USC professor named in sexual harassment lawsuit against PhD student

A former USC student has sued the school and a university professor, alleging that the professor sexually harassed her while she was a doctoral student and his research assistant, and that he retaliated with unfair evaluations of her senior thesis when she objected.

The complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court also alleges civil rights violations, sex discrimination, retaliation, failure to prevent harassment, discrimination and retaliation, sexual assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. It names USC and professor David C. Kang as defendants.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff was effectively fired by Kang as a research assistant and he gave her a failing grade on her substantive assignment for the qualifying exam — even though he had previously stated that it was satisfactory — because she refused to comply with his alleged sexual misconduct.

A USC representative released a statement regarding the lawsuit on Wednesday.

“The university takes reports of sexual harassment and discrimination very seriously and has a comprehensive investigation process,” the statement said. “We are reviewing the complaint in detail.”

The complaint states that Kang is director of the Institute of Korean Studies and Graduate Studies in the Department of Political Science and International Relations, and is still a full professor at USC.

“USC presented Kang as a trustworthy and honest professor and mentor and USC deliberately shaped this public image of USC and Kang…in order to actively conceal the fact that it employed Kang and other sexual predators and allowed Kang unfettered sexual access to victimize young female USC students and/or employees, including Plaintiff, and to racially target Plaintiff and other female victims…because they are Asian and/or Asian/Korean,” the lawsuit states.

Kang, who is also Korean, was the chair of the plaintiff’s university department and her thesis advisor. According to the complaint, he began grooming her by inviting her to lunch in November 2021. Kang then hired the woman as a research assistant so he could supervise her directly, according to the complaint.

Kang sexually harassed the plaintiff by treating her in sexually stereotypical ways, including telling her that her children needed a mother, that the teacher had trouble buying clothes or sanitary pads for her daughter, and also asking the plaintiff to take her daughter shopping in South Korea, the lawsuit says.

The plaintiff initially resisted Kang’s requests to take her daughter shopping, not wanting to play the role of his wife, but later felt compelled to comply, the lawsuit says.

Kang “made it clear that the plaintiff’s duties as a research assistant included ‘doing things for me,'” the lawsuit alleges.

Once, while they were both behind closed doors, Kang touched the plaintiff’s hair and said, “I had jet black hair like you,” while another time he slapped her buttocks with rolled up papers, the lawsuit alleges.

On another occasion, Kang had the plaintiff and other female doctoral students watch a movie that involved a professor having an affair with his student, the complaint says.

The plaintiff had the courage to email Kang to object to his behavior, prompting a bogus apology from the professor in response, according to the suit, which further states that Kang retaliated by disparaging her doctoral work and telling her she would have to find a new advisor unless she was “willing to change” their relationship.

USC failed to do enough to protect Kang’s plaintiff and a suspension the university imposed on him during a Title IX investigation was a “sham,” the lawsuit alleges.