A program director at NYU’s journalism institute may have been involved in hiring her former editor, who has been accused of sexual misconduct, as a professor in the department. The director, Katie Roiphe, had previously acknowledged the allegations against former Paris Review editor Lorin Stein in a 2018 essay. 

NYU recently canceled a graduate journalism class that Stein was scheduled to teach this semester, following a WSN inquiry regarding the allegations against him. 

On Feb. 5, The Daily Beast reported that “a source familiar with NYU’s hiring process” said Roiphe’s role as director of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program allows her to have “near-total discretion over the hiring of adjunct faculty members.” The source also said that the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute’s hiring process for adjuncts does not require the review of the hiring committee, unlike that of full-time faculty. 

Roiphe has two bylines in The Paris Review, one of which was published during Stein’s editorship. In a 2018 essay for Harper’s Magazine, Roiphe said “female writers flourished” during Stein’s time at The Paris Review, citing her personal experience with him and acknowledging positive reviews of female authors. 

“When you bury yourself in the issues themselves, it’s clear that The Paris Review was a fruitful and vibrant and professionally useful place for women writers,” Roiphe wrote in the essay. “None of this fits neatly into the politicized narrative.” 

Stein was investigated by The Paris Review after telling the magazine’s board that his name appeared on “Shitty Media Men,” a list where anonymous users can report misconduct by men in the media industry. He resigned in 2017, admitting to having engaged in sexual behaviors in the workplace but saying his conduct was consensual. In his resignation letter, Stein apologized for what he described as “hurtful, degrading and infuriating” behavior on his part. 

In 2018, graduate journalism program head Ted Conover told WSN he had received “several” emails regarding allegations that Roiphe had been planning to expose the “Shitty Media Men” list creator in a Harper’s Magazine article. Roiphe claimed not to know the identity of the list’s creator and said she would not have identified them without their permission, according to The New York Times.

Soon after claims that Roiphe might reveal the list’s creator spread online, the creator, Moira Donegan, revealed her identity. Donegan wrote that a few weeks prior, Roiphe had contacted her requesting comment on the article.

An NYU spokesperson declined to comment on Roiphe’s involvement in hiring Stein. Roiphe also declined to comment.

Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].