Austin Siebold was browsing the course catalogue at Harvard University when something stopped her cold.
“I saw this class on colonialism, post-colonialism and de-colonialism, and I thought it sounded really interesting. Then I clicked on it and saw it was taught by John Comaroff—and I was like, ‘Holy…’”
Austin Siebold
The reaction was not admiration. It was disbelief.
John Comaroff, a prominent professor of African and African American studies, had already been investigated by the university over allegations of sexual harassment. Harvard ultimately found him responsible for verbal misconduct that violated its policies on professional conduct and sexual and gender-based harassment.
Yet despite those findings–and the broader pattern of allegations—he remained part of the institution long enough to continue teaching.
For many students, that decision symbolized something larger than one professor. It pointed to what they describe as a deeply entrenched institutional problem.
The Tip of the Rape Culture Iceberg
“The reality is that our campus promotes a culture of sexual abuse, misogyny, harassment, and discrimination,”
Rosalie Couture, Student Activist
That claim gained national attention in early 2022, when 38 faculty members—including Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Jamaica Kincaid—signed a letter defending Comaroff and questioning the university’s disciplinary findings.
The letter praised him as “an excellent colleague, advisor and committed university citizen.”
To critics, the message was familiar: proximity to power breeds protection. The logic is simple and deeply embedded:
- If someone is respected, they are defended.
- If someone is productive, they are protected.
- If someone benefits the institution, accountability becomes negotiable.
This pattern—often described as bystander betrayal—can marginalize those who come forward, reinforcing silence rather than justice.
Within a week, 34 of the signatories withdrew their support. But the reversal did little to undo the damage already done to trust.
Allegations and Power Dynamics
Among the most troubling accounts is that of graduate student Lilia Kilburn, who told The New York Times that Comaroff kissed her without consent. When she disclosed she was in a same-sex relationship, she says he responded not with respect, but with a disturbing lecture about so-called “corrective rape” and femicide in parts of Africa.
Comaroff has denied wrongdoing. Through his attorney, he acknowledged discussing such violence but framed it as a paternal warning about risks faced by LGBTQ+ women abroad.
Kilburn, alongside Margaret Czerwienski and Amulya Mandava, later sued Harvard, alleging that the university failed to act on repeated complaints and allowed a system in which power could be weaponized against students’ academic futures.
At the heart of the case is not just individual behavior, but structural vulnerability—a system where mentorship, evaluation, and career advancement are tightly controlled by senior faculty.
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When Comaroff returned to teaching, students responded with outrage.
More than 100 students attended his January 2023 class—not to learn, but to protest. As he began speaking, they stood and shouted:
“Justice for survivors!”
They walked out en masse, later marching to his office and posting pages from the lawsuit on his door.
Student activist Rebecca Araten put it bluntly: “This man is not safe to interact with undergraduate students.”
For many, the issue was no longer whether the allegations were credible—it was whether the university could be trusted to act in students’ interests at all.
Organizing Against Institutional Power
Siebold helped organize further demonstrations, working with student groups like Our Harvard Can Do Better and labor-affiliated feminist organizations.
Their accusation was direct: Harvard had enabled misconduct not just in this case, but historically—by hiring and retaining faculty despite longstanding allegations.
They described the institution as “systematically biased in favor of abusers.”
This critique reframes the issue from individual failure to institutional design: a system that protects reputation, donors, and elite faculty more consistently than it protects students.
Taking Matters In To Their Own Hards
Per The Harvard Crimson, over 100 students attended Comaroff’s Colonialism and its Postcolonial/Decolonial Afterlives: Critical Readings class on January 25. As soon as the professor started to speak, the students stood up and shouted in unison, “Justice for survivors!”
As the protesters exited the classroom, Comanoff responded to their demonstration with a smirk. One of the students confronted him and said, “Smile in hell, asshole!”
The students then marched to the Baker Center where Comaroff’s office is located. They taped pages from Kilburn, Czerwienski and Mandava’s lawsuit to his door.
The student activists are demanding Comaroff’s resignation and calling for an end to Harvard’s “cultures of harassment, misogyny, and discrimination.”
Will their calls for justice continue to fall on deaf ears? And, if so, should Harvard University retain it’s status as an elite institution when it is failing to keep students safe and many of its most esteemed faculty members are so barbarously ignorant about rape?
Retirement Without Resolution
In June 2024, Comaroff retired from Harvard.
Notably, he did so without confirmed emeritus status, a distinction that carries symbolic weight within academia. While emeritus titles are typically granted to retiring senior faculty, Harvard did not immediately confer the honor, leaving the decision unresolved.
Comaroff himself stated that the allegations had “no bearing” on his decision to retire.
