The Mortal Method
What is the Mortal Method?
The Mortal Method is a framework that examines what it means to a) be mortal and b) to do academic work that acknowledges and honours our mortality. Specifically, the Mortal Method highlights five qualities of mortality: finitude, embodiment, eros, connection, and meaning-making.
5 Qualities of Mortality
We offer readers rich descriptions of each quality. These descriptions are informed by scholars in multiple disciplines, artists, thinkers outside of the academy, and other wise humans whose words inspire and move us. We invite readers to engage with the five qualities of mortality through excerpts of texts, reflective exercises, and contemplation. We provide examples of how we (Julia, Albert, Mathura – the Mortality Collective) have applied these qualities in our work and offer guiding prompts so that readers can consider how they might apply them in their own work lives. Our aim is to support other scholars in cultivating an apprenticeship with mortality. This apprenticeship enables us to work in ways that are more embodied, have healthy limits, enliven us, foster healthy connections with others, and are more meaningful and less extractive.
01 – Finitude
02 – Embodiment
03 – Eros
04 –
Connection
05 – Meaning-making
An Apprenticeship with Mortality
Interested in Joining?
A 30-day guided practice marked by curated daily reflection prompts and resources delivered to your inbox, inviting you to notice and cultivate a relationship with various aspects of your mortality.
How to Use the Mortal Method Materials
Where do I start?
It is helpful to think about the three texts – the Mortal Method PDF, the 30-day Apprenticeship, and the Blog Posts – as partial and complementary documents.
The PDF is intended to serve as your entry point, offering a more didactic explanation of the Mortal Method. While we share some of our personal perspectives on the qualities of mortality and invite you to engage in exercises to clarify your own understanding, the main purpose is explanatory.
The 30-day Apprenticeship is intended to build on this, by inviting you to dig in and work with these concepts, bringing them into your awareness and life. It is a deepening and personal engagement, a practicum of sorts. In both these documents you will get a sense of how we applied the Mortal Method personally and professionally. Indeed, the PDF ends with a section on praxis. But because the process is more principle-based than rule following, the best way to understand how we applied it is to join us on our journey.
The Blog Posts share the story of the application of this method, as well as its refinement through use. It was iterative, messy, and provocative. At times, each of us felt challenged and pushed back. This is where the collective element became particularly important as we supported one another and gently held each other to account. The Blog Posts welcome you to walk alongside us through this process, in the hopes of finding inspiration for the various and very many ways you might implement the Mortal Method in your particular context.
