The topic
It’s easy to resort to clichés when it comes to death. Death is far away in much of everyday life, and at the same time it is everywhere. Death is universal and yet also highly particular: personal, cultural, contextual. So, death as a topic exists on these junctions of always present and pushed away; of applying to everyone but also manifesting itself in highly specific ways. Connected to these junctions we find religion’s interactions with death. Where in many instances religion is pushed to the fringes of society, death seemingly reinvites religion into the conversation, perhaps implying more junctions. It is from this broad sketch, that we enter the field as a reading group. As organisers, we hope people from a wide range of disciplines feel invited to join, from medical and behavioural sciences to literature and philosophy.
Session build-up
This first session centres on Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich. For a rudimentary introduction to this reading material, you can scroll down to the book cover. Prof. dr. Dirk-Martin Grube will offer an introduction to the novella and its relation to our topic. Co-organiser Marc Lamain will guide the ensuing conversation. The schedule is as follows:
12:45 p.m. walk-in (at the University Library, HG-01A01)
12:55 p.m. opening: the organisers introduce the reading group, its topic and some guidelines
1:00 p.m. introduction: prof. dr. Dirk-Martin Grube introduces The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
1:25 p.m. window to leave (for anyone with other commitments after the lunch break)
1:30 p.m. open conversation
1:55 p.m. summarising and wrap-up
2:00 p.m. closing
Reading group build-up
During three initial sessions we’ll enter this wide thematic field together. We’ve purposefully selected light and elementary material for these three sessions, so we can ease into the topic together. Once we’ve laid this foundation, subsequent sessions can have a more refined angle and more complex material. You’re free to join us for any of the sessions that speak to you; but do encourage you to join us all along the way.
The initial sessions are built up as follows:
- Session 1, discussing Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich with an introduction by prof. dr. Dirk-Martin Grube on 8 October 2026, 12:45 till 2:00 p.m.
- Session 2, discussing Simone de Beauvoir’s A Very Easy Death with an introduction by dr. Annemie Halsema on 12 November 2026, 12:45 till 2:00 p.m.
- Session 3, watching Essay Liu’s & Yu-Lin Wang’s Seven Days in Heaven with an introduction by dr. Jens Reinke on 10 December 2026, 12:45 till 3:30 p.m.
At the end of 2026 subsequent sessions will be announced.
The organisers
This reading group is co-organised by the University Library and researchers dr. Pieter Coppens & dr. Jens Reinke. Coppens is associate professor of Islamic intellectual and cultural history. His research project The Art of Dying in Islamic Traditions (600–1800) focuses on the relationship between the deathbed in premodern Islam. Reinke is assistant professor of Buddhist studies. His research on contemporary Mahaya Buddhism in a global perspective has recently started branching into the last of phase of life in Buddhism.
As part of the University Library, programme maker Marc Lamain co-organises this reading group. If you want to know more about reading groups at the library, the dedicated webpage should be of service to you.
