Workshop: Trigger Warnings (Inclusive Pedagogy)

Facilitators: Erica Kanesaka Kalnay & Faculty Guest Professor Leslie Bow
Location: Multicultural Student Center Classroom, Red Gym (2nd floor)

This workshop considers the implications of reframing trigger warnings, not as legalistic contracts, but as practices of accessibility—both for students who have experienced trauma, mental illness, and marginalization and to material that can be difficult to teach. Together, we will unpack several common assumptions about trigger warnings and discuss a range of conceptual frameworks for understanding the work that trigger warnings perform. We will then compare different types of trigger warnings, including “blanket” warnings, specific warnings, email warnings, and in-person warnings, and consider if and how these statements might be incorporated into a teaching practice that attends to the affective weight of course material. Some pre-circulated reading in advance required.

You can visit our website for more information about our group: https://english.wisc.edu/inclusion/

Questions, suggestions, or other concerns can always be addressed to uwenglishdiversity@gmail.com.