[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 poised 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 Communication Chair, AERA
Indiana University

jennamcjenna@gmail.com
jenmcwil@indiana.edu

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 3, 2014, at 12:08 PM, Lubomir Savov Popov <lspopov@bgsu.edu> wrote:
> 
> College students are evidently adults. They are smart enough to curtail particular kinds of ideas by claiming personal protection from such ideas. The principle of protection can be used both ways. After this case, I would not be astonished if students start imposing restrictions on what they are thought. The whole sociocultural situation needs to be reconsidered with a fine balance among privileged ideas, individual rights, public good, etc. 
> 
> I have heard that the leftist organizations in the US had manuals for organized struggle. Several years ago the Tea Party activists used these manuals to craft their own versions. People are quick learners. They can take any tool and use it to their own benefit. Tools are tools. Neutral. It is the people who used them in accepted or unacceptable ways. We need to focus more on that side. 
> 
> Best wishes, 
> 
> Lubomir
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of David Preiss
> Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2014 12:56 PM
> To: lchcmike@gmail.com; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> Cc: communication@ucsd.edu
> Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Fwd: Things Fall Apart listed as "trigger warning"
> 
> 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-20140
>> 331,0,6700908.story#ixzz2xkhRnkSo
>> 
>> --
> 
> 
>