Adrian is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Biological Basis of Behavior. She currently studies the genetic basis of behavior in Pharaoh ants in Professor Timothy Linksvayer's lab. Along with her interest in evolutionary biology, she is also passionate about literature, Classics, and theater. She has been performing with The Underground Shakespeare Company of West Philadelphia since her freshman year. She is specifically interested in studying the ways in which storytelling, science, and history can intersect in order to better understand human behavior. For the Forum on Afterlives, she is studying how different portrayals of death and the afterlife function in modern American comedic movies.
Adrian Kase
Wolf Humanities Center Undergraduate Fellow
2017—2018 Forum on Afterlives
Adrian Kase
Biological Basis of Behavior
CAS, 2018
Conceptions of Death and the Afterlife in Modern American Comedic Films
The idea of death is intrinsically linked with concepts of tragedy. Because of this, we must work to reconcile the sometimes surprising use of death and the afterlife in comedic films. This project seeks to explore comedic films that depict different versions of the afterlife, such as Defending Your Life, Wristcutters, and Beetlejuice. The critiques about these films help us analyze how they use comedy to explain the purpose of death and the afterlife, both from the perspective of the living and the dead.