Lawsuit: Harvard Ignored Sexual Harassment By Tenured Professor

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Three graduate students accused Harvard University of ignoring nearly a decade of sexual harassment and retaliation by a tenured professor in the anthropology department in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Boston.

In their Complaint, Margaret Czerwienski, Lilia Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava say Harvard continued to allow John Comaroff, 77, to work after ignoring warning signs and Title IX complaints filed against him. Comaroff was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The 65-page complaint claims Comaroff repeatedly and forcibly kissed Kilburn, groped her in public, graphically imagined her rape and murder aloud, cut her off from other professors, and derailed her degree progress. It also accuses him of retaliating against all three women when they filed Complaints against him.

"The message sent by Harvard's actions alleged in the Complaint is clear: students should shut up. It is the price to pay for a degree," said Russell Kornblith of Sanford Heisler Sharp, who represents the three women. "Our Complaint sets out a long history of Harvard's failure to protect students, and we look forward to showing that pattern in court and before a jury."

Czerwienski and Mandava first reported Comaroff to Harvard's Title IX Office back in August 2020, and Comaroff was briefly placed on leave. Comaroff pushed back at Czerwienski and Mandava's initial claims, telling them they would have "trouble getting jobs," as a result. All three women say they had to alter their academic plans and delay the pursuit of their degrees.

Comaroff, who had worked at the university since 2012, was placed on unpaid leave last month after being sanctioned by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Claudine Gay on Jan. 20, the university's student-run newspaper The Harvard Crimson reported. Comaroff is barred from teaching required courses and taking on additional advisees through the next academic year.

Since Comaroff was placed on leave, 38 Harvard faculty members signed an open letter questioning the results of misconduct investigations.

"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."

But Gay defended the sanctions, noting that faculty members did not have the complete findings from the school's investigations.

"Be aware that if you do not have access to the full review, and instead are relying on public accounts relayed through the media or only what is shared by one party to a complaint, you are necessarily operating without a comprehensive understanding of the facts that have motivated the response," Gay wrote in response to the letter.

"Harvard has a duty to protect their students," Kornblith told Patch. "The school knew of these allegations and didn't act appropriately, ignoring complaints and forcing students to come forward when they weren't ready."

Comaroff was not immediately available for comment but declined to comment on the letter.

Kornblith and Carolin Guenteret of Sanford Heisler Sharp told Patch in an interview they worry this complaint is just the tip of the iceberg of a multi-decade pattern of inappropriate relationships professors have had with students nationwide, citing two of the past chairs in the anthropology department also had allegations against them.

"Academics rely on networks that are crucial to success," Guenteret added. "These women have given Harvard every chance to do the right thing and they haven't done it."

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