The Open University’s interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to the study and education of death, dying, loss, and grief across the life course and in diverse contexts.
Sudden, brutal death; and so many deaths, at one time. What does it do to you to be one of the bereaved in such a traumatic event such as the 9/11 attacks or a pandemic like Covid-19?
Explore interesting and challenging ideas around death, dying and grief. This free course, An introduction to death, dying and grief, invites you to think more deeply about death and dying and encourages you to think about it in different ways. This course will introduce you to different perspectives on death; ethical issues related to dying and end-of-life care; as well as expressions of grief.
Please note that this course includes video about people talking personally about their experiences in relation to death and dying. If you have been affected by the issues in these videos, there are resources included in the course for further information and support.
This free course, Death and medicine: postponement and promise, helps you to explore the extent to which death and dying in western societies are medical events and what aspects of death and dying might be neglected as a consequence. The course covers the way that such things as medicine provide the context of the experiences associated with the end of life.
This free course, Teaching the First World War, is designed for history teachers and their pupils. It provides a wide range of visual, textual and oral sources to enrich the teaching of the First World War. It covers familiar and less familiar aspects of the history of the First World War, ranging from the debate on the origins of the war and propaganda to non-European combatants’ experiences of fighting in a global war, and the memory and commemoration of the conflict.
It includes skills development for teachers and their pupils, including document analysis, advanced techniques in internet searches for primary and secondary sources, and how to evaluate and identify the most suitable literature on the topic.
Why are ‘Jack the Ripper’ tours or visiting sites of genocide in Auschwitz or Cambodia deemed acceptable but the more recent ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ tours seen as immoral? Does time make a difference or does our view of morality run a little deeper?
In this free course, The First World War: trauma and memory, you will study the subject of physical and mental trauma, its treatments and its representation. You will focus not only on the trauma experienced by combatants but also the effects of the First World War on civilian populations.
The heritage traditions of Scotland are unique in comparison to the rest of Britain. This free course, Heritage case studies: Scotland, uses two case studies to demonstrate how heritage sites have helped to forge the Scottish national identity and history.
Would you let someone die, to save five others? Would you kill someone to save five others? Explore trolleys, killing and the doctrine of double effect.
This free course, Minds and mental phenomena: an introduction, examines the philosophical questions surrounding the mind. You will examine how beliefs have changed over the centuries and be able to contrast the views of Descartes with more modern ideas.
This free course, David Hume, examines Hume's reasons for being complacent in the face of death, as these are laid out in his suppressed essay of 1755, 'Of the immortality of the soul'. More generally, it examines some of the shifts in attitude concerning death and religious belief that were taking place in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century, through examination of this and other short essays.
Halloween is all fun and games until the skeletons decide to stay. UK Legal expert Marc Cornock explores what the law says when the spooky season’s guests don’t return to their graves and why even the undead can be trespassers.