Presenter: Professor Anthony Collins

Date: 9 February 2023

The words “The sound of Children Screaming has been removed,” were an editor’s note attached to a video, published by the Austin American-Statesman of Uvalde of the shooting. On May 24, 2022, a mass shooting occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, while seventeen others survived despite being injured. Police officers waited more than 1 hour and 14 minutes on-site before breaching the classroom to engage the shooter. Police also cordoned off the school grounds, resulting in violent conflicts between police and civilians, including parents, who were attempting to enter the school to rescue children. As a response to the editor’s note, Professor Anthony Collins delivers a theoretical conceptual lecture on representations of violence.

Starting with the editorial caption in CCTV video, this analysis unpacks some of the practical and conceptual problems in representing violence and trauma. What is the work done by different ways of representing violence? How do we accurately represent the suffering of vulnerable people without vicariously traumatising our audience? How do we avoid accounts that incite further violence? What kinds of explanation are effective in motivating violence prevention and victim empowerment? This exploration works towards a framework for articulating the different types of harm that result from representing, and not representing, traumatic experiences.

**For to the full conversation listen to the Podcast episode HERE.

In honor of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting:

Makenna Lee Elrod, 10
Layla Salazar, 11
Maranda Mathis, 11
Nevaeh Bravo, 10
Jose Manuel Flores Jr., 10
Xavier Lopez, 10
Tess Marie Mata, 10
Rojelio Torres, 10
Eliahna “Ellie” Amyah Garcia, 9
Eliahna A. Torres, 10
Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10
Jackie Cazares, 9
Uziyah Garcia
Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, 10
Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, 10
Jailah Nicole Silguero, 10
Irma Garcia, 48
Eva Mireles, 44
Amerie Jo Garza, 10
Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, 10
Alithia Ramirez, 10