You are invited to join us at our first Queer Lecture today. There will be one every month this semester.
Queer Lecture Series
Death and Dying in the LGBTQ+ Community: Compassionate Care Before, During, and After Death
Thursday, Sept. 26, 2:30pm – 4:00pm
Location: The Center for the Arts (Building 1P), Room 223
The LGBTQ Resource Center invites the campus community to an exciting lecture series celebrating our LGBTQ+ faculty and staff. Refreshments will be served.
This lecture will focus on death and dying in the LGBTQ+ community, specifically advanced-care planning and living wills and why both are so critically important for members of the LGBTQ+ community to complete. Content includes laws regarding next of kin (who makes healthcare decisions once an individual becomes incapacitated and who makes decisions after death if the individual does not have an advanced care directive and/or living will) and statistics regarding poor health outcomes for those with marginalized identities and life experiences. Both factors will emphasize why it’s so important to have these documents prepared ahead of time.
This event will be presented by Ilyssa Silfen, Higher Education Assistant, Department of Social Work.
Ilyssa Silfen has been the Administrative Assistant for the Department of Social Work since August 2014 and has been involved with the LGBTQ Resource Center. She completed end-of-life doula training through the Going with Grace organization in December 2023 and earned National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA) Proficiency in April 2024. Ilyssa previously presented on death and dying in the LGBTQ community at the Third Annual CUNY LGBTQI+ Student Conference this past March. She is passionate about facilitating education and open conversations about death and dying, as well as giving people autonomy in their end-of-life care by engaging them with honesty so that they can make fully informed decisions when they need it the most.
For more information, contact Jeremiah.Jurkiewicz@csi.cuny.edu or 718.982.3091.
Future Lectures:
Thursday, Oct. 24: Queer Zines in the Academy by Associate Professor Anne Adkison, Department of the Library
Thursday, Nov. 21: Women and Alcohol by Professor Christine Flynn Saulnier, Department of Social Work
Tuesday, Dec. 12: Writing Queer Memory and Desire in Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers by Professor of Cinema Studies David Gerstner, Department of Media Culture
I hope to see you there,
By Jeremiah Jurkiewicz (He/Him/His)
