Harvard University Lawsuit

Case type: Gender Discrimination/Title IX/Civil Rights/Equal Rights

Filed in: U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Docket: Case 1:22-cv-10202

Case Summary

Sanford Heisler Sharp filed a lawsuit on February 8, 2022, against Harvard University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Complaint alleges that Harvard violated Title IX and Massachusetts Civil Rights and Common laws by willfully ignoring a near-decade-long pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation by tenured Anthropology Professor John Comaroff against three female graduate students in Harvard’s Anthropology Department. The Complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of the three students, Margaret Czerwienski, Lilia Kilburn, and Amulya Mandava.

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

Beginning in 2017, the Complaint alleges, Professor Comaroff, a renowned anthropologist with deep connections in his field, repeatedly and forcibly kissed Ms. 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 Ms. Czerwienski and Ms. Mandava warned other female students and reported  Professor Comaroff to Harvard’s Title IX office and Office of Dispute Resolution, the university failed to act as Prof. Comaroff retaliated, in part, by ensuring that Ms. Czerwienski and Ms. 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 Professor John Comaroff; that Harvard committed breach of contract and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing; and that Harvard violated Massachusetts law by obtaining and disseminating Ms. Kilburn’s therapy records without her consent.

The Complaint requests a jury trial.

Procedural History

• Order on Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss Counts One Through Nine, filed March 31, 2023
• United States’ Statement of Interest, filed September 7, 2022
• Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendant’s
  Amended Motion for Partial Summary Judgment as to Count Ten, filed August 23, 2022
• Plaintiffs’ Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendant’s Amended Motion to Dismiss Counts One to Nine of Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint, filed August 23, 2022
• Amended Complaint and Demand for Jury Trial, filed June 21, 2022
• Original Complaint, filed on Feb. 8, 2022

News Coverage

• The Harvard Crimson—”Judge Allows Most Counts in Comaroff Harassment Lawsuit Against Harvard to Proceed”
• Law360—”Harvard Must Face Suit Over Prof’s Alleged Harassment”
• Reuters — “U.S. backs students claiming Harvard ignored professor’s
  sexual harassment”
• The Harvard Crimson — “Harvard Grad Student Union Protests Comaroff’s Return
  to Teaching After Sexual Harassment Findings”
• The Harvard Crimson — “Harvard Asks Judge to Dismiss Comaroff Sexual Harassment Lawsuit”
• The Boston Globe — “It’stime to fix the vast power disparity between university
  graduate students and advisers, critics say”
• The Boston Globe — “Victims of sexual harassment on college campuses deserve independent
  investigations”
• Bloomberg Law — “Microsoft Sets Bar on Investigating Harassment. Who Will Follow”
• The New York Times — “After Sexual Harassment Lawsuit, Critics Attack Harvard’s Release
  of Therapy Records”
• New York Magazine — “All the Alarming Allegations in Harvard’s Sexual Harassment
  Suit”
• WGBH —”‘Ignored for far too long’: Harvard students suing university
  over sexual harassment share their story” (video)
• AP — “3 women sue Harvard, allege school ignored sexual harassment”