*WASHINGTON – Avital Ronell, an American philosopher and a professor ofGerman and comparative literature, has been suspended by New YorkUniversity after an investigation found that she sexually harassed a formergraduate student.*
One of her students, Nimrod Reitman, a male Ph.D. student, filed acomplaint last September with the university against the 66-year oldscholar.
Prominent intellectuals including some leading feminist came to her defence.
The university’s Title IX investigation found Ronell guilty of physical andverbal harassment, but not of other actions alleged by Reitman, includingsexual assault, stalking and retaliation.
Last month, Ronell’s colleagues sent a letter signed by about 50 scholarsamong them prominent feminists to the university defending her against theaccusations.
According to reports, the letter was made public by Brian Leiter, aprofessor of Philosophy and law at the university of Chicago Law School ina blogpost titled ‘Blaming the victim is apparently OK when the accused ina Title IX proceeding is feminist literary theorist”.