Webinars

Cultural Perspectives on Dying, Death and Grief
With Paul Rosenblatt, PhD
Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Webinar Time:
1:00 - 2:30 p.m. EDT
12:00 - 1:30 p.m. CDT
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. MDT
10:00 - 11:30 a.m. PDT
7:00 - 8:30 a.m. HADT
What time does the webinar begin where I am?

There are no truths or facts about dying, death and grief that are free of culture. This webinar provides an overview of how people from various cultures understand and experience dying, death and grief and also what, from their cultural viewpoint, constitutes desired help.  The webinar will provide examples of cultural variations in:

•  the meanings and understandings of dying, death and grief
•  the multiple losses that can occur with a death
•  the concept of a "good" death
•  what is understood to be the cause of death

The webinar will also explore cultural differences in how, when and whether grief is felt, expressed and understood, and cultural differences in the narratives that grieving persons may tell about the person who died.  Other issues explored will include cultural differences in the relation of survivors to the spirit of the deceased, in whether and how survivors may talk about the deceased, and in the emotions of grief. The webinar will also offer a brief overview of how issues of racism, discrimination and skin privilege in the U.S. can be challenges in working across racial/ethnic lines. 

 Participants will be offered a number of guidelines for working with diverse individuals in families, the first of which is to know and understand one's own culture and how it creates expectations and assumptions that may undermine one's efforts to work with people of other cultures. 

Learning Objectives

After participating in this webinar, participants will be able to:

1. Articulate how thanatological knowledge may only be knowledge from a particular culture's perspectives and realities.
2. Speak to some of the very substantial variations across cultures in understandings of dying and death and in how grief is felt and expressed.
3. Discuss key challenges in working across racial/ethnic lines.
4. Articulate a number of ideas and conceptual tools to aid in their work across cultural lines.

About your instructor  

Paul C. Rosenblatt has a PhD in psychology and is Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.  Rosenblatt has had extensive experience teaching, researching and providing consulting about diversity issues.   He has published 11 books and roughly 150 articles and book chapters.   His recent published books include Shared Obliviousness in Family Systems (published by State University of New York Press in 2009), Two in a Bed — The Social System of Couple Bed Sharing (published by State University of New Press in 2006), African American Grief (with Beverly R. Wallace, published by Routledge in 2005), Parental Grief — Narratives of Loss and Relationship (published by Routledge in 2000), and Help Your Marriage Survive the Death of a Child (published by Temple University Press in 2000). Among the projects he is currently working on are a book on how African American novelists have characterized the effects of white racism on African-American families, an interview study (with Professor Liz Wieling) on knowing and not knowing of one another in people's closest couple relationship, and how African American autobiographers write about the parenting they received regarding how to deal with racism.

CE Credits: 1.5
Nursing Contact Hours: 1.5

Purchase a recording of this webinar now.

Cancellations for this session will be accepted through end of business on Monday, April 19, 2010. Registrants who cancel within that time will receive a refund, minus a $10 service fee. Cancellations received after that day will not be refunded.