Death, Dying, and Beyond Unit

We are proposing one regular session and one workshop. The Death, Dying, and Beyond Unit invites papers on the topic of “Death and Disability.” Our primary session will be a selection of papers on the intersection of death and disability, ranging from thinking about how disability shapes the dying narrative, the ways in which disability is or isn’t accounted for in the dying experience, an examination of the dominant able-bodied narrative on disability and death as one of decline rather than gain, alongside topics interrogating the understanding of death and disability from an intersectional and layered lens. 

In line with the presidential theme in 2023, the Death, Dying and Beyond Unit invites participants to a workshop on the theme of “Laboring to be Legal.” This workshop invites creative and academic explorations of different intersections of labor, death, and legality broadly interpreted and defined, including what it means to labor, live, and die as legal or illegal and the religious frameworks through which we ask these questions Presentations should be accessible, between five to ten minutes long, and should encourage audience engagement.