Developing Death Literacy

Death literacy goes beyond understanding the dying process—it is about fostering meaningful conversations, breaking the silence around illness and loss, and giving people the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. In this course, we will explore mortality, end-of-life care options, and the effects of fear and aversion, through a respectful lens of cultural, spiritual, religious, and identity-based humility. We will also examine the power of storytelling as a tool for conveying complex concepts. For our final project, students will participate in a story-sharing event, applying what they have learned to gently enhance communal death literacy.



Francesca Arnoldy is a practicing community doula and death literacy author as well as a published researcher at

the Vermont Conversation Lab.