‘TW: sensitive content’
Some students and faculty say they support adding trigger warnings to course syllabi.
By TENAJAH ELDRIDGE
Students at USC may find a warning in their syllabus, or they may be provided a verbal warning before interacting with certain materials. These warnings — often known as trigger warnings — are intended to notify students about upsetting content in their class materials.
Katie Simons, a sophomore majoring in journalism, said a warning preceding sensitive content would be beneficial.
“I’m taking a GE about dance and feminine sexuality but one of the things we looked at was … [instances of rape] and marital rape law [in India],” Simons said. “My professor, right before she started the video about it, was like ‘Oh, by the way, trigger warning. Look away if you want to.’ It would be a lot more beneficial to let people know ahead of time.”
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Earlier this year, the undergraduate student assembly at Cornell University unanimously voted in favor of a resolution urging professors to include content warnings on their syllabi. These content warnings were for courses that included “traumatic content.”
The administration responded promptly, vetoing the resolution for infringing on “academic freedom and freedom of inquiry.” This instance reflects one of many debates sparked on campuses across the country, as college students increasingly request “trigger warnings” for sensitive topics.
Jelila Adedoyin Surakat, a sophomore majoring in cinema and media studies, said she does not believe trigger warnings inhibit freedom of speech.
“I don’t think a trigger warning is limiting what you can say, it’s just putting out there that ‘Hey, these conversations will be had.’”
Sally Pratt, department chair of political science and international relations and a professor of Slavic languages and literatures, said she provides content warnings for her students.
“I feel like I owe it to my students to say ‘some of the works in this class’ — and I say this in the syllabus — ‘that you might deal with things that might make you uncomfortable,’” she said. “It’s sort of a general warning, trigger warning, so that nobody goes in — I don’t want my students to be blindsided.”
Richard McLaughlin, a postdoctoral fellow of the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, who teaches “Fictions of Africa,” a class that features difficult topics surrounding colonialism, said the purpose of content warnings is to provide students with agency when presented with difficult material.
“If a student has experienced trauma connected to a representation they’re going to find in a text, you’re basically giving them a heads up so they can be aware and act accordingly,” McLaughlin said. “Hopefully, giving [students] the information that this is something [that might upset them] gives them the tools that they need to feel comfortable in class.”
Richard McLaughlin, a postdoctoral fellow of the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, who teaches “Fictions of Africa,” said content warnings provide students with agency when presented with difficult material. (Gina Nguyen / Daily Trojan)
Despite the support for trigger warnings, a study published in 2019 by the Association for Psychological Science suggested the practice of issuing trigger warnings had no effect on the participants’ negative feelings towards difficult content.
Trigger warnings are effective for avoiding short-term anxiety, but this avoidance can exacerbate these feelings of anxiety in the future, wrote Bonnie Zucker in a Psychology Today article. Zucker, a psychologist who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, wrote that leaving a situation when faced with traumatic content can “reinforce the notion that they cannot tolerate the content.”
Lenna Ahmed, a junior majoring in international relations and the global economy, said her professors typically provide warnings before class to make students aware of sensitive content.
“Sometimes when it’s not in the syllabus it’s brought up later in the semester,” she said. “I definitely think there is a responsibility [to provide trigger warnings] given that they pretty much run the classroom and students are there, in part, to learn.”
Ahmed also said certain content can impact students’ learning environment.
“Having sensitive content can really affect the students,” Ahmed said. “And so, to create a safe environment, a productive environment for learning, I do think it’s really important that professors outline all the potential sensitive topics that are going to be discussed in class.”
