philosophicalmisconduct

Updated December 2018: Due to legal threats by Dr. Sinhababu, see below, I have removed the original quotes from Dr. Clark-Younger from this blog. Interested parties can find them elsewhere: here, archived here. These links are shared without endorsing or denying the allegations in them,

From Neil Sinhababu, public Facebook thread, now private, archived here and here:

Hannah, I‘m terribly sorry about this.

Just for clarity on what happened, I remember brushing up behind you on the dance floor at the 2011 AAP karaoke event in a way that was (in retrospect) far too sexually aggressive. I don’t remember doing it three times or that my hands went to your breasts, but your memory is going to be much clearer than mine about this.

I do remember believing that you were bi at that point — I don’t know how I got confused about that. And your friendly behavior the whole time led me to think that you were interested in me, and (this is where my errors get really huge) that you were interested in having me do something like what I did. Now it’s pretty clear that I not only misinterpreted your mere friendliness, but did something awful to a friendly person who has been unhappy about it for a long time. Again, it’s now clear that I acted terribly, andI‘m very sorry about that.

I should respond to the issues Andrew raises as well. I‘ve learned a lot about how women regard expressions of sexual interest in professional settings, as the pace of public internet discussion on these issues has increased over the last few years. Before, I expected that women would react to me in something close to the way I‘d react to a woman expressing direct sexual interest or (better yet!) initiating physical contact with me. But as more and more women have made clear recently, it isn’t that way. Andrew knew me most closely around the time of these events, and he rightly notes that there was a whole lot I didn’t understand back then.

A statistically relevant factor is that I‘ve lived an unusual proportion of my life on the road, with more time socializing with philosophers I‘ve just met than just about anybody. So if I‘m disposed to make mistakes like this a small fraction of the time with women I meet, or get into consensual relationships where things go wrong, it still makes a disproportionate impact. I‘m very disturbed by the thought that I have the reputation you describe — this is the first I‘ve heard of it — but if I have more apologies to make, I‘ll make them.

Anyway, It’s totally fair of you to post this, Hannah, especially given what I originally posted. Now people can see my successes in understanding the women around me and my failures at the same time.

From Neil Sinhababu, email to this blog:

One of your blog posts contains a sexual harassment allegation against me. I was formally cleared of this allegation in a university investigation earlier this year. In light of this, I’m writing to ask whether you’d be willing to remove the post.

After anonymous third parties put the allegation on the public internet and sent it to my university, investigators contacted the woman cited in your post. They asked her for any testimony she might have against me. She declined to stand behind the remarks that were copied onto your blog, or to submit any further allegations. With no allegations against me that anyone was willing to stand behind, the case was closed.

Perhaps you will want further corroboration of this. If so, I could put you in touch with my Head of Department, who was the first to give me the above information about the investigation. When my Dean called me to his office to tell me that I had been cleared, he reiterated what the Head had told me.

I hope that learning of the results of the investigation will give you enough reason to delete the post. It contains a variety of inaccurate claims against me which no one would repeat under their own name to university investigators, and of which I’ve been formally cleared. So I hope you’ll see the post as falling below standards for what should appear on your blog, and remove it for that reason.

From Neil Sinhababu, email to this blog:

I’ve been advised about various legal strategies I might pursue to get the post removed. If I don’t hear from you in the next 24 hours and the post remains up, I’ll begin to pursue these strategies. Obviously, this would be an unfortunate way to resolve the issue, so please get in touch quickly if you’d like further information or if there’s some further discussion we should have.

From Hannah Clark-Younger, email to this blog:

Yes, I originally made the allegations. I still stand by them completely, and see no need for your post/s to be taken down.

To clarify my understanding of what happened regarding the investigation, NUS contacted me asking:

“1. Did you make the above comments on Neil Facebook’s post? And if you did,

2. Do you want NUS to look further into this matter? ( You would be a victim of Neil’s alleged misconduct).”

I took this to be asking whether I wanted a formal investigation to be undertaken, and responded:

“Yes, I wrote those comments on Neil’s Facebook post. I stand by them, what I said is true. However, if it would be based solely on these events, I am not interested in requesting a formal investigation at this time. Please feel free to keep my Facebook comment, our correspondence, and my contact information on file, and if there are other complainants (either now or in the future), or if I could help as part of a wider investigation, please get back in touch with me.”

I received no reply, and have heard nothing further from them.

I hope this helps.

Nicholas Meriwether

University Disciplines Philosophy Professor for Treatment of Transgender Student; Professor Sues – Daily Nous
A professor was told stop denigrating a student. Now he’s suing because God told him to do it. – LGBTQ Nation
University Professor Sues over Being Forced to Use Students’ Preferred Gender Pronouns – Christian Headlines
Ohio professor sues school, doesn’t want to use transgender students’ pronouns – Cincinnati Inquirer

Trent Dougherty

Tenured philosophy professor resigns amidst Title IX complaints – Baylor Lariat
Baylor: Dougherty Responsible for Violating Sexual Harassment and Interpersonal Violence Policy – Daily Nous
Dougherty refutes implications of resignation press release – Baylor Lariat
Baylor professor issues statement after resigning – CenTexProud
Dougherty Statement – Facebook
Ward Statement – Facebook

Clarification

Thanks to readers for writing in with information about specific allegations of misconduct by philosophers, including more detailed information about cases recently noted in this blog. Going public shows courage which I want to acknowledge.

To clarify though, I will not be publishing “original research” in this blog, such as internal university documents that have not already appeared in print or the Internet. I will be pleased to link to news stories and online allegations.

Readers who would like to go public could consult reporters who’ve written on philosophical misconduct in the past such as Katie J.M. Baker or Emily Yoffe.