Priya Venkatesan
| Priya Venkatesan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Priya Venkatesan Hays[1][2] |
| Other names | Priya Hays[3][4] |
| 💼 Occupation | Academic |
| Known for | Work in personalized medicine; attempting to sue students at Dartmouth College |
Priya Venkatesan is an American scientist and litterateur. She has authored numerous papers, many focusing on cancer, molecular biology, and personalized medicine.
In 2008, during a postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth College, Venkatesan threatened to sue her students at Dartmouth College. The case garnered attention from media outlets; no lawsuit was filed.
Early life[edit]
Venkatesan was born in a small South Asian community near Poughkeepsie, New York, to East Indian parents.[5] She attended high school in Poughkeepsie, and felt that her Indian heritage gave her a feeling of "straddling between two cultures".[5]
Career[edit]
Venkatesan graduated from Dartmouth College in 1990 with a BA.[5][6] She then went on to gain an MS in Genetics from the University of California, Davis and a PhD in Literature from the University of California, San Diego.[6] Her dissertation, titled Molecular Biology in Narrative Form: A Study of the Experimental Trajectory of Science, examined links between molecular biology and French narrative theory.[7]
In July 2005, Venkatesan started a postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth Medical School.[5][8] During this fellowship she began teaching a course on the intersection of science and literature, starting in the 2007 fall term.[5] She left Dartmouth College in mid-2008.[8]
In February 2009, Venkatesan was an adjunct professor of English at Santa Clara University,[9] teaching about science writing.[3]
Venkatesan published a book entitled Science, Cultural Values and Ethics in 2013.[1]
As of September 2018, Venkatesan was a technical writer at Cepheid, a molecular diagnostics company.[3]
Venkatesan has published numerous papers, many focusing on immunotherapy and genomics.[4]
In 2022, Venkatesan edited a collection on cancer immunotherapy.[10]
Controversy[edit]
In April 2008, Venkatesan announced via email that she would be pursuing a lawsuit against her first-year students and against Dartmouth College for "violating Title VII of anti-federal discrimination laws".[8] She claimed that students would purposefully disrupt class by asking questions "that don't belong in a classroom of the caliber of Dartmouth", blowing their noses or coughing, and giving Venkatesan "evil looks".[5] The class also reportedly applauded a student for disagreeing with Venkatesan.[11] Venkatesan saw these behaviours as "fascist demagoguery"[12][13] and accused both her students and Dartmouth College of being institutionally racist and sexist, stating that students would not act that way if taught by a white male.[5][12] She had complained about her treatment to her superior, Thomas Cormen; he allegedly ignored these claims, and Venkatesan felt that he was taking the side of the students.[5]
Students in Venkatesan's class denied the allegations; they claimed that the questions she saw as "very demeaning"[8] were because the subject matter was complicated and difficult to understand, and that Venkatesan would not coherently answer questions about terms such as postmodernism.[5] Students also stated that Venkatesan would treat them in a patronizing manner, once asking the class to applaud when a usually-noisy student stayed quiet.[5][13]
After it was assured that she could not sue her students, Venkatesan planned to file a suit against Dartmouth College;[8][5] no such suit was ever filed.[9]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hays, Priya Venkatesan (2013). Science, Cultural Values and Ethics. Common Ground. ISBN 978-1-61229-132-1. Search this book on
- ↑ Hays, Priya Venkatesan (1 September 2013). "Epistemic Cross Talk". Interdisciplinary Literary Studies. 15 (2): 221–239. doi:10.5325/intelitestud.15.2.0221. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Hays, Priya (18 September 2018). Advancing Healthcare Through Personalized Medicine. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-138-37378-5. Retrieved 30 August 2023. Search this book on
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Priya Hays". priyahays.academia.edu. Archived from the original on 30 August 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 Berk, Jamie (1 May 2008). "A Postmodernist in the Laboratory...and Courtroom?". The Dartmouth Independent. Archived from the original on 4 June 2008. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Priya Venkatesan, Ph.D." dartmed.dartmouth.edu. Summer 2007. Archived from the original on 29 August 2023. Retrieved 29 August 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Hays, Priya Venkatesan (2006). Molecular Biology in Narrative Form: A Study of the Experimental Trajectory of Science. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-8699-4. Retrieved 29 August 2023. Search this book on
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Kennedy, Helen (30 April 2008). "Dartmouth professor threatens students with discrimination lawsuit". Daily News. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 9.0 9.1 Bartlett, Tom (27 February 2009). "'Dear Professor: I Hate You' - Anonymous". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on 12 April 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Cancer Immunotherapies: Solid Tumors and Hematologic Malignancies. Cancer Treatment and Research. 183. Springer International Publishing. 2022. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-96376-7. ISBN 978-3-030-96375-0. Unknown parameter
|s2cid=ignored (help) Search this book on
- ↑ Leonard, Tom (12 May 2008). "Starting young on a litigation merry-go-round". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 30 August 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 12.0 12.1 Rago, Joseph (5 May 2008). "Dartmouth's 'Hostile' Environment". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018. Retrieved 30 August 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 13.0 13.1 Nayar, K.P. (8 May 2008). "Teacher to sue 'bullies'". www.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2023. Retrieved 2 September 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
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