The study here is part of my much larger project of communication on dying and death. The communication about dying is an inevitable part of living. The communication of dying studies how the dialogue of this part of life is constructed. My current study has examined some key elements of communication on dying. These elements start with the time frame of the communication: is it a long procedure with anticipation or is it an unexpected moment of happening? Then there is the purpose of the communication: is the communication conducted for some practical arrangement or is it for philosophical and spiritual understanding, and how these two relate to and/or express each other? Third, it is necessary to see who initiates the dialogue and the effects of the dialogue on the relationship, the parties involved in the relationship, and others influenced.
About the presenterYingfan Zhang
I am a professor of communication studies at SUNY Suffolk. I am also a senior lecturer in Dept. of Speech Communication at St. Joseph’s University New York. I received my PhD in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My two areas of study are cultural rhetoric in comparison and communication in the digital age.