Anita Hill will give a free lecture at the University of Utah next week on the #MeToo movement amid another high-profile allegation roiling President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
Hill, now a professor of social policy, law and women’s studies at Brandeis University, is best known for her public testimony during the 1991 Supreme Court hearings of Clarence Thomas.
It was there, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that Hill accused Thomas of sexually harassing her while he was her supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education.
“To be frank, she was shamed and blamed for appearing,” said Bob Goldberg, director of the University of Utah’s Tanner Humanities Center, which is hosting the lecture.
“They called her malicious, they called her inappropriate — delusional was another word they used,” he said.
Goldberg said there are clear parallels to the current Supreme Court confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman when they were both teenagers.
Among those who doubted Anita Hill was Sen. Orrin Hatch, who in 2010 told CNN he believed Hill had “talked herself into believing what she said” during her 1991 testimony.
Hatch echoed those comments again last week when he told CNN he thinks Kavanaugh’s accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, is “mistaken.”
Goldberg said in many ways, Hill was the original ‘me’ in the current #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and assault.
He said those attending Hill’s lecture should expect to hear Hill address current events as well as background for today’s conversation around sexual violence.
“I believe that she will not only give us perspective on what happened to her, but also give us insight into now and the road ahead,” he said.
What: Anita Hill at the U When: Wednesday, Sept. 26, 7 p.m. Where: Cleone Peterson Eccles Alumni House (155 S. Central Campus Drive)
