Beginning in the Middle Ages, the dead lay among the living in Paris city centers. Over time, Parisian graveyards, like all inner city burial places, ran out of room. The creation of Père Lachaise Cemetery was the culmination of a struggle to reform burial practices, and this radical idea of a “cemetery” became the basis for all the burial traditions in the west, including Brooklyn’s own Green-Wood. Dr. Gopin’s lecture will trace the tradition of mass burial in Parisian church graveyards to the modern idea of the world’s first cemetery, Père Lachaise, in 1804. Dr. Gopin will discuss how this shift influenced our attitudes toward death, and how his background affects his own feelings and relationship with the topic.