PRESS RELEASE: Harvard Students Rally Against Harvard’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse

For Immediate Release: Thursday, February 2nd, 5 PM EST

Contact: comaroffpress@gmail.com

Harvard Students Rally Against Harvard’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse

After walking out of his first class of the semester, students continue to organize against known sexual abuser, Professor John Comaroff. 

CAMBRIDGE— On January 24th, 100+ students walked out of the class of Professor John Comaroff, whom the university found guilty of violating sexual harassment policies in 2022. This walkout was just the beginning of their efforts. This Friday at 2:30 PM, Harvard undergraduate feminist advocacy group Our Harvard Can Do Better is organizing a march and rally to continue the call for John Comaroff’s resignation and for Harvard to end their complicity in cultures of sexual abuse and misogyny. Joined by the Harvard Graduate Student Union, Harvard Student Labor Action Movement, Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, and more, students and Harvard community members will march from Science Center Plaza, around the Harvard Yard, and end with a rally at University Hall. 

“After our walkout, John Comaroff and his students stopped showing up to the class. His name was removed from his office. Students have made it clear that we won’t accept sexual abusers in our classrooms. Why does Harvard continue to employ them?” said first-year Kawsar Yasin. “It’s past time for Harvard to take accountability for their complicity in sexual violence.” 

In a lawsuit by three graduate students, John Comaroff, a professor in Harvard’s anthropology department, was charged with unwanted kissing, groping, and sexual remarks in addition to professional retaliation against the students. Despite an internal investigation by Harvard determining that his conduct “violated the fundamental norms of our community,” he was allowed to return to teaching this academic year. Harvard even was warned about past accusations against Comaroff during his tenure at the University of Chicago but hired him anyway in 2012. 

Harvard’s disregard of Comaroff’s past abuse is nothing new. According to the recent lawsuit, the university’s Title IX process is systematically biased in favor of abusers, and The Department of Justice even backed the plaintiffs in a 2022 filing, asserting that Harvard should be institutionally liable when it allows Comaroff to violate students’ rights and liberties.

“We want Comaroff gone,” said senior Annabelle Finlayson, “but this pattern of abuse and gender discrimination at Harvard extends beyond just Comaroff. Harvard is complicit in the sexual violence crisis on campus. They must take decisive steps towards real recourse. Students demand Comaroff resign and Harvard commit to real recourse, the creation of an independent rape crisis center on campus, and further action to support the bodily-autonomy and wellbeing of all students, including free, comprehensive access to contraception and abortion services on campus.”