Digital Archive:
Censorship, Academic Freedom, and University Policy
Accompanying Jack Halberstam's Currents essay, "Trigger Happy: From Content Warning to Censorship"
Other Digital Archive Pages:
Victimization | Pedagogy, Triggers, & Safe Spaces | Teachable Signs Articles
Online Articles
Sara Ahmed, “Against Students,” Feminist Killjoys, 2015.
Dianna E. Anderson, “Duke Students’ Objections to Reading ‘Fun Home’ Aren’t About Trigger Warnings,” RH Reality Check, August 27, 2015.
Kelly J. Baker, “Dear Liberal Professor, Students Aren’t The Problem,” Vitae, the Online Career Hub for Higher Ed, 2015.
Scott A. Bass and Mary L. Clark, “The Gravest Threat to Colleges Comes From Within,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 28, 2015.
Marcie Bianco, “9 Feminist Arguments Against Using Trigger Warnings in Academia,” Mic, 2014.
Alexandra Brodsky, “Trigger Warning: School,” Feministing, 2014.
Alexandra Brodsky, “Pathological, Noticeable: Another Note on Trigger Warnings,” Feministing, 2015.
Natalia Cecire, “On the ‘Neoliberal Rhetoric of Harm,’” Works Cited, July 7, 2014.
Brittney Cooper, “No Trigger Warnings in My Class: Why You Won’t Find Them on My Syllabi,” Salon, 2014.
Meghan Daum, “Why ‘Trigger Warnings’? We Already Live in a Hair-Trigger World,” Los Angeles Times, 2014.
Kevin Drum, “What’s the End Game for the Trigger Warning Movement?,” Mother Jones, May 19, 2014.
Kevin Drum, “President Obama Not Thrilled with Trigger Warnings,” Mother Jones, 2015.
Laurie Essig, “Trigger Warnings Trigger Me,” The Chronicle of Higher Education Blogs: The Conversation, March 10, 2014.
Jennifer Medina, Raechel Tiffe, Laurie Essig, Charles Mitchell, and Justing Peligri, "Warning Labels on College Courses?" Interview by Tom Ashbrook, On Point, WBUR, 2014.
Jill Filipovic, “Against Trigger Warnings,” Feministe, March 5, 2014.
Jill Filipovic, “We’ve Gone Too Far with ‘Trigger Warnings’,” The Guardian, March 5, 2014.
Colleen Flaherty, “Trigger Unhappy,” Inside Higher Ed, 2014,
Colleen Flaherty, “Trigger Warning Skepticism,” Inside Higher Ed, December 2, 2015.
Conor Friedersdorf, “What HBO Can Teach Colleges About ‘Trigger Warnings’,” The Atlantic, 2014.
Edward J. Graham, “Mandated Trigger Warnings Threaten Academic Freedom,” Academe, 2014.
Jared Greenhouse, “Do Trigger Warnings On Campus Cause More Harm Than Good?,” The Huffington Post, 2015.
Aaron R. Hanlon, “The Trigger Warning Myth,” New Republic, 2015.
Malcolm Harris, “Western Canon, Meet Trigger Warning,” Al Jazeera America, 2015.
Aoife Assumpta Hart, “Trig Reciprocal Functions: I’m a Trans Woman Adjunct Prof and I Use Trigger Warnings,” Aoifeschatology, 2014.
Jenny Jarvie, “Trigger Happy,” New Republic, 2014.
Jenny Jarvie, "Pulling the Trigger Warning," interview by Bob Garfield, On the Media, NPR, 2014.
Scott Jaschik, “Trigger Warning Defused,” Inside Higher Ed, 2015.
Scott Kaufman, “Colleges Debate Placing ‘Trigger Warnings’ on Courses That Address Potentially Traumatic Topics,” Raw Story, May 18, 2014.
Tyler Kingkade, “The Prevailing Narrative On Trigger Warnings Is Just Plain Wrong,” The Huffington Post, 2015.
Laura Kipnis, “Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2015.
Laura Kipnis, “My Title IX Inquisition,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2015.
Craig Klugman, “Trigger Warnings on College Campuses Are Nothing but Censorship,” Pacific Standard, December 22, 2015.
Greg Lukianoff, Elwood Watson, Justin Peligri, Melissa McEwan, and Soraya Chemaly, “Do Trigger Warnings Have a Place in Academia?,” U.S. News and World Report, 2014.
Ruth Marcus, “College Is Not for Coddling,” The Washington Post, 2015.
Kelli Marshall, “Trigger Warnings, Quentin Tarantino, and the College Classroom,” Vitae, the Online Career Hub for Higher Ed, 2014.
Louise McCudden, “Trigger Warnings Are Nothing to Do with Censorship. They Give People More Choice, Not Less,” The F Word Blog: Contemporary UK Feminism, 2012.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, “The Trigger Warned Syllabus,” Tressiemc, 2014.
Rebecca Mead, “Literature And Life,” The New Yorker, 2014.
Jennifer Medina, “Warning: The Literary Canon Could Make Students Squirm,” The New York Times, 2014.
Kristina Meshelski, “Are Trigger Warnings for White People?,” Daily Nous, 2014.
Tracy Moore, “We Don’t Have to Use Trigger Warnings, But We Can Learn From Them,” Jezebel, 2014.
David Moshman, “A Generic Trigger Warning for College Students,” The Huffington Post, September 2, 2015.
