This year’s symposium, “Disrupting the Death Care Paradigm: Challenges to the Regulation of the Funeral Industry and the American Way of Death,” will be held on Friday, February 24, 2017, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. in Room 1312, Worrell Professional Center, Wake Forest University School of Law. Attendees will receive four general CLE credits by the North Carolina Bar.

Read more about the program, including the agenda and registration information, on the “2017 Spring Symposium” page.

There have been a number of academic conferences addressing death and deathcare, but this symposium is unique because it is focused on the very active legal, political, and grassroots challenges to the funeral industry and the dominant paradigm of death care in this country. There are two main fronts of challenge to the existing paradigm – first, from those primarily concerned with the occupational licensing regime that shapes the funeral industry and the choices available to the public (i.e. court challenges to the casket laws and the ready to embalm laws); and second, from those primarily concerned with promoting new methods of memorialization and disposition. Caitlin Doughty, a funeral director, well-known voice in the Death Positivist movement, and the author of a New York Times best-selling book on this topic, will also give a keynote address on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 6:00 PM.

Contact: Erica Oates, Symposium Editor: wfulawpolicyjournal@gmail.com.