Seventeen Harvard Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Allegations against Comaroff were first made public by The Crimson in 2020, where an eightmonth investigation found that at least three students had contacted Harvard’s Title IX Office with complaints about the professor’s behavior.

After two internal investigations launched after The Crimson’s reporting found that Comaroff violated Harvard’s sexual harassment and professional conduct policies, FAS Dean and President-elect Claudine Gay placed Comaroff on a semester of unpaid administrative leave, after initially placing him on paid administrative leave. His return to the classroom in fall 2022 was met with a walkout by Harvard’s graduate student union, and public outrage against the professor continued into this semester.

In an emailed statement, Ruth K. O’Meara-Costello ’02, an attorney for Comaroff, wrote that the survey results are “entirely misleading.”

“The Harvard community has not been provided with any of the factual findings of the Office for Dispute Resolution’s investigation and therefore has no basis to make responsible judgments about those findings or about the appropriateness of sanctions,” O’Meara-Costello wrote.

“Public discussion of the case has been heavily distorted by the media campaign surrounding the lawsuit against Harvard, by the Crimson’s consistently slanted editorializing, and by the vocal protests of a minority of students advocating punishment without due process,” she added.

In an emailed statement, Cara J. Chang ’24, The Crimson’s president, defended the newspaper’s coverage.

“The Crimson strives to bring our readers fair, accurate, and objective coverage, upholding the highest standards of journalistic ethics,” Chang wrote. “Our reporters and editors have done their due diligence throughout our coverage of Professor John L. Comaroff, and we stand by our reporting.”

Approximately 36 percent of surveyed faculty somewhat or strongly disagreed that the University’s Office for Gender Equity and Office for Dispute Resolution were adequately equipped to handle sex and gender-based discrimination issues on campus, a 5 percentage point decrease from last year. Just over 31 percent of surveyed faculty agreed that the Office for Gender Equity and ODR were adequately prepared.

“The University is doing much better now than in the past, and still has much room for improvement,” one faculty member wrote. But others slammed the University. One faculty member called Harvard’s policies “abominable, patriarchal and shameful,” and another wrote that Harvard’s “motivations are not about justice or reconciliation but instead the protection of themselves and the corporation.”

Just over 31 percent of surveyed faculty said they knew someone in their department — excluding themselves — who was sexually harassed, up from just under 26 percent last year. Of those who knew someone who was sexually harassed, roughly equal percentages were men and women — 49 percent and 44 percent, respectively.

Like last year, faculty in Social Sciences knew of someone who was sexually harassed in their department more than in other divisions: 51 percent of respondents in the Social Sciences division said they knew someone who had been sexually harassed, followed by 30 percent of faculty in the Science division, 29 percent in SEAS, and 24 percent in the Arts and Humanities.

Roughly 7 percent of faculty said they themselves had been sexually harassed, while 88 percent said they had not been — which resemble last year’s percentages, when 7.9 percent of surveyed faculty said they had been sexually harassed.

Methodology

Seventeen Harvard professors were elected to become members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, according to a Wednesday press release by the honorary society.

Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has appointed more than 14,600 members.

This year, the Academy has selected a cohort of 269 individuals. The organization also conducts research across multiple disciplines, publishes a journal, and hosts events on a variety of topics.

Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the Academy’s board of directors, said in Wednesday’s press release that this year’s appointees bring “diverse expertise to meet the pressing challenges and possibilities that America and the world face today.”

The Harvard professors who will be inducted come from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Medical School, the Kennedy

School, the Business School, the Divinity School, the Law School, and the Graduate School of Education.

Government professor Daniel Ziblatt, whose research focuses on challenges facing American and European democracies, said he was “greatly honored by the recognition.”

He added it was meaningful to him to be recommended by current U.S. President Joe Biden and ex-President Barack Obama, as well as other advocates of democracy. HKS professor William C. Clark, who advocates for sustainable development, wrote in an email that he was “grateful for the privilege of joining today this awesome group in its historic mission.”

HMS professor Benjamin L. Ebert, who studies leukemia and its potential treatments, thanked his coworkers in an email, writing that his selection “reflects the work of my entire laboratory and all of our collaborators much more than my personal contributions.”

David S. Pellman, an HMS professor whose work focuses on cell division errors and their impact on evolution, also thanked his collaborators and students. He added that he hopes his work can lead to novel cancer therapy methods.

Jacob K. Olupona, an African and African American Studies and Divinity School professor who is currently studying the life of a southwestern Nigerian medicine man and chief named Lóòghò Bamatula, said the election “came as a big surprise.”

“To be a member of the Academy is not a joke at all,” he said. “I will dedicate this fellowship to my parents: my late father, my mother, who brought me to this world and who gave me a good education when I was young.”

HDS professor emeritus David D. Hall ’58, who specializes in 17th century American history, said his election comes near the end of his academic career and celebrates “a large body of work stretching back some 40 years.”

Michèle Lamont, professor of Sociology, European Studies, and African and African American Studies, whose research fo - cuses on how an individual’s work is valued throughout different communities, said she has received more from her students “than I have given in terms of my learning.”

“I would thank them for feeding my soul and my mind,” she said.

HKS and HBS professor Amitabh Chandra, whose research facilitates innovations in medicine, lauded those who have assisted the “great scientists and artists whose work has profoundly improved human experience” who have been elected to the Academy.

“They were supported by optimistic institutions and cheerful families, friends, and colleagues, who kept the elevator open for the pokey member, drowning in paperwork and laundry,” he wrote. “As in science and medicine, election to the AAAS is really a recognition that these invisible forces are too difficult to list, and it is easier to name the individual who alighted first from the elevator.” andrew.park@thecrimson.com rysa.tahilramani@thecrimson.com

When asked to expand on their answers in a free-response question, several faculty respondents criticized Harvard’s response to the allegations against Comaroff, with one alleging the school is “not committed to holding abusive faculty accountable.”

Another reported that they were “personally severely harassed and bullied” due to fallout from Harvard’s “severe mishan-

The Crimson’s annual faculty survey was conducted via Qualtrics, To check for response bias, The Crimson compared respondents’ self-reported demographic data with publicly available data on FAS faculty demographics for the 2021-22 academic year. Survey respondents’ demographic data generally match these publicly available data. rahem.hamid@thecrimson.com elias.schsigall@thecrimson.com

LANIER V. HARVARD