Content warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault and harassment.
A graduate journalism class taught by former Paris Review editor Lorin Stein, who had resigned from his position at the magazine following allegations of sexual misconduct in 2017, was recently canceled following a WSN inquiry regarding the accusations against the editor.
“I can confirm that, subsequent to the WSN’s initial inquiry about Lorin Stein, the course he was to teach was canceled,” university spokesperson John Beckman wrote in a statement to WSN.
The university hired Stein to teach a graduate elective titled Personal Anthropology at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute prior to its cancellation. NYU had also selected Stein as a fellow at The New York Institute for the Humanities in 2015 and hosted him for a creative writing reading series at the university in 2010 and 2011. Beckman did not respond to questions about Stein’s employment.
In December 2017, Stein resigned from The Paris Review after he was featured on “Shitty Media Men,” a list that allows anonymous users to publicize allegations of misconduct against men in the media industry. The list was created amid the Harvey Weinstein scandal, during which more than 50 women came forward with sexual assault and rape allegations against the media mogul.
Stein reported to the Review’s board that his name was on the list, which led to an investigation. Stein also resigned from the editor-at-large position he held at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a book publishing company.
During Stein’s investigation, run by a subcommittee created by The Paris Review’s board, at least two female writers at the magazine reported aggressive flirting and unwelcome advances. Stein admitted to engaging in sexual behaviors in the office, but claimed the sexual conduct was both consensual and took place before he married his wife in 2015.
Another woman, who worked at a literary scouting agency, told The New York Times that Stein inappropriately touched her during a work dinner. The woman said that Stein was speaking to her about a recent breakup, told her how much he “missed sleeping next to a woman” and repeatedly touched the woman’s knee before sliding his hand up her skirt, prompting her to quickly switch seats.
“At times in the past, I blurred the personal and the professional in ways that were, I now recognize, disrespectful of my colleagues and our contributors, and that made them feel uncomfortable or demeaned,” Stein wrote in his letter of resignation. “I am very sorry for any hurt I caused them.”
In 2022, NYU chose not to hire a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor with allegations of sexual misconduct against him. The professor, David Sabatini, was under consideration for a position at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, sparking a protest of around 200 graduate students, faculty members and alumni.
More recently, the university said its Athletics Director was no longer employed at NYU after an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behavior against him. The director, Stuart Robinson, had been named in a 2018 Title IX lawsuit that accused him of sexual misconduct. NYU has said it did not know of the lawsuit against Robinson before it was reported in WSN last year.
Stein and the journalism department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Contact Maisie Zipfel at [email protected].
