JBHE: Latest News for 5/21/09

Derek Walcott Pulls Out of Competition for Post at Oxford

Nobel laureate Derek Walcott withdrew his name from consideration for election as Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. Walcott was one of three candidates for the post. Graduates of the university cast ballots for election to the position.

About 100 scholars at Oxford received photocopies of pages of a book which included details of sexual harassment claims that had been made against Walcott when he was a visiting professor at Harvard University in 1982 and in 1996 when he was teaching at Boston University.

In withdrawing his name for consideration, Walcott issued a statement which stated that the election “had degenerated into a low and degrading attempt at character assassination. I do not want to be a part of it.”