Joyce scholars fear ‘schism’ in their community over sexual harassment allegations

The 29th International James Joyce Symposium in Glasgow last month was meant to have been the start of a new era for an academic community troubled by allegations of sexual harassment over a number of years.

For the first time, a dedicated safety team and independent ombudsperson had been appointed to handle complaints of inappropriate behaviour.

“Appropriate measures will be taken,” if there are any complaints, an organiser said before the event.

At the opening session Prof John McCourt, president of the International James Joyce Foundation (IJJF), lauded the guidelines that he had approved.

For women who had been victims of sexual harassment, there was guarded optimism that a page was finally being turned. “Things are finally being done,” said one woman beforehand.

Almost a month after the event that optimism has evaporated.

The international community of James Joyce scholars is divided like never before. Forceful letters are being sent. Senior figures are resigning or withdrawing from events. Some senior academics fear a “schism”, with the field splitting into rival factions.

Joyce scholars, who have been pushing for a response to the community’s problem of sexual harassment, fear their cause has been set back years.

The current controversy revolves around Fritz Senn, the 96-year-old doyen of Joyce studies.

It is difficult to overstate the role Senn has played in creating the international community of Joyce scholars and his status within it.

A programme from 1967 lists him as the organiser of the first James Joyce Symposium, which took place in Dublin and was attended by the author’s son George. Earlier this year, Senn returned to Dublin to receive a medal from President Michael D Higgins in recognition of his lifelong services to the field. He is regarded by many as the world’s foremost expert on the Dublin writer.

At the event in Glasgow, Senn is alleged to have sexually harassed a young women over several days, leading to a complaint being made to the symposium’s safety committee.

The complaint alleged he had made inappropriate comments or compliments towards the woman, had given her unwanted gifts and had taken her photograph repeatedly without consent. Witnesses said this caused her considerable distress.

The allegations were upheld by an independent ombudsman, a professor of law from another university. As a result, Senn was asked to leave the premises and not return.

He later told The Irish Times he took photographs of the woman “without her explicit consent”, while unaware that she “might perceive my behaviour as inappropriate”.

“If they were unsettled or offended by my actions, I sincerely regret this,” he said.

The incident caused a scandal in Joyce studies. Some scholars were happy concrete action was finally taken against someone in the field accused of sexual harassment.

Others reacted differently.

More than 200 Joyceans have signed an open letter – published on an online forum for public letters – condemning the treatment of Senn and claiming it results from a “project of suspicion and insinuation has been both upsetting and demoralising”.

That letter has been signed by many prominent literary figures, including novelist John Banville and McCourt, the IJJF president who, sources say, had signed off on the safety guidelines.

“Since 2018 a section of the Joyce world has generated rumours that have resulted in the vilification of a number of fellow Joyceans for offences always nebulously whispered about but never openly declared,” the letter states.

Asked about his decision to sign the letter in support of Senn, Prof McCourt, the IJJF president, said: “Many members are expressing their views as to what happened in Glasgow.”

“I believe that our event is welcoming and inclusive, and I greatly regret that one young participant in Glasgow was left feeling harmed,” he said in a statement to The Irish Times.

The letter also criticises previous Irish Times reporting as painting “a thoroughly distorted picture of the crisis currently gripping Joyce studies”.

The letter was a blow for many who have campaigned for greater harassment protections for Joyce scholars.

One senior Joyce scholar said the letter minimises the problems that the safety guidelines were designed to address, and ignores the experience of the young woman allegedly harassed by Senn.

“The writers talk about the time when Joyce studies was ‘an exceptionally welcoming, convivial, and nurturing international community’. The obvious retort to these comments is: ‘welcoming for whom? Convivial for whom?” said the scholar.

Prof Sam Slote of Trinity College, one of the foremost Joyce scholars working in Ireland, queried the purpose of the letter.

“Is the petition to show support for Fritz, is it to argue he should be immune from the consequences of his actions, is it to argue that any kind of anti-harassment protocols need to be scrapped, or is it a call that the measures adopted in Glasgow are in need of refinement?” he said.

Slote said he feared for the future of Joyce studies as a result of the controversy.

“I have heard from Joyceans my age and older that they might no longer attend conferences out of outrage at the way Fritz was treated,” he said.

“On the other hand, in the past week, I’ve heard around 10 grad students and early career researchers are leaving Joyce studies because they feel betrayed by this petition in support of Fritz.”

Slote suggested that, if the situation continued, in a number of years Joyce studies would be reduced to some middle-aged men “drinking alone together in some seedy bar”.

There is evidence that the problem in the community of Joyce scholars goes beyond the actions of one academic and a recent incident in Glasgow.

