[Xmca-l] Re: Fwd: Things Fall Apart listed as "trigger warning"

[Jenna McWilliams]

I have a different opinion. I don't think it hurts anybody to be made aware that some novels and topics trigger more intense emotions in some due to past experiences of trauma. If anything, it poises us to think about the different experiences--many of these based in deep social inequities--that people bring to education and to build a pedagogy of responsiveness as a result.

Theories of trauma are rooted in feminist theory, queer studies, disability studies, and critical race theory. Too often trauma-focused research and pedagogies of trauma and responsiveness are ignored, dismissed, or attacked because of education's grounding in rationalist (eurocentric, masculinist, heterosexist, etc.) ways of conceptualizing knowledge, education, and experience.

My .02.



Jenna McWilliams
Cultural-Historical Research SIG Communications Chair, AERA
Learning Sciences Program, Indiana University

~
jenmcwil@indiana.edu
jennamcjenna@gmail.com



On Apr 3, 2014, at 11:56 AM, David Preiss wrote:

> This is disgusting. Aren't college students adults? They could carry a gun, drive a car and vote for president of the main military power in the world but they have to be protected from "sensitive material"? And what is that? I doubt faculty is using tenure (if they have it) to disseminate offending material... This will destroy university life. Those faculty voting that should read a bit of Philip Roth (The human stain, may be).
> David
> 
> 
> On Apr 3, 2014, at 1:40 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Subject: Things Fall Apart listed as "trigger warning"
>> 
>> I hope the story below does not upset you, so if you are concerned, I
>> hereby excuse you from reading it. On the other hand, if you teach at an
>> institution of higher learning, you might brave the text.
>> 
>> take care
>> mike
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-trigger-warnings-20140331,0,6700908.story#ixzz2xkhRnkSo
>> 
>> --
> 
>