His departure effectively removed a flashpoint from campus—but it did not resolve the underlying questions:
- What accountability looks like after harm
- Whether quiet exits substitute for transparency
- And how institutions preserve legacy in the face of controversy
Meanwhile, his wife and collaborator, Jean Comaroff, retired with emeritus status.
The Shadow of Jeffrey Epstein
While the Comaroff case exposed tensions within Harvard, subsequent revelations expanded the scope of scrutiny far beyond a single department.
Documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein have shed new light on his extensive connections to elite academic institutions, including Harvard. The disclosures highlighted not only Epstein’s financial influence but also his social proximity to powerful figures.
Among those drawn into renewed criticism is Larry Summers, who led Harvard from 2001 to 2006 and later served as U.S. Treasury Secretary.
Emails revealed that Summers maintained contact with Epstein even after Epstein’s conviction for sex-related offenses. The correspondence reportedly included discussions that critics have characterized as sexist and inappropriate, as well as requests for personal advice.
These revelations have intensified long-standing concerns about gender bias and power at Harvard—concerns already amplified by Summers’ earlier controversies over remarks about women in academia.
A Pattern, Not an Exception
Importantly, Comaroff was not named in Epstein-related materials. But critics argue that this is beside the point.
The issue is not direct connection—it is shared ecosystem.
Both stories point to overlapping dynamics:
- Elite networks that blur professional and personal boundaries
- Institutional reluctance to confront powerful figures
- A culture in which reputational risk often outweighs ethical urgency
Together, they suggest that what students call “rape culture” is not merely about individual misconduct, but about systems that normalize, excuse, or obscure it.
What Comes Next
Comaroff’s retirement may have closed one chapter, but it has not settled the broader conflict between institutional prestige and accountability.
Students and advocates continue to ask:
- Can an institution claim moral authority while failing to protect its most vulnerable members?
- What does justice look like when consequences arrive quietly, if at all?
- And should elite status be contingent not just on academic excellence, but on ethical integrity?
At Harvard, those questions remain open.
And increasingly, they are being asked not just by students—but by the public watching closely from outside its gates.
Further Reading
- Rape Culture In Numbers: Why Most Sexual Assaults Go Unreported
- The Complete Guide to Narcissistic Abuse Recovery
- Self-Isolation After Narcissistic Abuse: Causes, Impact, and Healing
- The Neurobiology of Narcissistic Abuse–and How to Heal
- National Femicide Rates in the United States
- Coercive Control & Femicide Research
- Black Femicide in the United States
- The Global Coercive Control Legislation Index
- The Global Femicide Legislation Index
- Diabetes and Coercive Control: Causes, Risks, and Health Impacts
References
- Boit, D.A.C., Hamid R.D., and Schisgall E.J. (2023, January 25) ‘More than 100 Students Walk Out of Embattled Harvard Professor Comaroff’s First Class of Semester.’ The Harvard Crimson.
- Alaimo, K. (2022, February 14) ‘Harvard professors’ initial letter of support for John Comaroff sends a disturbing message.’ Think – Opinion, Analysis, Essays. NBC News.
- Hartocollis, A. (2022, February 8) ‘A Lawsuit Accuses Harvard of Ignoring Sexual Harassment by a Professor.’ The New York Times.
- Kim, A.H., Xu, M. (2022, February 10) ’35 Harvard Professors Retract Support For Letter Questioning Results of Comaroff Investigations.’ The Harvard Crimson.
- Our Harvard Can Do Better. PRESS RELEASE: 100s of Students Shut Down Abuser’s Class. January 24, 2023.
Manya Wakefield is a narcissistic abuse recovery coach, coercive trauma specialist, and the developer of the Coercive Trauma Recovery Method™ and TENEL™ (Traumatic Exposure to Narcissism in Early Life) — proprietary recovery frameworks built from seven years of direct professional work with survivors of coercive control, narcissistic abuse, and Adult Children of Narcissists. Both frameworks have been reviewed by Dr. Michael Kinsey, PhD, clinical psychologist, New School for Social Research. She is the founder of Narcissistic Abuse Rehab, a global social impact platform launched in 2019 to support survivors through evidence-based recovery frameworks. Manya is the author of Are You In An Emotionally Abusive Relationship (2019), a resource used in domestic violence recovery groups worldwide. Her original research contributions include the Global Coercive Control Legislation Index (2020) — the first systematic index of its kind on the web — and the Global Femicide Legislation Index (2026), comprehensive legal references used by advocates, legal professionals, and policymakers internationally, cited in peer-reviewed publications including the Southern Illinois University Law Journal, Palgrave Macmillan, and the University of Agder. Her expertise has been featured in Newsweek, Elle, Cosmopolitan, HuffPost, Parade, and YourTango. She hosts the Narcissistic Abuse Rehab Podcast, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music. All content on this site reflects Manya's direct professional experience working with survivors of narcissistic abuse and coercive control, her published research, and her ongoing advocacy work.
