CW // (Content Warning: This letter includes mention and/or details of sexual and non-sexual harassment, bullying, and verbal abuse that may be disturbing to those who have experienced trauma.)
Dear Paleontology,
This is a letter from the two of us, Bryan Gee and Yara Haridy, to the paleontological community. We are both currently postdoctoral researchers in the U.S., but we were previously students in the lab of Robert Reisz at the University of Toronto (2016–2020 for Bryan, 2015–2018 for Yara). Most people reading this will know us as scientists and through our research. We are still scientists, and we are still doing research, but today, we are not here as scientists or to share scientific knowledge. Today, we are simply here as people, inclusive of, but hardly exclusive to, the science that we do. Today, we are sharing a different knowledge and a different story. This knowledge and these stories are for everyone, for our colleagues, past, present, and future, and for those we will never know.
The story that we share today is how we were harassed and bullied by our former graduate advisor at the University of Toronto, Robert Reisz. It is the story of our past two years, almost the entirety of which has been spent under the shadow of a university investigation. It is the story of the many years before that and everything that led us to submit a 72-page report to the university. It is the story of how a powerful man, whose most famous adage is “make me famous,” broke two students and then tried to destroy them in the vain pursuit of his personal legacy. But it is also the story that we survived. And we hope that it is the story that will ensure that we are the last and that will lead us all to a better tomorrow.
“If you are silent in your pain, they will kill you and say you enjoyed it.” — Zora Neale Hurston
What Happened
Many people assume that we ‘enjoyed’ our time in that lab. We published more than any previous (or subsequent) master’s or Ph.D. student during our respective time there, completed our degrees on time (or a year early in Bryan’s case), and were competitive in pursuing subsequent opportunities. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not only did we not enjoy our time in that lab, but it nearly killed us and our passion for paleontology. What we share here will no doubt come as a great surprise to some because many in the academic world conflate co-authorship with camaraderie or with quality supervision, neither of which we benefited from. As the adage goes, correlation does not imply causation.
We didn’t take the decision to report Robert to the university, or the decision to proceed with an investigation, or the decision to publicly reveal our truths, lightly. It is no secret that university processes disadvantage victims, even less so when considering that the University of Toronto had no sexual misconduct policy in place until January 2017. Nowhere are power imbalances more on display — institutions implicitly or explicitly weigh the value of students, inherently transient, against individuals with higher, and often permanent or protected, status. At the same time, there is nothing transparent when it comes to the processes themselves. The processes are intentionally opaque, a shield for the institution, not a shelter for the victims. There were (and still are) far more questions than answers.
There was no single event, for either of us, that broke the metaphorical camel’s back. Instead, it was the totality of how much he gradually wore us down, the weight of how much he gradually took from us, and the realization that he was never going to let us go. It wasn’t just that he sexually harassed Yara. It wasn’t just the collections trip, alone with Robert, that Yara took to Oklahoma as an undergrad. It wasn’t just that he asked for a late night ‘hug’ while sitting on his bed (the only thing that broke the university’s sexual misconduct policy). It wasn’t just the remark that Robert made in the car ride that “if I were a few years younger, I could really go for someone like you” (which apparently is not a violation of the university sexual misconduct policy). It wasn’t just that Robert took a photo of Yara without permission on that trip, or that after that trip, he said, “make sure to send me pictures of you, looking ready to kill,” after admitting that he had been drinking and when he found out that she was going to a wedding. It wasn’t just that Robert made comments in the lab about how students dressed or about their body types, or that he mockingly (and intentionally) said, “thanks babe” when Yara sent him a PDF of a new paper.
It wasn’t just the racial microaggresions. It wasn’t just that Robert frequently (and gleefully) reminded Bryan that Bryan didn’t speak Chinese or that he went out of his way to tell other people that. It wasn’t just that he made mocking jokes about how he couldn’t believe “I have two Chinese students who don’t speak Chinese!” It wasn’t just that Robert called Bryan “young grasshopper” or asked to be called “sensei.”
It wasn’t just that Robert said “I didn’t know people like you were interested in this kind of stuff” to Yara as an undergrad. It wasn’t just that Robert introduced Yara to collections staff at one museum by saying “She’s Egyptian and I’m Jewish — isn’t that funny?!” It wasn’t just that Robert told Bryan that “fellowships directed at underrepresented groups ruin meritocracy” or that he would make comments in the lab that “MeToo has gone too far” and “you can’t joke about anything these days.”
