and death teaching: https://www.nipissingu.ca/research/centres/death-ambassadors