The College of Nursing and the Institute for Palliative and End of Life Care will host the 2024 James Wake Memorial Lecture on Friday, Nov. 8 in Straz Hall, Room 100. This biennial lecture is held in memory of James Wake, chaplain and husband of Dr. Madeline Wake, former provost of Marquette University.
This year’s event will be hosted in-person and online via Zoom. Those interested in registering can do so here.
Dr. Candi Cann, associate professor of religion at Baylor University, is this year’s keynote speaker. Her talk is titled, “Death, Culture, and Religion: How Different Worldviews Impact the Dying Process,” and it compares various faith traditions within a medical framework, revealing how culture impacts how dying is managed, how death is defined, and how different conceptions of life after death affect grief.
Cann’s research focuses on death and dying, and how lives are recalled, remembered, and celebrated. She has published five books and numerous articles and book chapters. Dr. Cann’s work has been featured in podcasts, films, and interviews with the BBC, NPR, C-SPAN’s Book TV, Milk Street, Financial Times, Washington Post, and many others.
The event will also feature a reactor panel with Dr. Emily Cramer and Dr. Wendy Peltier. Cramer is a health and strategic communication scholar who studies the affordances of new media in healthcare with a focus on reducing health disparities and closing communication gaps. Peltier is a professor in the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Check-in for the lecture begins at 11:30 a.m. and the program begins at noon. Lunch will be provided. Attendees are invited to a dessert reception in Straz 116 after the program concludes at 1:30 p.m. Optional tours of the new nursing building will also be provided.
