Confronting Faculty Sexual Harassment: Lessons From Feminist Organizing at UC Santa Cruz

Office Hours Higher Ed

**Content Warning** for discussion of sexual harassment and assault. We do not include any graphic or detailed descriptions, but they are discussed in general terms throughout the episode.

Today’s episode looks a little different from our usual format. Laura talks with a good friend from UC Santa Cruz, K, about our participation in an organizing campaign against faculty sexual harassment and assault that ultimately led to the firing of a tenured professor.

Between 2017 and 2019, students and allies at UC Santa Cruz organized to bring attention to what they called a pattern of sexual harassment perpetrated by History of Consciousness professor Gopal Balakrishnan.

In this discussion, we reconstruct the timeline of events that ultimately led to Balakrishnan’s firing in 2019. We also talk about our experiences with the Title IX office at UC Santa Cruz, why we believe Title IX was so unhelpful, our experiences with feminist and leftist faculty, the importance of "gossip" as feminist knowledge sharing, and the emotional labor that goes into organizing against sexual harassment and sexual assault. Ultimately, our conclusion is that feminist organizing and direct action are needed to challenge sexual harassment and sexual assault within academia.

Relevant links for more info on the Balakrishnan case:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhisubbaraman/gopal-balakrishnan-sexual-harassment-investigation

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nidhisubbaraman/gopal-balakrishnan-fired-santa-cruz

Links for info on two other professors referenced in the interview (associated with New Left Review):

https://stanforddaily.com/2017/11/16/harassment-assault-allegations-against-moretti-span-three-campuses/

https://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-ucla-sexual-misconduct-piterberg-20180318-story.html

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