Carla Murphy, “Trigger Warnings and Free Speech On Campus. Discuss,” Colorlines, May 20, 2014.
Blake Neff, “College Students Say Campus Is Too PC, But Also Love Trigger Warnings,” The Daily Caller, 2015.
Libby Nelson, “Obama on Liberal College Students Who Want to Be ‘Coddled’: ‘That’s Not the Way We Learn’,” Vox, 2015.
Libby Nelson, “Why Trigger Warnings Are Really so Controversial, Explained,” Vox, 2015.
Matthew Nelson, “Do Trigger Warnings Change Anything?,” Queerly Forward, 2014.
Jake New, “Asking Too Much, or Not Enough?,” Inside Higher Ed, 2015.
Kathleen Parker, “Trigger Warnings, Colleges, and the ‘Swaddled Generation’,” The Washington Post, 2015.
Alex Press, “A Spectre Is Haunting College Campuses,” Alex Press, 2015.
Catherine Rampell, “Young Fogies: Modern Illiberalism Is Led by Students,” The Washington Post, 2015.
Corey Robin, “Higher Education’s Real Censors: What We’re Missing in the Debate over Trigger Warnings And ‘Coddled’ Students,” Salon, 2015.
Gad Saad, “Trigger Warning: I Am About to Critique Trigger Warnings,” The Huffington Post, February 5, 2015.
Edward Schlosser, “I’m a Liberal Professor, and My Liberal Students Terrify Me,” Vox, June 3, 2015.
Peter Schmidt, “Many Instructors Embrace Trigger Warnings, Despite Their Peers’ Misgivings,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2015.
Peter Schmidt, “American U.’s Faculty Senate Takes Stand Against Trigger Warnings,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 18, 2015.
Peter Schmidt, “A Faculty’s Stand on Trigger Warnings Stirs Fears Among Students,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 6, 2015.
Sarah Seltzer, “5 Reasons to Be Skeptical of ‘Campus Coddling’ Scare Pieces,” Flavorwire, August 12, 2015.
Zaynab Shahar, “Another Anti-Trigger Warning Article Has Come and I’m Not Here for It,” Colored Queer Waters, 2015.
Neil F. Simpkins, “Responding to ‘On Trigger Warnings and the Halberstam Affair: A Panel Discussion’,” Neil F. Simpkins, 2014.
Jesse Singal, “Is There Any Evidence Trigger Warnings Are Actually a Big Deal?,” The Science of Us, December 6, 2015.
Mason Stokes, “Don’t Tell Me What’s Best for My Students,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 28, 2015.
Elizabeth Kate Switaj, “Trigger Warnings in Higher Education,” Elizabeth Kate Switaj, 2014.
Ali Vingiano, “How The ‘Trigger Warning’ Took Over The Internet,” BuzzFeed, 2014.
Lindy West, “Trigger Warnings Don’t Hinder Freedom of Expression: They Expand It,” The Guardian, 2015.
Robin Wilson, “Students’ Requests for Trigger Warnings Grow More Varied,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2015.
Robin Wilson, “Trigger-Warning Catalyst: Bailey Loverin,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 2015.
Julie Winterich, “A Middle Ground on Trigger Warnings,” Inside Higher Ed, 2015.
Donna Zuckerberg, “How to Teach an Ancient Rape Joke,” Jezebel, 2015.
Primary Documents
Oberlin College "Support Resources for Faculty," Office of Equity Concerns, Internet Archive, December 22, 2013.
American Association of University Professors, “On Trigger Warnings,” Report, 2014.
National Coalition against Censorship, “What’s All This About Trigger Warnings?” Report, 2015.
Academic Article
Kim D. Chanbonpin, “Crisis and Trigger Warnings: Reflections on Legal Education and the Social Value of the Law,” Chicago-Kent Law Review 90, no. 2 (2015): 615-37.
"Do Trigger Warnings Create a Safe Space for Students or Coddle Them?" The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio, 2015.
Angus Johnston and Kirsten Powers, "Trigger Warnings and Academic Censorship," IntelligenceSquared Debates, 2015.
PBS Idea Channel, "What’s The Deal With Classroom Trigger Warnings?" 2015.
Campus Debates
Zach Despart, “UVM Professors Weigh ‘Trigger Warning’ Trend,” The Burlington Free Press, October 12, 2015.
Colleen Flaherty, “Oberlin Backs down on ‘Trigger Warnings’ for Professors Who Teach Sensitive Material," Inside Higher Ed, 2014.
GW Hatchet, “GW Should Not Mandate Trigger Warnings,” 2015.
Michael E. Miller, “Columbia Students Claim Greek Mythology Needs a Trigger Warning,” The Washington Post, 2015.
Oberlin Review, “Staff Seeks Balance Between Free Speech and Community Standards in Online Comment Moderation,” 2014.
Jessica Roy, “Columbia Won’t Put Trigger Warnings on Next Year’s Reading Lists,” The Cut, July 2, 2015.
Peter Schmidt, “American U.’s Faculty Senate Takes Stand Against Trigger Warnings.” The Chronicle of Higher Ed, 2015.
Paige Smith, “BU Takes No Official Stance in Trigger Warning Debate, Gives Professors Discretion,” The Daily Free Press, 2015.
Stephanie Yan, “Cornell Community Debates Merits of Trigger Warnings,” The Cornell Daily Sun, 2015.