UK university offers 'content warning' for Harry Potter, Hunger Games

A course at the University of Chester has issued a content warning for its reading list, arguing the texts, which include Harry Potter, could lead to "difficult conversations."

Students of an English class at the University of Chester started the term off with a content warning at the bottom of their syllabus, warning them that the materials discussed could be troubling.

Included in the reading list were such controversial titles as Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Hunger Games, and Northern Lights.

The Daily Mail obtained the syllabus, and the content warning located within.

"Although we are studying a selection of Young Adult texts on this Module," the warning begins, "the nature of the theories we apply to them can lead to some difficult conversations about gender, race, sexuality, class, and identity."

"These topics," it continues, "will be treated objectively, critically, and most crucially, with respect. If anyone has any issues with the content, please get in touch with the Module Leader to make them aware."

As the Daily Mail reports, such a warning is "not featured on any other reading lists seen by MailOnline, which include works by Shakespeare, Charlotte Brontë and Arthur Conan Doyle."

Despite this, a university spokesperson claimed that it was a "generic paragraph," not specific to the texts, adding that it was included "just to reiterate that young adult texts can also prompt important conversations."

Following the news, British MP Andrew Bridgen criticized the university for sheltering students.

"Kids understand that in any successful story characters have to face challenges, just as we all, in our lives, face them too," he said. "Children understand that stories without difficult themes don’t tend to be very good stories or reflect real life."

"Children and young people are amazingly resilient," Bridgen continued. "It really is very sad that universities are seeking to rob them of that resilience with ridiculous trigger warnings."

He went on to suggest that while "Katniss Everdeen may have lived in a dystopian world in the Hunger Games, some may argue that our universities are creating one for our students too."

The marking of Harry Potter as potentially troubling struck some as potentially more to do with the author than the book itself. JK Rowling, who has garnered attention as of late for her stance on transgender women, was labeled "not the best mate of mine" by the University of Chester's course leader Dr. Richard Leahy in a 2019 Twitter post.