Academics told: Classics can hurt your ‘wellbeing’
THEY’RE told to issue ‘trigger warnings’ to protect undergraduate students from some course content, now academics are being urged to stop reading ‘uncomfortable’ content to protect their own wellbeing.
Queen Mary University of London has provided a reading list for staff to educate them on issues of equality, diversity and inclusion. It contains classic school texts, such as Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird and children’s book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
The list also comes with a ‘content warning’ from the human resources department that states: ‘Some of the following books and resources may have content and refer to sensitive issues that some individuals may find upsetting. If you feel uncomfortable with anything then please stop your activity, it is important that you look after your own wellbeing.’
The move follows many universities giving trigger warnings on humanities courses to undergraduates. Warwick University has warned students that Thomas Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd depicts ‘the cruelty of nature’ in descriptions of dying sheep.
Queen Mary’s move has been criticised by Chris McGovern, Chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, who said trigger warnings were ‘spreading like a virus’. He added: ‘What next – trigger warnings for being a meat eater, a white male, a car driver?’
A university spokeswoman described the guidance for academics as ‘historic’ and said it would now be removed from the university’s website.