This essay in CHE is basically the final chapter of her new book, mentioned last week. An excerpt ("Hartley" is a pseudonym for the graduate student complainant against Ludlow):
[W]hen push came to shove, both investigators had backpedaled on the most serious allegations: Neither found Ludlow culpable of sexual assault. When I eventually read the two reports, I found them shocking. At every turn, speculation and guesswork became the basis for establishing "a preponderance of evidence," the standard demanded by the Office for Civil Rights in Title IX cases. The reasoning was frequently ludicrous. Potentially exculpatory evidence from Ludlow was ignored. And the gender bias was incredible — exhausted clichés about predatory males and eternally innocent females were apparently sufficient grounds to convene this massive show trial....
At one point during these protracted hearings, something unexpected happened that reminded me of what can be so great about the academy, and what we stand to lose in the wave of sexual paranoia sweeping American campuses....
But there are still a few holdouts, and one of them, a feminist philosopher at the University of Toronto named Jessica Wilson, had volunteered to testify as a character witness for Peter Ludlow. (Ludlow wasn’t in the room for this session.)
Wilson had known Ludlow for 15 years, she said, first as his student and then in two departments as a colleague, and spoke movingly about him as a mentor and a person. Being around him had been a sort of "effervescent philosophical situation" for Wilson and her then-boyfriend, also a philosopher, when they were all in the same department. When she and her boyfriend decided to get married, they chose Ludlow as the officiant "because he was the most erudite, witty, wonderful person that I knew." Hearing about Ludlow presiding over a marriage ceremony came as a small shock, I think, to a roomful of people who’d been told he was virtually a predator. Here was a smart, attractive, successful woman from one of the top philosophy departments in North America who revered Peter Ludlow.
"The thing about Peter is that he’s a brilliant scholar, a fantastic teacher and mentor who just creates a fantastic community, a real social community, which is where a lot of philosophy actually happens." She had never heard a single negative comment or even a whisper about Ludlow in 15 years, and she would have, she said, because people came to her about this sort of thing.
Wilson herself was someone who created instant confidence. She was honest, well spoken, deeply intelligent. She also sketched a far more convivial view of professor-student relations than the predatory scene depicted in the Title IX reports. Indeed, Wilson’s boyfriend (now husband of 13 years) had been a junior professor in the same department when she was a grad student, and she hadn’t suffered any particular consequences. "In fact, I think I held most of the power in that relationship. Still do," she said, laughing. Mentorship isn’t a top-down enterprise, she emphasized; it’s a community effort held together by a lot of late-night socializing and drinking.
All of which sharply rebutted Hartley’s portrait of Ludlow, echoed in the Title IX findings, as a manipulative intellectual bully. "That’s just absurd. He is the most tolerant, low-key guy you could ever hope to meet. His basic nature is completely live-and-let-live." When asked if Ludlow was sad and lonely (Hartley’s characterization, repeated in the report), Wilson practically snorted. "He’s one of the most social and socially adept people I’ve ever known." He loved to go out and usually paid for dinner (there was some family money). The entire time they’d known each other, he’d never asked for anything in return....
On the subject of Ludlow’s dating history, she was equally frank. Yes, Ludlow had dated younger women — but her own husband is 12 years younger than she is. "Does that make me a predator?" she asked. Focusing on age differences was ageist, she pointed out. Ludlow was actively pursued by women of all ages because he was charming and magnetic. "My experience is that he had to kind of be pushing women away a lot, as an internationally renowned scholar who’s like the epitome of cool."
Do read the whole thing.
Recent Comments