American female professor suspended for sexually harassing graduate male student
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*WASHINGTON - Avital Ronell, an American philosopher and a professor of German and comparative literature, has been suspended by New York University after an investigation found that she sexually harassed a former graduate student.*
One of her students, Nimrod Reitman, a male Ph.D. student, filed a complaint last September with the university against the 66-year old scholar.
Prominent intellectuals including some leading feminist came to her defence.
The university’s Title IX investigation found Ronell guilty of physical and verbal harassment, but not of other actions alleged by Reitman, including sexual assault, stalking and retaliation.
Last month, Ronell's colleagues sent a letter signed by about 50 scholars among them prominent feminists to the university defending her against the accusations.
According to reports, the letter was made public by Brian Leiter, a professor of Philosophy and law at the university of Chicago Law School in a blogpost titled 'Blaming the victim is apparently OK when the accused in a Title IX proceeding is feminist literary theorist".
