A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Massachusetts federal court alleges that Harvard University ignored a decade of sexual harassment and retaliation from a tenured anthroplogy professor, which in turn allowed him to disrupt the careers of three graduate students in the anthropology department.
The complaint alleges that anthropology department professor John Comaroff forcibly kissed Lilia Kilburn repeatedly, groped her in public and graphically described how she could be raped or murdered while studying abroad. The lawsuit also claims Comaroff prevented her from working with another professor and interrupted her degree progress.
In addition, Margaret Czerwienski and Amulya Mandava claim that after they reported Comaroff's actions to Harvard and warned other students about him, the university then stood by as Comaroff retaliated against them.
Carolin Guentert, a lawyer at Sanford Heisler Sharp, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, said the hope of the suit is to shine a light on Harvard's alleged indifference.
"As we allege in the complaint, Harvard knew about professor Comaroff's history when it hired him," she said, referring to complaints of inappropriate behavior while he was employed at the University of Chicago from 1979 to 2012. "It certainly knew when multiple students and faculty made complaints about professor Comaroff. And for years Harvard didn't take action, it didn't act on those complaints. And what we really hope here is that students don't need to go through a process that was as biased and burdensome as our clients had to experience. And certainly that they won't be met with faculty opposition once they step up and have the courage to speak out about this."
It's the latest chapter in a winding saga dating back to 2020 when Comaroff was placed on administrative leave following allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation.
He was placed on unpaid leave last month after Harvard's investigations found he violated the university's sexual harassment and professional conduct policies. He will be barred from instructing required courses and taking on any additional advisees through the next academic year.
Comaroff was not named as a defendant in Tuesday's suit. In a statement shared with GBH News, Comaroff's lawyers state he “categorically denies ever harassing or retaliating against any student.” They claim that Comaroff did not kiss or inappropriately touch Kilburn at any time.
His lawyers also claim Comaroff's comments on sexual violence prior to Kilburn's field work in Africa were to warn her of the potential dangers of traveling with her same-sex partner to places without protections for LGBTQ people. According to the lawsuit, the country Comaroff mentioned was South Africa, which is thousands of miles away from the central African country of Cameroon, the country mentioned in the statement from Comaroff's lawyers. The lawsuit did not specify which country Kilburn was going to, but it did mention it was in central Africa.
Comaroff referred GBH News to his lawyers when reached for comment.
On campus, nearly 40 faculty members at Harvard have signed an open letter questioning the results of the investigations into the allegations of misconduct by Comaroff.
Harvard did not respond to a request for comment from GBH News.
