Karen Boyle (Journalism, Media & Communication) and Melanie McCarry (Social Work & Social Policy) have been awarded a BA/Leverhulme small grant for their work on the use of trigger warnings and are working with PhD student Melody House and Paula Dunn from Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis on this project.
Trigger and content warnings are part of public space. Potentially triggering content, including that related to gender-based violence, suicide, and racist violence, is flagged for audiences on social media, in festival programmes, or through pre-broadcast announcements.
This has raised questions about how to prepare students for potentially triggering content in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences classrooms, including in the teaching of fiction and entertainment media, as well as in the study of social welfare and policy development.
What student-survivors actually need and/or expect in the classroom has, however, rarely been investigated. Issues are complicated by the fact that - in much public debate - trauma, distress and offence have been unhelpfully grouped together.
Focusing on gender-based violence, and working with colleagues in Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, this research is gathering information on current practice and investigating staff and student-survivor experiences and needs, to ask what trauma-informed curricula might look like.
Our recommendations
- You can download a shareable list of our recommendations below:
- Watch our video on Content Advice in Higher Education.