Introductory description

Taboo topics and their associated silences and absences are legion in our everyday lives, public and political discourses, academic and policy endeavours. Taboos can: block discussion of underlying logics (e.g. food taboos); prevent disclosure of experiences by those most impacted; stifle exploration and innovation. All, in different ways, distort our evidence bases in ways that may pose major obstacles to global sustainable development and the pursuit of community, engagement and belonging. In the fields of Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Trafficking in Persons, State Crimes, for example, multiple taboos result in lack of disclosure and correspondingly incomplete evidence. This hinders effective policy and practice, whether in terms of response and prevention, or going further in pursuit of true accountability.

Despite important theoretical work from anthropologists and others, there has been insufficient attention to how to identify taboos and how to get beyond them in research terms. This module, which explores disclosure-related complexities, obstacles and opportunities thus speaks to cross-disciplinary challenges. Across diverse social and cultural contexts involving academics, practitioners and survivors, it maps key conceptual, practical, ethical and evidentiary issues to be understood and engaged with by researchers, policy makers and practitioners seeking to tackle some of the most intractable challenges of our time.

The module will actively seek to avoid gratuitous use of shock value materials, but many taboo topics - and seeking to challenge taboos - are associated with the possibility of triggering emotions. This module may touch on issues that are difficult for some participants to discuss, and this will require of all participants a willingness to work reflexively in case of such reactions.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

The module will address three broad themes, within which a number of indicative topics are outlined:
Theme 1: Defining taboos

• Defining 'taboos': What are the different disciplinary usages made of notions of ‘taboo’? do we mean by ‘taboo’? Whose taboos matter? What purpose do they serve?
• Taboos, Power & Sustainability: What are the relationships between power structures/dynamics, the persistence of taboos, and our failure to resolve particular global challenges?
• Taboos, Identity & Belonging: Taboos can help generate and maintain a given status quo and thus a sense of identity and belonging; what happens when they are broken?

Theme 2: Taboos & Knowledge

• Taboos & Epistemology: To what extent does an acknowledgement of taboos force a reconsideration of what we think we know?
• Taboos & Data Quality: what questions might we ask of existing data in light of greater awareness of the power and omnipresence of taboos?
• Identifying Taboos: What approaches can be taken to the identification and delineation of taboo topics?
• To what extent do academic disciplines create taboos?

Theme 3: Working on Taboo Topics

• Challenging Taboos: What theories of truth-telling motivate the pursuit of disclosure?
• Strategies for Enabling Disclosure: What comes first? Activism or research or organising? What is the role of evidence in deconstructing taboos?
• Researching Taboos: What particular skills and methods are required for uncovering and articulating previously taboo topics?

Indicative Case studies include: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence; Trafficking in Persons; State Crimes; Child Sexual Abuse; Nepotism & Corruption; Acknowledgement of indigenous populations in settler colonies, Black experiences with cancer (see also draft reading list for a range of other taboo topics related to both global sustainable development and community, identity and belonging).

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Systematically deploy advanced critical thinking skills with regard to gaps, sensing silences, identifying absence
• Interrogate received wisdom and established policy positions through a profound understanding of the qualitative limitations of the data underpinning them
• Recognise, articulate and mitigate own reactions to taboo topics
• Creatively develop, conduct and present ethical research that enables disclosure related to taboo topics

Indicative reading list

Allan, K. (ed.) (2019) Oxford Handbook of Taboo Words and Language. Oxford University
Press, USA.

Baxter, L.A. and Wilmot, W.W. (1985) ‘Taboo Topics in Close Relationships’, Journal of
Social and Personal Relationships, 2(3), pp. 253–269. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407585023002.

Caulfield, J., Day, M. and Phillips, B.J. (2021) ‘Death in advertising: the last taboo?’,
International Journal of Advertising, 40(7), pp. 1073–1095. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/02650487.2020.1830687.

Chrisler, J.C. (2013) ‘Teaching Taboo Topics’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 37(1), pp.
128–132. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684312471326.

Coston, B.M. and Kimmel, M. (2012) ‘Seeing Privilege Where It Isn’t: Marginalized
Masculinities and the Intersectionality of Privilege’, Journal of Social Issues, 68(1), pp.
97–111. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.2011.01738.x.

Davies, S.H. et al. (2022) ‘Adolescent Perceptions of Menstruation on Twitter:
Opportunities for Advocacy and Education’, Journal of Adolescent Health, 71(1), pp.
94–104. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.01.224.

Douglas, M. (2002) Purity and danger: an analysis of concept of pollution and taboo.
London: Routledge. Available at:
https://0-www-taylorfrancis-com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/books/9781134438242.

Foucault, M. (2014) History of Sexuality. Vintage Books.
Freud, S. (2014) Totem and Taboo. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Goffman, E. (2009) Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity. New York:
Touchstone. Available at:
http://0-search.ebscohost.com.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=s
ite&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1975134.

