XPost: school.general, alt.politics.clinton, ba.motss   
   XPost: soc.men   
   From: deplorable.redneck@nytimes.com   
      
   The recent case of Avital Ronell, an NYU professor suspended for   
   sexual harassment, and the scholars who rallied to support her   
   highlights the intense politics of academia.   
      
   A famed professor. A student claiming they were sexually   
   harassed. A months-long internal investigation.   
      
   Many of the particulars of the case against Avital Ronell, a   
   professor of German and Comparative Literature at New York   
   University who an internal investigation found responsible for   
   sexually harassing Nimrod Reitman, a former graduate student of   
   hers, are familiar. Reitman accuses Ronell of kissing and   
   touching him repeatedly, as well as sending inappropriate email   
   messages, among other things. After its investigation, the   
   university found that Ronell’s conduct was “sufficiently   
   pervasive to alter the terms and conditions of Mr. Reitman’s   
   learning environment,” according to The New York Times, and   
   suspended her for the upcoming academic year.   
      
   In the #MeToo era, versions of this story have played out with   
   other prominent academics. But the twist here is that the   
   alleged harasser is a woman, when so often these cases involve   
   male professors, and a feminist who’s the target of a complaint   
   filed under Title IX, a federal policy created to advance gender   
   equity. But the responses to Reitman's accusations against   
   Ronell from her fellow academics in some ways echoed the   
   defenses that male scholars, from MIT’s Junot Díaz to Boston   
   University’s David Marchant, have gotten when faced with similar   
   accusations, and is a striking example of the power structures   
   at work in academia.   
      
   MORE STORIES   
      
   When Will the ‘Harvey Effect’ Reach Academia?   
   CAROLINE FREDRICKSON   
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   How Colleges Foretold the #MeToo Movement   
   LENA FELTON   
      
   What Does 'Sexual Misconduct' Actually Mean?   
   MICHELLE COTTLE   
      
   The 25 Candidates for 2018 Sunk by #MeToo Allegations   
   ELAINE GODFREY LENA FELTON TAYLOR HOSKING   
   Among those who rallied to Ronell’s defense were a host of   
   prominent philosophers, led by one of the country's most notable   
   feminist scholars, Judith Butler. They wrote a letter to the   
   university asserting Ronell’s innocence and arguing that Reitman   
   harbored malice towards the professor. “We deplore the damage   
   that this legal proceeding causes her, and seek to register in   
   clear terms our objection to any judgment against her,” they   
   wrote. In a draft of the letter, which was published by Brian   
   Leiter on his philosophy blog, Leiter Reports, the professors   
   admitted that they did not know all of the details of the case.   
   But Joan A. Scott, a signatory and professor emerita at the   
   Institute for Advanced Study, a research center in Princeton,   
   New Jersey, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that “many   
   people who signed the letter knew more than they could say.”   
      
   Ronell did not respond to a request from The Atlantic for   
   comment. In a statement to the Times, Ronell said: “Our   
   communications—which Reitman now claims constituted sexual   
   harassment—were between two adults, a gay man and a queer woman,   
   who share an Israeli heritage, as well as a penchant for florid   
   and campy communications arising from our common academic   
   backgrounds and sensibilities. These communications were   
   repeatedly invited, responded to and encouraged by him over a   
   period of three years.”   
      
   [Colleges foretold the #MeToo Movement]   
      
   This is not the first time a group of academics have come to the   
   aid of a prominent intellectual accused of sexual misconduct.   
   When Díaz, who in addition to teaching at MIT is a Pulitzer   
   Prize-winning author, was accused of forcibly kissing one female   
   writer and verbally abusing others—the university ultimately   
   cleared Díaz after an investigation—a handful of academics wrote   
   an open letter, published in The Chronicle, excoriating the   
   press and social media users for its treatment of the writer:   
      
   We do not intend to dismiss current or future accusations of   
   misconduct by Díaz or any other person. We also acknowledge the   
   negative and disturbing effects of verbally or psychologically   
   aggressive acts or toxic relations on the women who experience   
   them.   
      
   Instead, they argued, they were taking issue with the way the   
   accusations were being characterized and situated in the broader   
   #MeToo conversation. (A response to that letter, also published   
   in the Chronicle, argued that by publishing the letter   
   criticizing the media, the group of faculty was sending “the   
      
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