Banned Books Week 2025
Kaitlyn Hawker
Blog Editor-in-Chief
The Whitworth Democracy Lab’s Banned Book Club hosted our 2025 Banned Books Week. Banned Books Week ran from October 5-11 this year. The Banned Book Club finished reading 1984 by George Orwell and initiated several projects on campus.
Following Whitworth tradition, the Banned Book Club started to “Chalk Back Against Censorship” on the sidewalks outside of the library in their signature purple. Some of the messages read,
“Who decides what you can read?”
“Celebrate Banned Books Week: Read Dangerously.”
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four.” –1984
“The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.” – 1984
“Whose voices vanished when books are banned?”
“Whitworth reads banned books.”
They also implored students on campus to post a “Read Out” or “Mugshot” of themselves reading 1984 and why it was meaningful to them. I participated in this and looped in Whitworth’s chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, an international English Honors Society.
“I read 1984 for the first time this summer and it’s both disturbing and sad how close some of Orwell’s ideas match our current reality. It’s impossible to miss the irony in 1984’s commentary on censorship, forcefully forgetting, and banned information and the simply fact this book has been banned for most of its publication history.”
The Banned Book Club also gave away 100 free copies of 1984 to students in the HUB as a way to combat censorship and broaden the horizons of more students.
Overall, Banned Books Week at Whitworth was a resounding success, and I look forward to seeing what the Democracy Lab has in store for the future.