On multiple occasions in recent years, including in interviews conducted under a months-long investigation by The Irish Times, in workshops and in blogs and other publications, women have detailed specific allegations of problematic behaviour including sexual harassment, inappropriate touching and the expectation of sexual favours in return for academic advancement.

In 2018, around the time of the #MeToo movement (the public and social media campaign that raised awareness about sexual abuse) a group of Joyce scholars organised an open letter, describing inappropriate or criminal behaviour at Joyce events. This included “misogyny, voyeurism, abuse of power, harassment, assault, rape”. It was signed by 129 people, seven of whom signed last month’s letter in support of Senn.

One woman academic told The Irish Times she was sent revealing photographs by another Joyce scholar she was due to appear on a panel with. Later, while the panel was taking place, she received a text from the same person saying “your lips look so kissable while you’re speaking”, she said.

[ Community of Joyce scholars grapples with accusations of misogyny and harassment claimsOpens in new window ]

Two Joyce academics who spoke to The Irish Times recalled witnessing a Joyce scholar harassing two women at an event, including waiting outside a bathroom for one of them. This left the women in tears, one witness recalled.

Michelle Witen, who is now a junior professor at the Europa-Universität Flensburg in Germany, said in 2008 she was propositioned by an older Joycean at an event when she was a PhD student. She declined the offer. On a later date, the same Joycean asked Witen to meet him for coffee.

There, they discussed a publishing opportunity for Witen. She was interested; publishing is vital to progressing an academic career. That was until it became clear that he expected to receive something sexual in return. When she didn’t play along, the offer was withdrawn.

The Irish Times has seen an email describing the meeting sent by Witen to an acquaintance the following week.

Over the years, a practice has emerged where women would warn each other about male Joyceans to look out for. This “whisper network” was effective but it left some woman scholars feeling they were responsible for keeping their colleagues safe.

“The women were exhausted,” said Vicki Mahaffey, a retired University of Pennsylvania professor, in reference to a Joyce event.

“They felt like that at the conference, one of their main jobs was help other women not be taken in by certain Joyceans had a track record.”

But the problems persisted until June 2023 when Laura Gibbs, a promising young Joycean, announced that she was leaving the world of Joyce studies immediately after completing her doctorate.

Her announcement seemed to cause a shift in the community. A workshop, organised by the New York-based James Joyce Society, was held a short time later, which discussed how to make the field a safer environment.

Various international events and societies updated their codes of conduct and strengthened their safety protocols. In May the Modernist Review, an online journal that publishes extensively on Joyce, devoted an entire issue to the subject in which the editors spoke of continued “urgently needed discussions” to improve safety.

To victims of harassment, it seemed the community as a whole was prepared to accept it had a problem and had to do something about it. Events since Glasgow have made that less certain.

According to one academic, the discussion has become “whether you support Fritz or not, instead of being about the wider problem”.

It quickly became evident that Senn had many supporters who felt he had been victimised by overly censorious colleagues. Shortly after Glasgow, Dutch Joyce scholar Robbert-Jan Henkes emailed the IJJF saying he was stepping down from its board “on account of the shameful way Fritz Senn was treated”.

The open letter in support of Senn followed shortly afterwards. It called the disciplinary hearing in Glasgow “improvised, expedited, and procedurally deeply flawed” and the sanction “grossly disproportionate – an attempt to make an example of a central and much-loved figure of the Joyce world”.

“Without wishing to downplay the concerns which led to this situation, the conduct of those acting in the name of ‘safety’ calls for urgent reconsideration.”

Many Joyceans are deeply conflicted between their high regard of Senn and their support for the safety movement. At least one person who signed the letter supporting Senn now regrets doing so.

[ Joyce scholar asked to leave Glasgow academic conference over inappropriate behaviourOpens in new window ]

“At the time, my instinct to support and protect my friend was greater than my instinct to do the morally right thing. I feel ashamed of that now,” Tiana Fischer, a Joyce scholar at the University of Galway, told The Irish Times.

The fallout continued this week, with Sam Slote of Trinity College writing to Senn to tell him he would not be attending an upcoming Joyce event in Zurich.

Slote, who has long supported efforts to improve safety measures, told Senn the open letter “downplays the nature of the offence, as if it were perfectly trivial”.

The letter also fails to acknowledge the woman in Glasgow who, when Slote saw her afterwards, “was scared and shaken”, he told Senn.

“This unfortunately fits into a now all-too common pattern in the discourse around harassment in the Joyce world: the silencing of the (many) victims.”

Senn’s curt reply, copied to a number of other Joyceans, read: “I understand you cannot participate in our vastly reduced workshop in August – the last one. I wish you all the best for your career.”