Three female graduate students Tuesday filed a lawsuit in the United Stats District Court for the District of Massachusetts against Harvard, alleging that Harvard mishandled Title IX complaints and allowed Anthropology Professor John L. Comaroff to intimidate students who threatened to report him, including the plaintiffs.
Professor Comaroff is the Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African-American Studies and Anthropology, and an Oppenheimer Research Scholar, at Harvard University. Before joining the Department of African and African American Studies, Professor Comaroff was the Harold H. Swift Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. Professor Comaroff was placed on leave in August 2020, after the Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s daily newspaper, reported that at least three female students were in contact with Harvard’s Title IX officer about allegations of unwanted touching, verbal sexual harassment, and professional retaliation.
In the 65-page complaint, Plaintiffs Margaret Czerwienski, Lilia Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava alleged that Professor Comaroff kissed and groped students without their consent, made unwelcome sexual advances, and threatened to sabotage students’ careers if they complained. Additionally, when students reported him to Harvard and sought to warn their peers about him, Harvard watched as he retaliated by foreclosing career paths and ensuring that those students would have “trouble getting jobs.” Plaintiff Kilburn provided further details, claiming that Professor Comaroff would “imagine aloud her rape and murder,” grope her in public settings and isolate her from other professors.
Plaintiffs brought the action under Title IX and Massachusetts law to remedy the gender discrimination, sexual harassment, hostile environment, and retaliation. Their requested relief, among others, includes a permanent injunction against Harvard and its officers, owners, agents, successors, employees, and representations from engaging in any other unlawful practices, policies, customs, and usages. As well as a declaratory judgment that Harvard’s policies, practices, and procedures are in violation of the rights of Plaintiffs and are, therefore, illegal.
