Academic litigation, cont’d: Dartmouth lecturer says she’ll sue students

“Priya Venkatesan (Dartmouth ’90, MS in Genetics, PhD in literature) emailed members of her Winter ’08 Writing 5 class Saturday night to announce her intention to seek damages from them for their being mean to her.” Venkatesan, who is working on a book entitled A Postmodernist in the Laboratory, was the instructor in a class […]

“Priya Venkatesan (Dartmouth ’90, MS in Genetics, PhD in literature) emailed members of her Winter ’08 Writing 5 class Saturday night to announce her intention to seek damages from them for their being mean to her.” Venkatesan, who is working on a book entitled A Postmodernist in the Laboratory, was the instructor in a class called Science, Technology and Society, evidently an example of the Science Studies genre. “Essentially, I am pursuing litigation to see if I have a legal claim, that is, if the inappropriate and unprofessional behavior I was subjected to as a Research Associate and Lecturer at Dartmouth constitutes discrimination and harrassment [sic] on the basis of ethnicity, race and gender. This includes not just students, but a few faculty members that I worked with.” (Gawker, Apr. 29; Dartlog, Apr. 26; IvyGate, Apr. 29; Above the Law, Apr. 29).

One Comment

  • From “teaches” email:

    “I am also writing a book detailing my experiences as your instructor, which will “name names” so to speak. I have all of your evaluations and these will be reproduced in the book.”

    First this sounds like a threat to me and second she might want to spend a little quality time with an attorney regarding those pesky little federal student privacy laws. Apparently she has no intentions of ever teaching again.