It wasn’t just the bullying. It wasn’t just that Robert tried to pressure Bryan into taking over a project led by a former student and then gaslit and verbally assaulted him when he refused. It wasn’t just that we watched Robert constantly complain about every former student and try to give away their projects or kick them off of projects because they didn’t work fast enough for his satisfaction. It wasn’t just that Robert started asking for extra authorship designations in the months leading up to a grant renewal deadline, or that he edited down other people’s listed authorship contributions while exaggerating his own.
It wasn’t just that Robert said he wouldn’t work with us again unless we made him first author on our projects, all because he was angry that we wouldn’t submit a paper to Nature a before his grant deadline.
It wasn’t just that Robert slandered Bryan over his frustration that a former undergrad didn’t want to stay in the lab to do their graduate studies with Robert, or that he refused to apologize when exposed and instead continued to attack Bryan’s character.
It wasn’t just that when Yara tried to ignore him, Robert kept emailing her Ph.D. advisor in an attempt to get him to force her to talk to Robert. Or that when Bryan tried to ignore him, Robert started going after his friends to try and establish contact with him.
There was no single event. No single incident, no single word or sentence, no single action or single paper. Rather it was the collective patterns and the gradual realization that we were not merely standing in the rain but drowning in the flood that brought us here. Over the years, we have carefully disclosed to colleagues, many of whom know Robert personally. Most have been disgusted or outraged, even when sharing a single incident. While some counseled us against reporting him, almost never was it because people did not believe us. To the contrary, we discovered a deeper, and darker, history of his abuse of others than we could ever have previously imagined. Some counseled us to remain silent under the pretense that he is a ‘product of his time’ and in the waning stages of his career. But we are not under any illusions. He has expressly stated no intention to retire, recently reapplied for (and was awarded) a five-year NSERC Discovery Grant, and holds professorships at two universities. In 2017, he said, “as long as my body and mind hold up and I can perform according to my own standards, I’ll keep going.” His fixation with his legacy knows no bounds. The buried truths of his conduct that preceded us produced the glossy public-facing veneer that unwittingly placed us in the position to be abused by him.
The Report
From when we submitted the report, it was 89 days before the university confirmed that they would even investigate the allegations, during which time Robert continued to try to talk to us as if we had been, and still were, on perfectly agreeable terms. We were then interviewed over the following 14 months, asked to revisit all of the traumatizing events in interviews that often ran three, four, five hours, all in a pandemic. Throughout all of it, Robert retained his teaching privileges, his supervisory privileges, and his research privileges. His current students were not notified of our allegations or of the investigation or if its findings.
We committed to this because we knew what happened to us should not happen to any other student. But make no mistake — it was incredibly draining, and at times, retraumatizing. We committed to this because we hoped that the university would take the investigation’s findings seriously. But after an investigation that lasted more than 400 days, we will never see the full investigative report. The university then took another 88 days to accept these findings and to conclude that Robert’s practices “did not meet the standards we [the university] expect of a faculty member.” Citing privacy, they then withheld any information regarding the “corrective action” taken against him, if any measurable actions were taken at all. Despite saying that their actions will ensure that “future students will not have similar experiences,” we have no evidence that his supervisory or teaching capabilities have been restricted in any fashion, or that his current students have even been informed that their advisor was found to have bullied and harassed recent students. The university expressly told us that they would only release the full report or provide details on their sanctions if subpoenaed in court. This is the university’s brand of ‘justice’ for students who are bullied and harassed by powerful people: an investigation that merely confirms what you already knew and a conclusion with no answers.
“Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” — Maya Angelou
We are well aware of the potential or realized consequences of reporting him, of proceeding with an investigation, and of telling our stories publicly. Whether through the lack of support in job applications or through potential retaliation, we stand to lose more still. We chose to speak up now, after years of silence, and in spite of these risks, because we believe that those in positions of power must be held accountable, even more so when they abuse their position and the people beneath them. Our silence did not save us. The silence of others harmed us. So we will not let our silence be the reason for another’s suffering. As long as he can supervise students, there is a risk for future mistreatment of students.
There will always be something to lose. Even if we were both offered tenure-track positions starting tomorrow, it would be at least four or five years until we could hypothetically gain tenure. There would always be another excuse to remain silent regarding risks to our careers — promotion, tenure, awards, grants, publications, titles — the list goes on. There will always be something for us to lose beyond what we have already lost. The possible harms that could be inflicted upon other individuals and the broader community if his patterns of behavior remain shrouded in secrecy outweighed these consequences and led us to this decision, as with our decision to report him in the first place. We cannot change the past, and we cannot get back what we lost, but we can protect the future. This choice that we make here today is a step in that direction.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin
Going Forward
We want to challenge the paleontological community, and the broader academic community, to use this moment to reflect (once again) on how we approach abuse, harassment, and misconduct within our field. Science is predicated on the practice of getting new data and updating our beliefs. Here are new data. Now it is time to revisit past perceptions and to update them accordingly. He is not the only powerful abuser. This moment is one that not only seeks to hold him accountable, but to hold the community at large accountable. When people with the ability to stop abuse choose to avert their gaze in the face of misconduct, they are complicit in, and responsible for, the harms inflicted upon others. There is no doubt that many individuals within our community have had this opportunity and actively chose not to.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
–Martin Luther King Jr.
