Prof. Melanie Finney to Present at UK Conference, 'Making Sense of: Dying and Death'

July 8, 2006

July 8, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - Melanie K. Finney, associate professor of communication and theatre at DePauw University, will make a presentation at "Making Sense of: Dying and Death," a global conference taking place at Mansfield College, Oxford University, in the United Kingdom, July 12-14. Dr. Finney will present her paper, "Institutional Loss: Dialectical Tensions in Coping with Major Loss."

"Multiple deaths occurring at academic institutions present interesting challenges for those trying to help others adjust and cope with such losses," notes an abstract of Finney's work, which was competitively selected for inclusion in the event. "This article addresses the characteristics of higher educational institutions that make them vulnerable to extreme forms of grieving, and that may complicate coping with major traumas. In particular, these factors serve to emphasize the dialectical tensions involved in coping with major loss that are present when multiple deaths occur in university communities." Finney's work is the result of a DePauw Faculty Fellowship she held from 2002-05.

The conference, the fourth of its kind, is an "inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary research and publications project [which] aims to create a forum for examining the links between living and dying, and some of the contradictions and paradoxes which arise that we appear to accept without question."

Learn more at the conference's Web page, and download a PDF of Melanie Finney's paper by clicking here.

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