Junot Díaz Cleared by MIT After Misconduct Investigation

The Massachuttes Insitute of Technology has completed its misconduct investigation of Junot Díaz, clearing the writer to return to teaching in the Fall.

The Associated Press reports that MIT spoke with current students, members of the faculty, and Díaz. The investigation “yielded no information” that would prevent Díaz from returning to the classroom.

The university’s investigation was prompted by allegations that Díaz “forcibly” kissed novelist Zinzi Clemmons. In early May, Clemmons wrote on Twitter that Díaz had “forcibly” kissed her when she was a 26-year-old graduate student. She added that she was not the only woman Díaz has harassed. In a followup to Clemmons’s allegations, writer Carmen Marie Machado accused Díaz of sexist and aggressive behavior. Days later, writer Alias Valdes recounted what she described as Díaz’s “misogynistic abuse.”

MIT’s decision comes shortly after the Boston Review announced that it will retain Díaz as the magazine’s fiction editor. In a letter in early June, editors Deborah Chasman and Joshua Cohen wrote that after reading the reports, “we do not think that any of the individual actions that have been reported are of the kind that requires us to end the editorial relationship.” In response, three of Boston Review’s poetry editors resigned, citing distress over the “power dynamics in a star-driven media and publishing landscape.”

Díaz did not comment on the results of the university’s investigation but his agent, Nicole Aragi, said that she “expected no less.” “And I’m expecting positive outcomes from any inquiries that test the allegations,” she added.