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The Johns Hopkins University has opened an investigation into a prominent international affairs professor after a woman accused him of rape.
University officials said they learned of the allegation against Yascha Mounk, a political scientist who teaches at the School of Advanced Studies in Washington, D.C., from media reports Sunday.
The news reports came shortly after journalist Celeste Marcus accused Mounk on social media of raping her in the early hours of June 25, 2021, at her Washington apartment. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Mounk could not be reached for comment but told the Washington Post the allegation is “categorically untrue.”
Hopkins officials said they have referred the matter to the university’s Office of Institutional Equity.
“Pursuant to our obligations under Title IX, the university has an established and rigorous process for addressing allegations of misconduct and has referred the information to our Office of Institutional Equity for careful review,” a spokesperson for the university said in a statement. Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Marcus wrote about the assault and its aftermath without naming the perpetrator in a January essay published by the quarterly journal Liberties, where she is managing editor. Marcus wrote at the time that she did not report the rape to police in part because she believed doing so would only have yielded more pain.
Over the weekend, the journalist posted on X, formerly Twitter, an apparent screenshot of an email she sent to the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic stating her essay was about Mounk, who is a freelance contributor to the national magazine.
“I will not be raped with impunity,” she said in the tweet accompanying the screenshot.
The Atlantic has acknowledged the allegation in a statement and confirmed the magazine has suspended its relationship with Mounk.
“We take such allegations seriously. The accused freelance contributor is not an employee of The Atlantic. We have not published any new work by the freelance contributor since being made aware of the allegation and we suspended our relationship with the freelance contributor last month when we first learned of the accusation,” Anna Bross, a spokeswoman for The Atlantic, said in a statement.
The statement went said officials would be following potential new developments in the matter.
This article may be updated.
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