The acclaimed cultural historian Thomas Laqueur (UC Berkeley) will join us for two events on September 24th and 25th. The Aura of the Dead in a Disenchanted World, on 9/24, will explore the ways in which the aura of mortal remains function to create sacrality in the absence of God and other worlds beyond our own.
Jail for the Dead: How NYC Buries the Unclaimed, the following day, will be a conversation with Melinda Hunt (president of The Hart Island Project) about the history of the potter’s field, as well as the work of the Project to document the dead, and win visitation rights for families.