Indian American student accuses Harvard of ignoring sexual harassment

Amulya Mandava and two others allege professor kissed and groped students and threatened to sabotage their careers

Three doctoral students of Harvard University, including an Indian American, have accused the prestigious US institution of willfully ignoring a near-decade-long pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation by a tenured anthropology professor.

In a law suit filed Tuesday in Boston federal court, Amulya Mandava, Margaret Czerwienski and Lilia Kilburn alleged that professor John Comaroff, 77, kissed and groped students without their consent and threatened to sabotage their careers if they complained.

The complaint alleges that Harvard failed to protect the three students from Comaroff’s harassment, retaliation and abuse of power and have all been forced to radically alter their fields of study and pursuit of their degrees.

Read: Indian American former personal assistant of Harvey Weinstein files sexual harassment lawsuit (January 26, 2018)

Beginning in 2017, the complaint alleges, Comaroff, a renowned anthropologist with deep connections in his field, repeatedly and forcibly kissed Kilburn, groped her in public, graphically and bizarrely imagined her rape and murder aloud, cut her off from other professors, and derailed her degree progress.

Further, when Czerwienski and Mandava warned other female students and reported Comaroff to Harvard’s Title IX office and Office of Dispute Resolution, the university failed to act as Comaroff retaliated, in part, by ensuring that Czerwienski and Mandava would have “trouble getting jobs.”

The complaint asserts that Harvard’s conduct violates Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act, and Massachusetts’s prohibition on sexual harassment in educational institutions.

The complaint also alleges that Harvard was negligent in its supervision and retention of Comaroff and committed breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing

The lawsuit further accuses Harvard of violating Massachusetts law by obtaining and disseminating Kilburn’s therapy records without her consent.

The complaint filed on behalf of the three students by Sanford Heisler Sharp in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts requests a jury trial.

Allegations against Comaroff were first detailed in the university’s newspaper, The Harvard Crimson more than a year ago, according to the New York Times.

Comaroff was placed on administrative leave for this year’s spring semester after an investigation last month found that he engaged in verbal conduct that violated Harvard’s policies on harassment, the Times reported.

He was also barred from teaching required courses through the next academic year. Comaroff was not found responsible for unwanted sexual contact though, the newspaper added.

Lawyers for Comaroff disputed the accusations against their client. “Professor Comaroff categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student,” they told the Times.

The controversy has divided the faculty, the paper said. In the days leading up to the lawsuit, more than 90 academics at Harvard and other universities globally signed open letters defending his character and extolling his reputation and mentorship.

In court papers filed Tuesday, Kilburn said Comaroff’s rape comments were part of a pattern of misbehavior that she experienced at his hands, according to the Times. These comments, the paper said are the centerpiece of the lawsuit.

The other two women in the case, Margaret Czerwienski and Amulya Mandava, are portrayed in the court papers mainly in the role of whistle-blowers, whose careers were threatened by Comaroff when they challenged his behavior, according to the Times.

Read: Lawsuit accuses Harvard of ignoring sexual harassment by professor (February 8, 2022)

But Comaroff had also showered Mandava with unwanted attention when she first encountered him as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, she told the newspaper in an interview.

When she joked about one day wearing a high-necked wedding dress, he looked at her low-cut neckline and said, “That would be out of character for you,” she said.

His treatment was “objectifying and boundary crossing,” she was quoted as saying.