When we continue to interact with known abusers and bullies as partners and collaborators as if nothing had changed, we enable them, we empower them, and we protect them. We tell them that they can do it again. We tell victims and survivors that their livelihoods and wellbeing are worth less to us than the empirical data of long-dead animals. No one can open their proverbial home to both the abuser and the victim and claim that both are welcome. When we tell victims that it is wrong to share their truths, we tell them that we value civility and the vaunted culture of professionalism more than their right to pursue a life and a career free of mistreatment. ‘Ignorance is bliss’ cannot be our guiding principle.
These are the moments that challenge the convictions that we write into our DEIJ statements. We are most called to action when a scourge manifests itself in a familiar form within our home, not when it merely lurks as a shapeless specter beyond a barricaded door. Our community will not become more inclusive, accessible, equitable, and just if we only choose the smoothest road. Responsible and ethical science begins with the people conducting it, and who we choose to believe, to support, and to collaborate with is no apolitical decision. Scientific misconduct is much more than the mistreatment of specimens. The stories of the living must outweigh the stories of the dead. If there were a time to speak up and to speak out, it is now.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” –Barack Obama
Like evolution, social change often proceeds at a snail’s pace. But unlike evolution, change is not stochastic. Good change is neither assured nor destined. If we consign ourselves to passivity in the name of comfort or conflict avoidance, we will be swallowed by the darkness of a status quo designed and maintained by those who are content to live in world in which inequity, inequality, and injustice reign. Good change requires courage, and thus it requires conflict. If progress were easy or acceptable to all, it would already have been done. But we know that there are a great many people who prefer the world to stay as it is now, who embrace the injustices or who are merely content to ignore them so long as they are not harmed by them. Many of these people are the powerbrokers in our community. The path to a better tomorrow must be paved not only by building bridges to connect and to serve us all but also by tearing down outdated structures that serve only a select few. Each of us has a role to play in paving that road. No one else is coming to create the change that many of us wish to see.
We recognize that our disclosure may trigger painful memories for others, either experienced at the hands of the same perpetrator or by a different one. We ask that people be mindful of others who may be reminded of their own traumas at this time. Stories, whether ours or those of others, are much more than data points and statistics. Many survivors of abuse and harassment still suffer in silence. Their stories and their right to justice are in no way diminished by the private nature of their trauma. In a system and a society in which the odds are very much stacked against victims, it is an unfortunate reality that the decision to disclose, let alone to formally report or to publicly share, is inherently highly calculated.
We ask that people respect the privacy of individuals who may be assumed to have been involved. We do not know who participated in the investigation, who was contacted but declined to participate, or who was not contacted at all. Everyone is entitled to a presumption of legitimate ignorance until now and unless proven otherwise. In particular, we ask folks to be mindful of students and other ECRs who lack job stability and security and who face many barriers to disentangling themselves from bullies, abusers, and harassers who wield power over them. Revelations invite reflections, and reflections take time. There will come a time when it is appropriate to question those who knowingly choose to continue studying, training, and collaborating with him in the interest of public accountability. That time is not right now.
Finally, we want to thank everyone who has supported us over what approaches six long years of trauma and suffering. Those who encouraged us to report him, who assured us that what we experienced was neither normal nor morally permissible, who may have participated in the process (no matter their contribution), and most importantly, those who believed us and who unabashedly supported us (and who continue to support us). Not everyone did. Not everyone will. We have lost so much that we will never get back, but we are heartened by the many, within and without the paleontological community, who unabashedly stood by us. There are many stories still to be written, both ours and those of others, and we are hopeful for better days ahead.
“No matter what happens in life, be good to people. Being good to people is a wonderful legacy to leave behind.” –Taylor Swift
Resources
United States
- Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN): https://www.rainn.org/; 1–800–656–4673
- National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC): https://www.nsvrc.org/find-help
Canada
- Ending Violence Association of Canada (EVA Canada): https://endingviolencecanada.org/sexual-assault-centres-crisis-lines-and-support-services/
University of Toronto
- UofT Safety & Support: www.safety.utoronto.ca
- Tri-Campus Sexual Violence Prevention & Support Centre: www.svpscentre.utoronto.ca; 416–978–2266.