The University of Rhode Island’s Thanatology program within the College of Nursing allows students to study how death affects behavior.
Thanatology is a very broad topic that includes many different aspects of how death affects a person. These aspects include how death impacts one’s behavior, suicide shown in films, difficult conversations, spirituality in death and more.
The foundation of the program is to study the impacts of loss, death and grief. Other departments at URI also participate in this program including religion, human development and family studies, communications, psychology and more.
“Because the study of thanatology itself is interdisciplinary, students can take courses in a variety of different departments,” Lecturer Sara Murphy said. “Whether psychology, HDF or communications, that will give them additional skills and knowledge to add onto their specialized study in death, dying and bereavement.”
This interdisciplinary program allows students to broaden their spectrum of learning and understand death from different perspectives. With this knowledge, it is a possibility for students to obtain a job as a psychiatrist, social worker, teacher or other jobs relating to the program.
Many students had positive feedback about the different courses that the program offers. Alicia Southland, a junior at URI, is minoring in Thanatology and has been swept away with the knowledge she has retained from the classes she has taken so far.
“It really allows you to look back at things that you have gone through and things that you’re going through and not only apply them to yourself, but your field,” Southland said.
Southland is majoring in human development and family studies, and applies this to her personal life as well as her future career possibilities as well. She stressed the fact that every person goes through some sort of loss, therefore thanatology is applicable to everyone, especially people in her field of study. Southland wants to help adults and kids in a way that others may not be able to when it comes to loss.
“It helps you look at someone as a whole and really try and be empathetic and give them that validation that what they are going through is okay,” Southland said.
Southland is ultimately aiming to retain enough knowledge to be able to help people work through loss in their life and eventually move forward. To gain the knowledge for her possible future career, Southland has to take multiple courses that fall under Thanatology.
Thanatology is taught in many different ways and there isn’t just one specific method behind this study. Death is a broad subject and has many different levels to it, making it interesting to the students. This program allows students to learn the different theories behind death and bereavement and how to navigate them.
“There are many many different ways that people can helpfully grieve and helpfully be assistive to people who are dying or grieving,” Murphy said. “We study a lot of theories but also a lot of practical methods for being able to navigate safely through grief and navigate lives in which many different kinds of losses will occur.”
Murphy is not only pleased to be able to share and spread her knowledge of Thanatology, but she is also proud to be a part of the Thanatology program here at URI. The study of death is not common in high schools or colleges, so the fact that URI offers this program, makes her more than happy to be a part of this unique program.
“We have one of the only Thanatology programs in the country currently,” Murphy said.
Murphy believes that seeing her students progress in this program is what truly makes her job all worth it.
“I have the best job in the world,” Murphy said. “I never have to question that these courses make an impact on students because I see it happening in real time and I get to go to work everyday and see students take charge of their lives and take charge of their grief.”
She wants to share her love for teaching thanatology around campus and highly recommends this program to any student who is drawn to the subject. Murphy believes that the classes that students will take, will definitely aid them in many ways in their life and future.
“I would recommend any student who is drawn to the subject matter or who has a particular topic that they are really interested in, that no course has been offered on before in their high school careers or other departments, to feel welcome and jump in and join the party,” Murphy said. “This is a program unlike any other.”