Wake Work: An Introduction to Death Care Work and a Conscious Awareness of the Life and Death Experiences of African American and African Diasporic Communities
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Online Course Material Materials available on learning platform from June 15 - July 24
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Zoom Meetings
Meet for learning and community online on Zoom, held once a week for 6 weeks -
Expand Understanding
Reimagine death care and community for African and African Diasporic individuals
June 15 - July 24, 2026
ZOOM SESSION TIMES TBD
ZOOM SESSION TIMES TBD
Like the communal ritual of holding a wake after death, this Wake Work course creates space to:
- Care for grieving families
- Remember ancestral histories
- Honor embodied knowledge
- Remain awake to systemic injustice
Conscious and Compassionate
Death Care
Death Care
For African American and African diasporic communities, death is not separate from history. It exists within the ongoing wake of the Maafa, structural violence, and systemic inequity.
To practice death care without historical consciousness risks harm.
To practice death care with Wake Work is to practice with awareness, reverence, and responsibility.
"How do you memorialize an event that is still ongoing?"
This course is based on the work of Dr. Christa Sharpe and her
book “In the Wake – On Blackness and Being” who asks the question: “how do
you memorialize an event that is still ongoing?” Dr. Sharpe contents that “blackness”
becomes the symbol for those deemed less–than-human beings and are condemned
to death. This six-week course delivered virtually will offer to those who are
interested in Death Care Work and certification as a “Death Doula” an
opportunity to begin to understand the lived experience of African and African
diasporic people as they navigate life and death using the theory of “wake
work.”
“Wake Work," as a theory and a praxis of Black “being” in the African diaspora pays attention to mourning and the mourning work that takes place on local trans local and global levels. Similar to the ritual of holding a “wake” engaged in by many communities after a death, a wake and “wake work” allows the community to celebrate the life of someone that has died, honoring them by remembering their life story and involves caring for family members after the death assisting in their mourning process. “Wake Work” also means being conscious. Conscious of the lived experiences of a people that finds themselves in what is known as “protracted grief” and as it relates to African in America “Maafa” experience (trans-atlantic slave experience) “protracted slave syndrome” as noted by Dr. Lee Butler and how Dr. Sharpe understands Black Death.
“Wake Work” gives those who are “awake” and those who are interested in understanding and enhancing their knowledge of death care work, the opportunity to re/see, re/inhabit, and re/image the world of care for a community and care for Arican and African Diasporic individuals before, during, and after death.
“Wake Work," as a theory and a praxis of Black “being” in the African diaspora pays attention to mourning and the mourning work that takes place on local trans local and global levels. Similar to the ritual of holding a “wake” engaged in by many communities after a death, a wake and “wake work” allows the community to celebrate the life of someone that has died, honoring them by remembering their life story and involves caring for family members after the death assisting in their mourning process. “Wake Work” also means being conscious. Conscious of the lived experiences of a people that finds themselves in what is known as “protracted grief” and as it relates to African in America “Maafa” experience (trans-atlantic slave experience) “protracted slave syndrome” as noted by Dr. Lee Butler and how Dr. Sharpe understands Black Death.
“Wake Work” gives those who are “awake” and those who are interested in understanding and enhancing their knowledge of death care work, the opportunity to re/see, re/inhabit, and re/image the world of care for a community and care for Arican and African Diasporic individuals before, during, and after death.
Why This Course Matters
Death care work cannot be culturally neutral. The experiences of African and African diasporic people with death, dying, and bereavement are shaped by:
Death Doulas and death care professionals who understand these realities can provide care that is not only competent but healing—care that acknowledges trauma while honoring resilience, that recognizes ongoing grief while celebrating life, and that centers the voices and practices of the communities they serve.
Theoretical Rigor
Grounded in Dr. Christina Sharpe's critical Black studies framework, not surface-level cultural competency
Community Wisdom
Centering the knowledge, practices, and preferences of Black communities themselves
Historical Depth
Understanding the Maafa, slavery's aftermath, and ongoing anti-Black violence as essential context for death care
Meet your instructor,
Dr. Beverly Wallace
Dr. Beverly Wallace is the Manager of Academics of the
Sankofa Center for African Studies of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
American. She has held faculty positions at two Historical Black Theological
Institutions: The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in Atlanta,
Georgia and Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Dr.
Wallace is also a former Associate Professor of Congregational Care at Luther
Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota and is currently an adjunct professor of Marriage
and Family at New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
Dr. Wallace is the co-author of the book, “African American Grief” published and republished by Routledge Press in their classic series. She also co-authored “Narratives of grieving African Americans about Racism in the Lives of Deceased Family Members” as well as the author of several articles including “The Tragic Vison of the Black Church during COVID: Everything is Going to be Alright” and “Boa Morte: Reclaiming Kali – Reframing Death”. Her dissertation was entitled “Religion and Spirituality as Resources for End-of-Life Care in the African American Family”.
Dr. Wallace has close relationship with “CareDoula Education” an End-of-Life and Death Doula educational organization, is a former member of the Minnesota Chapter of the Association of Death Educators, and has taught “Foundations of Death Care” as part of Iliff’s School of Theology’s Death Care Collective In addition to teaching “Foundations of Death Care”, Dr. Wallace has also taught courses on Grief and Loss; Death and Dying, and African American Grief and have presented at Hospice Foundations of America as well as the ADEC (Association of Death Educators) National Conference.
Dr. Wallace is also a former hospital chaplain. Her International and African Diasporic involvement includes work in Brazil on a project entitled “Blackness in Church and Society”. She is also a member of the Educational Committee of the Lutheran University in Liberia, a liaison to United Theological College in Zimbabwe and is a member of the Conference of International Black Lutherans. She’s extremely proud to have been involved in the successful completion of her student’s thesis on “Understanding the Grief Experiences of Myanmar Women Refugees in the U.S”.
Dr. Wallace is the co-author of the book, “African American Grief” published and republished by Routledge Press in their classic series. She also co-authored “Narratives of grieving African Americans about Racism in the Lives of Deceased Family Members” as well as the author of several articles including “The Tragic Vison of the Black Church during COVID: Everything is Going to be Alright” and “Boa Morte: Reclaiming Kali – Reframing Death”. Her dissertation was entitled “Religion and Spirituality as Resources for End-of-Life Care in the African American Family”.
Dr. Wallace has close relationship with “CareDoula Education” an End-of-Life and Death Doula educational organization, is a former member of the Minnesota Chapter of the Association of Death Educators, and has taught “Foundations of Death Care” as part of Iliff’s School of Theology’s Death Care Collective In addition to teaching “Foundations of Death Care”, Dr. Wallace has also taught courses on Grief and Loss; Death and Dying, and African American Grief and have presented at Hospice Foundations of America as well as the ADEC (Association of Death Educators) National Conference.
Dr. Wallace is also a former hospital chaplain. Her International and African Diasporic involvement includes work in Brazil on a project entitled “Blackness in Church and Society”. She is also a member of the Educational Committee of the Lutheran University in Liberia, a liaison to United Theological College in Zimbabwe and is a member of the Conference of International Black Lutherans. She’s extremely proud to have been involved in the successful completion of her student’s thesis on “Understanding the Grief Experiences of Myanmar Women Refugees in the U.S”.
Patrick Jones - Course author
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