Universities slap trigger warnings on 1,000 books
UNIVERSITIES have applied trigger warnings to more than 1,000 texts and started removing others from reading lists to protect students from ‘challenging’ content.
An investigation has revealed ten institutions – including three from the elite Russell Group – have either withdrawn books or made them optional in case they harm undergraduates.
Affected texts include 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, and August Strindberg’s classic play Miss Julie. The work of authors such as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens and Agatha Christie have been given trigger warnings.
Almost 300 freedom of information requests were sent by The Times to all 140 UK universities asking about trigger warnings and removal of texts due to content concerns.
Essex and Sussex universities admitted to pulling books for this reason – believed to be the first time it has happened at British institutions.
The Underground Railroad has been ‘removed permanently’ from an Essex University course reading list because of its ‘graphic description of violence and abuse of slavery’.
But a spokesman insisted the book was still available in the library and remained an option for future lists.
The University of Sussex has ‘permanently withdrawn’ Miss Julie from an undergraduate literature module due to its discussion of suicide – a decision made after students complained about the potential ‘psychological’ and ‘emotional effects’ of the material.
At Aberdeen University, students enrolled on a module about Chaucer and medieval writing can opt out of discussions about the content as it ‘sometimes entails engagement with topics that you may find emotionally challenging’.
Students at the institution are also given content warnings that Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream ‘contains classism’. A spokesman said its warnings policy enables staff ‘to explore controversial topics that could otherwise be difficult to address in an inclusive and supportive environment’.
Russell Group members Warwick, Exeter and Glasgow are among those to have made texts optional, with the investigation uncovering 1,081 examples of trigger warnings on courses across the UK.
The University of Exeter’s freedom of information reply stated tha students can opt not to read The History of Mary Prince as it contains ‘racism, slavery and extreme violence’.
Conservative leadership candidate Liz Truss said: ‘Universities should not be mollycoddling students like this. It patronises them and is not good for wider public debate.’
‘Mollycoddling students’