Memory, Loss, Mourning and Renewal: The Care of Memories at Life’s End: Reflections on an Intellectual Career, a Final Book, and a Long, Unfinished Personal Journey

In 2026, I retired after 50 years at Harvard during which I, along with colleagues, built the Medical Anthropology program, developed my own research trajectory, advanced social theory, and contributed to the practical development of clinical programs in medical anthropology, social medicine, global mental health, cultural psychiatry and the medical humanities. This lecture draws on that broad and multi-sided background to describe a final book project that centers on the care of memories. To understand that subject requires a re-exploration of memory, loss, mourning, and renewal based on ethnographic and clinical research as well as deeply personal experiences. This project is in midstream, and so the lecture will take the audience into the questions, insights, obstacles, and potential for further development that represent where I find myself today.