The recent news of Corinne Hofman’s dismissal has shaken both the Leiden academic community and the international archaeological community at large.
However, there is part of the story that is escaping most academic community unfamiliar with the discipline: many of the accusations against Professor Hofman are not atypical behaviors in the field, and above all, behaviors that her male colleagues have gotten away with in all impunity (and continue to). Here is how this story anchors itself in the discipline, from questionable colonial fieldwork practices to an academic field with continued issues with gender equality.
It is not that the report isn’t damning, but the idea that it is treated as an isolated case (curiously against one of the only female professors of the faculty), is raising some eyebrows. In fact, most archaeologists would inform you that alcohol abuse and pressure to engage in nightlife, improper sleeping and bathroom arrangements, and dangerous sexual or driving behavior are just accepted elements of archaeological fieldwork.
Being able camp out under primitive conditions is proudly worn as a badge of honor (mostly by men) in a field where, if you don’t put up with it, you're quickly seen as a pariah. Welcome to archaeology.
And then there’s the impunity with which men act at the faculty of archaeology, where sexual harassment and gender based discrimination are greeted with a stern talking to in the best case, and a pat on the back in the worst.
It is a place where men get away with saying in front of female students that “women don’t belong in the field”, get reported…and get promoted a few months later.
Where a full professor who, it was public knowledge, handpicked female bachelor students during each field season to “engage with”, got to retire with his honor intact.
Where there is that well known male colleague you should not get too close to, because he apparently is unable to conduct a conversation with a woman without his hand on her arm.
Where sexism is so rampant that women still struggle to be recognized in regular conversations, end up being treated as secretaries by male colleagues in co-teaching arrangements, or regularly get talked over, interrupted, or mansplained basic concepts in committee meetings with male peers.
In a definite twist of irony, this is the same old boys club getting the firewood ready to burn Professor Hofman at the stake, as they stand proudly as complainants, claiming that she was fostering a toxic environment.
Yes, Professor Hofman’s behavior deserved to be addressed. But one needs to learn to read between the lines of the self-congratulatory report published earlier this month by Leiden University.
Because Corinne Hofman was not the illness: she was a symptom of much wider issues running rampant at the faculty and in the discipline at large. So why is she the only one paying the price?
Written by an archeologist who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals. Name is known to the editor.