August 4, 2017

Taryn Lindhorst, Carol LaMare Professor of Social Work, joins representatives from the national Death Positive community and local death professionals at the 7th annual Death Salon, to be held Sept. 8-10 at Kane Hall on the UW campus. Modeled after an informal 18th-century intellectual salon, Death Salon Seattle brings together academics, artists, funeral directors, performers, writers and others to look at the current culture of death denial and explore what death looks like from an ecological, technological and cultural point of view. 

Lindhorst's talk, “Death is Coming: Recognizing the Signs and Symptoms of Death,” will be given on Saturday, Sept. 9. In it, she will share a framework for understanding the physical, psychological and spiritual changes that take place in the month, days and moments before death. 

Lindhorst's entry into social work was spurred in part by an encounter with death when she was 22, as she comforted a friend who was dying of AIDS. That event transformed her life, inspiring her to become a medical social worker specializing in HIV, oncology, palliative care and end-of-life issues. 

Death Salons have sold out in venues around the country and abroad. Its proponents advocate for environmental and socially just death practices as well as empowering people with knowledge and options around death and end-of-life care. The School’s Carol LaMare Scholarship Program is an event partner.

For more information and to purchase tickets, go to Death Salon Seattle.