When I was a tenure track faculty at Harvard, Stephen Kosslyn was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for several years. He reached out to organize a series of focus groups with “junior” faculty, indicating he wished to learn more about our experiences and how to improve the general climate. As a result of my participation, we had 2-3 additional meetings in which we discussed the explicitly gendered challenges in a very hierarchical and male dominated institution. He performed allyship in the most convincing of ways. When I first saw his name associated with the Epstein files, I thought that surely this was a different Kosslyn. It was not. Among the allegations outlined are years of emails with Epstein, at least one jail visit once Epstein was sentenced in Florida, and congratulatory emails upon Epstein’s release. I am grappling with the fact that a man so accused sat across from me on multiple occasions seemingly empathic and interested in addressing gender discrimination at Harvard. How to square this with the allegations stemming from the Epstein files?
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