Deborah Streahle

Projects

Black and white photograph of protesters with signs marching in a circle in front of federal buildings in San Francisco, CA, 1977. Photo courtesy of Anthony Tusler
Co-organizer, Symposium on Disability and Accessibility
COVID-Calls logo with hashtag #COVIDcalls
Purple, yellow, and magenta abstract pattern with #COVIDCalls written across it.
Interview, August 26, 2021, COVID-Calls

A conversation with Professor Scott Knowles – learn about death care activism prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Screen capture of Los Angeles Review of Books featuring the review article, "Corpse Capitalism: On John Troyer's 'Technologies of the Human Corpse'"
Screenshot of post announcing the latest articles on Los Angeles Review of Books. White text in the center reads “Corpse Capitalism: On John Troyer’s “Technologies of the Human Corpse,” below a photo of the book’s cover displaying a stylized illustration of a pink syringe, green tubing, yellow glove, and blue clamp. Text below reads, “A curiously optimistic new study of the commercial exploitation of dead bodies…” Aug 26, Deborah Streahle.
Book Review, August 26, 2021, Los Angeles Review of Books
Painting of a person wrapped in a purple shroud underground with flowers blooming above them, titled Beneath the Ground We Found Belonging, Jacqueline Maloney, 2021
Invited Lecture, April 9, 2021 Death Doulas and the Struggle to Demedicalize Death

What does it mean to demedicalize death? In this talk, I described how a new category of non-medical death worker, the death doula, arose to address gaps within biomedicine at the end of life. From advising individuals about advance directives to sitting at the bedside to orchestrating home funerals, the modes of care and companionship offered by death doulas are varied.

Sue Coe, Renee--"When they told me I was HIV positive, I lay on my bed and cried and cried", source: Cushing/Whitney Medical Library
Drawing of a woman lying in bed crying with two figures surrounding her. Sue Coe –“When they told me I was HIV positive, I lay on my bed and cried and cried”, source: Cushing/Whitney Medical Library
Dissertation
Making Death Work: The Practices and Politics of End-of-Life Care since 1960

Who cares for the dying and the dead? My dissertation is about end-of-life and death care activism in the U.S. since the 1960s. I study people who have worked to change mainstream procedures of care for the dying and the dead, from building AIDS hospices to arranging do-it-yourself funerals to creating eco-friendly technologies for bodily disposal.

Flo Kennedy at the N.O.W. march in 1972. Photo by Bettye Lane, source: Schlesinger Library
Black activist Flo Kennedy at the N.O.W. march in 1972. Kennedy is raising one fist in the air and wearing a tank top patterned with the American flag. Photo by Bettye Lane, source: Schlesinger Library
Podcast, May 1, 2019
“Don’t Agonize, Organize!” Florynce “Flo” Kennedy, 1916-2000

A guest appearance on the Dead Ladies Show, recorded live in New York City. Radical Black feminist lawyer Flo Kennedy founded cross-movement coalitions, organized intersectional protests, and fought for justice in court on behalf of the Black Panthers and women’s reproductive autonomy—all while wearing her distinctive cowboy hat, pink sunglasses, and false eyelashes.

Pharmakon conference poster, hosted by NYU
Pharmakon conference poster displaying the words, “Can you think critically about drugs?”, hosted by NYU
Presentation, May 3, 2019
Flight Nurses, Free Clinics, and Rock Medicine: LSD and Nursing, 1950-1975

What do nurses have to do with LSD? By developing specialized care protocols in LSD research and by staffing nontraditional, free clinics and emergency care tents, nurses have provided essential caregiving labor that has been overlooked in histories of nursing and assessments of the social impact of LSD.

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Newspaper clippings and business cards of contacts who died from AIDS, source: the Larry Kramer Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript LIbrary
Newspaper clippings and business cards of contacts who died from AIDS, source: the Larry Kramer Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Pop-up Exhibit, May 2019 Larry Kramer: Crisis and Care

Drawn from the Larry Kramer Papers at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and curated for, “Literary Biography: Archives and Life Stories,” a Master Class with Dr. Karin Roffman.

Pirate Care conference flyer, Center for Postdigital Cultures
Text across an orange background in white reading “Center for Postdigital Cultures annual conference” at the top; in black “Pirate Care” in the center, and in white “Deborah Streahle” at the bottom.
Presentation, June 20, 2019 Reclaiming the Dead: The Politics of Home Funerals

A growing alternative death care movement seeks to normalize conversations about death (Death Café), demystify dying and care of the dead (Ask A Mortician series), and offer guidance throughout the dying process (death doulas). This presentation situates these movements historically within a longer lineage of Black social and political activism.

Installation of exhibit, Celebrating 10 Years of the Cushing Center. Photo by Terry Dagradi
Installation of exhibit, Celebrating 10 Years of the Cushing Center. Photo by Terry Dagradi
Exhibit, August 2019-2020
Celebrating 10 Years of the Cushing Center

Dr. Cushing removed and preserved patients’ tumors and, after they died, their brains. These materials became the Cushing Brain Tumor Registry. While the collection was originally assembled to educate the medical elite, the Cushing Center opens the Brain Tumor Registry to the public from which it came. Co-curated with Terry Dagradi.

Wooden nipple shields, source: Wellcome Collection
Two examples of wooden nipple shields, source: Wellcome Collection
Presentation, Oct. 14, 2017
In Search of a “Good Nipple”: The Risk and Use of Lead Nipple Shields

These tiny, protective nursing devices–in use since the 16th century–sparked an intense controversy that called into question the integrity of doctors’ and mothers’ knowledge about safe infant feeding

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