Seminar Schedule 2026-2027
October 15, 2026, 7:15pm EST (at Faculty House)
Death as a Sensory Signal: What the Dead Communicate to the Living
Emily J. Siff, PhD
Presidential Fellow, Princeton, Physics & Neuroscience
Description: What does death communicate to the living? Across the animal kingdom, organisms respond to their dead in remarkably diverse ways, suggesting that death may be more than a biological endpoint: it can also function as information. This talk examines death as a sensory signal, asking how living animals detect and respond to the dead of their own kind. Using the common fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), Siff’s neuroscience research examines how the living respond to the dead, as well as distinct biochemical and molecular patterns in the brains and bodies of both dead flies and the living flies exposed to them. This work asks us to reconsider the boundary between life and death: how might organisms continue to act as information, shaping the behavior of the living even in death?
November 19, 2026, 7:15pm EST (Location TBD)
TBA
December 17, 2026, 7:15pm EST (at Faculty House)
Validating Dreams & Visions of the Dying
Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer and Chief Executive Officer
, Hospice & Palliative Care Buffalo, Inc.
; Author, Death Is But a Dream
Description: The landscape of death care in the United States has been undergoing a significant transformation over the past fifty years. The most notable change has been the increasing popularity of cremation, a shift that has had a profound impact on the industry and societal attitudes towards death. As we look to the future, it's clear that further innovation and evolving preferences are shaping the way we approach death care. What will the next fifty years bring? To help answer that question, an academic survey has been conducted by Wake Forest Law School for each of the past two years which delves into consumer preferences in death care. The annual study aims to assess openness and interest in six methods of disposition: casket burial, cremation, green burial, alkaline hydrolysis, natural organic reduction, and donation to science.