EXCLUSIVE: Universities have started removing books from reading lists to protect students from “challenging” content and have applied trigger warnings to more than 1,000 texts https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/censorship-on-campus-universities-scrap-challenging-books-to-protect-students-dp50d9fsd?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1660061458…

At least ten universities, including three from the Russell Group, have withdrawn books from course study lists, or made them optional, in case they cause students harm

The texts include the 2017 Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead, which has been “removed permanently” from a course reading list at Essex University because of concerns about graphic depictions of slavery

The classic play Miss Julie, by August Strindberg, has also been withdrawn from an English Literature module at Sussex University because it includes discussion of suicide, according to disclosures under the Freedom of Informaton Act

Academics have previously been criticised for providing trigger warnings for students reading mainstream literature. Some of Britain’s most influential authors – including Shakespeare – are among those whose works have been deemed concerning enough to require warnings

British universities were not previously thought to have removed books from their courses for this reason. The findings come amid concerns that universities are risking their international reputations by limiting what they teach for fear of upsetting or offending students

Academics attempted to block this newspaper from discovering details about changes to their reading lists, using social media to encourage each other not to comply with requests for information

Sussex University’s FOI response stated that Miss Julie had been “withdrawn” from an undergraduate literature module because it contains discussion of suicide The decision was made after students complained about the potential “psychological effects” of the material

At some universities, there appears to be particular concern about exposing students to themes covered by contemporary women novelists

At Aberdeen, students on a course titled Vulnerable Bodies, Precarious Lives can choose not to read three of the course texts because they “may be particularly challenging” and include graphic depictions of sexual violence and suicide. Instead, they are offered alternatives

Read the full story here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/censorship-on-campus-universities-scrap-challenging-books-to-protect-students-dp50d9fsd?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1660061458…

Should challenging books be removed from reading lists to protect students?