Re-Imagining Death (2025)
The Calgary Institute for the Humanities 44th Annual Community Forum
May 9, 2025
Presented in Partnership with UCalgary Alumni.
The 44th Calgary Institute for the Humanities (CIH) Annual Community Forum, will welcome guest speakers, a guest artist and musicians to re-imagine death and look at how the experience and representation of death in the contemporary era has changed as a result of new technologies (the internet, AI, holograms), societal shifts (the rise of environmentalism, the decline of religion) and other developments. Although everyone dies, the meaning and experience of death varies widely depending on time and place. One classic account of how western society has treated death posits a major shift from the premodern era, where death was a familiar presence, to the modern era, when death was hidden away. More recently, scholars have argued that we have entered a new era, in which death has become a spectacle. What new experiences of death have emerged, and what are the ethical challenges that accompany them?
Alexis Elder, PhD
Associate Professor of Philosophy, College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, USA
BELIEVING IN DIGITAL GHOSTS: LESSONS FROM MOHISM
John Troyer, PhD
Director, Centre for Death and Society, University of Bath, UK
THE FUTURE OF DEATH
Christopher Moreman, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies, California State University, East Bay
SELFHOOD AND PERSISTENCE BEYOND DEATH
Guest Artist
Sharon Stevens
Independent artist and arts administrator, Curator, Equinox Vigil
Special Musical Performance
Roman Rabinovich, Jonathan Swensen, Alexi Kenny
Tchaikovksky’s Piano Trio in A minor, opus 50, “A la memoire d’un grand artiste.”
Chamber Fest West