The controversial former Dartmouth College lecturer who threatened to sue her students before coming to Northwestern as a research associate says she has enjoyed her first month on campus.
Priya Venkatesan, 39, started her research position at NU’s International Institute for Nanotechnology on April 14, said Kathleen Cook, the institute’s director of operations & strategic initiatives. Venkatesan voluntarily left Dartmouth on March 17, where she had taught writing classes. A month later, she announced she was considering suing her former students for harassment and discrimination due to their conduct in class, generating a media frenzy that spread from Dartmouth blogs to The Wall Street Journal.
“My time at Northwestern has been very pleasant and agreeable,” said Venkatesan, adding she has wanted to come to NU for a long time. “I think it all worked out really well for me.”
While her new job description does not include teaching, Venkatesan said she has given an hour-long guest lecture on bioethics while at NU.
“I’ve had the opportunity to lecture and that was a very rewarding experience,” said Venkatesan, who declined to say which course the lecture was for. “I thought the students were bright and engaging.”
A NU faculty member who had worked with Venkatesan on a grant proposal last year contacted her and encouraged her to apply for the position, Venkatesan said. After two phone interviews, she was offered the position.
She said she wanted the job because of NU’s strength in combining biological and ethical issues.
“Northwestern’s really strong in interdisciplinary (programs),” said Venkatesan, who has a master’s degree in genetics and a Ph.D. in literature. “There’s a lot of opportunities for someone whose scholarly interest is in combing two separate disciplines.”
Research associates at NU work under specific grants with specific faculty members, NU Provost Daniel Linzer wrote in an e-mail. Venkatesan said she was working with two different faculty members, whom she declined to identify. . Cook said Venkatesan mostly has been working with Prof. Laurie Zoloth in the Center for Bioethics, Science and Society.
Zoloth is in Israel and did not reply to an e-mail asking for comment.
Linzer and NU President Henry Bienen both said they had not heard about Venkatesan’s hiring until the story came out in national news.
“I know the case; I saw the article in The Wall Street Journal,” said Bienen, who said he doesn’t look at the files of NU research associates or assistant professors.
Cook pointed out that Venkatesan’s first day at NU was two weeks before she announced her intent to file a lawsuit against her former students.
Venkatesan threatened to sue in an April 25 e-mail to students in one of her “Writing 5” classes, according to a report in The Dartmouth, the school’s student newspaper. She taught two sections of the class in fall 2007 and two in winter 2008.
Venkatesan told The Dartmouth she was subjected to “inappropriate and unprofessional” behavior while there.
“I understand that there are such things as bad working environments – a shithole is just a shithole, and that’s not illegal, I know that,” she told the paper. “I was facing intolerance of ideas and intolerance of expression.”
Thomas Cormen, the director of Dartmouth’s writing program, and Christopher Lowrey, who worked with Venkatesan in the medical school, declined to comment.
Venkatesan also declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying she was trying to move on but said she had learned a lot about herself through the Dartmouth controversy.
“The situation was not handled the way it probably should’ve been handled,” she said. “I want to put it behind me. I think that’ll be healthy for everyone involved.”