Grandey, A.A., Gabriel, A.S. and King, E.B. (2020) ‘Tackling Taboo Topics: A Review of the
Three M s in Working Women’s Lives’, Journal of Management, 46(1), pp. 7–35. Available
at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206319857144.
1/3

Hovey, Angela (no date) ‘USING MIXED METHODS TO INQUIRE HOW THERAPISTS ADDRESS
A TABOO TOPIC WITH WOMEN SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE’, 8(5). Available
at:
https://www.proquest.com/docview/1764690690?parentSessionId=g%2FcfjMqLRlH7In8nBj
4LA0DkaBCsOMHMCVWl1ApL%2BUs%3D&pq-origsite=summon&accountid=148
88&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals.

Kiegelmann, Mechthild (no date) ‘Qualitative Psychological Research Using the Method of
Voice’, 1(2). Available at:
https://www.proquest.com/docview/867646124?parentSessionId=bysnR0ZAwPgVDMqnTra
e8e49%2B90u4v5fe3sGS%2Fp1Oaw%3D&pq-origsite=summon&accountid=148
88&sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals.

Krumpal, I. (2013) ‘Determinants of social desirability bias in sensitive surveys: a literature
review’, Quality & Quantity, 47(4), pp. 2025–2047. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-011-9640-9.

Moyer-Gusé, E., Chung, A.H. and Jain, P. (2011) ‘Identification With Characters and
Discussion of Taboo Topics After Exposure to an Entertainment Narrative About Sexual
Health’, Journal of Communication, 61(3), pp. 387–406. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01551.x.

Ouma, M. (2024) ‘When the longer route leads to the point: Circumlocution as a strategy in
the male reproductive health clinic in Kenya’, SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 5.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100420.

Pierce Colfer, C.J. et al. (2013) ‘Gender and natural resource governance indicators: a need
to assess and address “sensitive and taboo” topics’, Forests, Trees and Livelihoods, 22(3),
pp. 143–155. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14728028.2013.807143.

Ronald W. Evans, Patricia G. Avery, Patricia Velde Pederson (2000) ‘Taboo Topics: Cultural
Restraint on Teaching Social Issues’, The Clearing House, 73(5), pp. 295–302. Available at:
https://0-www-jstor-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/stable/30189601.

Rubin, S. (2011) ‘Tackling Taboo Topics: Case Studies in Group Work’, Social Work With
Groups, 34(3–4), pp. 257–269. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/01609513.2011.558824.

Tomi J. Kallio (2007) ‘Taboos in Corporate Social Responsibility Discourse’, Journal of
Business Ethics, 74(2), pp. 165–175. Available at:
https://0-www-jstor-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/stable/25075454.

Tracy E. K’Meyer, A. Glenn Crothers (2007) ‘“If I See Some of This in Writing, I’m Going to
Shoot You”: Reluctant Narrators, Taboo Topics, and the Ethical Dilemmas of the Oral
Historian’, The Oral History Review, 34(1), pp. 71–93. Available at:
https://0-www-jstor-org.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/stable/4495418.

Walsh, A. (2017) Taboo issues in social science: questioning conventional wisdom.
Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=5047314.
2/3

Winters, M.-F. (2017) We can’t talk about that at work!: how to talk about race, religion,
politics, and other polarizing topics. First edition. Oakland, California: Berrett-Koehler
Publishers, Inc. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/warw/detail.action?docID=4796047.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Students will i) identify and delineate a taboo ii) explore how this taboo is likely impacting the ways in which data is collected iii) demonstrate the problematic nature of the resultant data or evidence base, and iii) trace the likely gaps in policy and practice based on that evidence, as well as the impacts of these on sustainability.

Interdisciplinary

This Module will speaks directly to the intention of the MASc in Community, Engagement, and Belonging “to help students to critically reflect on where, why, and how to bridge the gap between knowledge creation and communities, creating spaces for dialogue and innovation” and to the MASc in Global Sustainable Development’s wish to “combine academic learning with practical action and applied thinking to tackle problems of GSD”

International

While there are some taboo topics that are global, most are context and culture specific. Even those that might be characterised as global will present in context-specific manners. Appreciation of how diverse taboos can be across a range of contexts is a critical component of this module.

Subject specific skills

Identification of taboo topics within existing discourses and disciplines, and identification of methodologies with which to break down such taboos, both for research and for social change purposes.

Transferable skills

The following list utilises the categories of transferable skills developed by the Warwick Award (https://warwick.ac.uk/services/skills/warwickaward/coreskills/)

• Critical Thinking - identification and contextualisation of taboos, interpreting data in light of taboos
• Ethical Values - awareness of unconscious bias in how approach a range of topics, integrity in seeking to break down taboos
• Self-Awareness - in particular how own reaction to particular taboos may be an obstacle to gaining a clear understanding.
• Information Literacy
• Intercultural Awareness
• Professionalism