3 graduate students file sexual harassment suit against prominent Harvard anthropology professor

[pnwmom]

Source: Boston Globe

Three Harvard University graduate students sued the university on Tuesday, alleging it ignored nearly a decade of sexual harassment and retaliation by a prominent anthropology professor and permitted a system that protects powerful faculty -- and the university's reputation -- at students' expense.

The suit, filed in Massachusetts federal court, alleges that Harvard ignored numerous warning signs, enabling renowned professor John Comaroff to sexually harass one student and damage her career, as well as the careers of two classmates who spoke in her defense.

The case raises larger questions about the potential risks of academic hierarchies that are inherently imbalanced, and in which tenured faculty members hold enormous sway over the careers of graduate students they advise.

"This is a case about power," said Russell Kornblith, an attorney representing the three plaintiffs, Lilia Kilburn, Margaret Czerwienski, and Amulya Mandava. "It's about the power that the university has to make things right, and it's also about the power that the university gives graduate student advisers over their graduate students."



Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/02/08/metro/3-graduate-students-file-sexual-harassment-suit-against-prominent-harvard-anthropology-professor/

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Here's another article about the situation.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-patron

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Articles in the Harvard Crimson

Lawsuit Alleges Harvard Ignored Sexual Harassment Complaints Against Prof. John Comaroff for Years



Harvard graduate students Amulya Mandava, Lilia Kilburn, and Margaret Czerwienski (pictured left to right) file a lawsuit against Harvard University alleging willful ignorance of sexual harassment and retaliation by Anthropology Department professor John Comaroff. By Courtesy of Lena Warnke Photography

By Isabella B. Cho and Ariel H. Kim, Crimson Staff Writers
40 minutes ago

Three graduate students filed a lawsuit against Harvard on Tuesday alleging the school ignored years of sexual harassment and retaliation by professor John L. Comaroff, who was placed on unpaid leave last month.

The suit, filed by three graduate students in the Anthropology Department, alleges that Harvard mishandled Title IX complaints and allowed Comaroff to intimidate students who threatened to report him, including the plaintiffs.

The suit — filed by Margaret G. Czerwienski, Lilia M. Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava — charges that Comaroff committed physical and verbal sexual harassment, including unwanted kissing and groping. In the 65-page filing, the students took sharp aim at Harvard, which they allege “watched” as Comaroff retaliated against accusers and “allowed its investigatory process to be used in service of Professor Comaroff’s campaign of professional blacklisting.”

The lawsuit alleges that Comaroff subjected Kilburn “to a pattern of gender-based harassment and assault continuing from 2017 until at least April 2019 using threats, intimidation, and coercion.” He also allegedly “threatened, intimidated, and coerced” Mandava and Czerwienski for warning others about his sexual misconduct “with the goal of inducing them to stop their speech and opposition to his sexual harassment and gender discrimination.”

{snip}

—Staff writer Isabella B. Cho can be reached at [e-mail]. Follow her on Twitter @izbcho.

—Staff writer Ariel H. Kim can be reached at [e-mail].

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38 Harvard Faculty Sign Open Letter Questioning Results of Misconduct Investigations into Prof. John Comaroff

By Isabella B. Cho and Ariel H. Kim, Crimson Staff Writers
3 days ago

Nearly 40 Harvard faculty members signed onto an open letter this week questioning the results of misconduct investigations into John L. Comaroff, a professor of African and African American Studies and Anthropology who was placed on unpaid leave last month.

Comaroff was sanctioned by Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay on Jan. 20 after University investigations found that he violated Harvard’s sexual and professional conduct policies. He is barred from teaching required courses and taking on additional advisees through the next academic year.

The open letter, signed by 38 faculty members, posed a series of pointed questions about investigations into Comaroff and the sanctions levied against him.

“We the undersigned know John Comaroff to be an excellent colleague, advisor and committed university citizen who has for five decades trained and advised hundreds of Ph.D. students of diverse backgrounds, who have subsequently become leaders in universities across the world,” the letter said. “We are dismayed by Harvard’s sanctions against him and concerned about its effects on our ability to advise our own students.”

The letter was signed by some of Harvard’s most prominent faculty — including a former Harvard College dean and five University professors, who hold Harvard’s highest faculty distinction.

{snip}

—Staff writer Isabella B. Cho can be reached at [e-mail]. Follow her on Twitter @izbcho.

—Staff writer Ariel H. Kim can be reached at [e-mail].

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

[pnwmom]

3. Thanks! nt

[bucolic_frolic]

2. I saw a professor involved with his graduate assistant once.

He was one of the worst asshole profs ever. But he did tell us he had no time to teach, he had a more important job at a women's college. Not quite sure what the asshole meant by that. Hope they were safer than his graduate assistant.