Grief and loss are fundamental aspects of the human experience. This book explores the desire to make sense out of the nonsensical by exploring specific loss and grief experiences. The autoethnographic essays reflect on the unique and individual experiences of each contributor’s story. Simultaneously, these experiences reveal that although their grief experience is unique, it is also cultural and collective, evoking broader cultural themes related to loss and grief. The chapters in this book represent a wide range of loss experiences ranging from the loss of a parent, child, or partner, loss within larger family systems, ambiguous and anticipatory loss to broader cultural aspects of grief. Scholars of communication, sociology, and family studies will find this book of particular interest.

Classroom on the Road: Designing, Teaching, and Theorizing Out-of-the-Box Faculty-Led Student Travel explores real-world, out-of-the-box examples of faculty-led student travel that challenge the dominant paradigms of conventional tourism. Contributors share teaching methods that can be adapted for a variety of university travel scenarios and encourage students to be responsible and thoughtful members of the global community who seek out valuable experiences in other cultures to go beyond the standard consumption of touristy cliches. Furthermore, this book contributes to existing discourse about travel by going beyond being "just" a tourist to become a person who impacts-and is impacted by-other cultures and the commensurate politics of place. Contributors discuss issues of cultural imperialism, economic disparity, and responsible travel that can help protect unique destinations from the homogenizing effects of global capitalism, encouraging respectful and responsible travel.