Category: Harassment

An account from C.T., an undergraduate student (senior) at Wayne State

Professor Watten has released sensitive writings of mine without permission, circulated them in class, and bullied me into answering questions/reading such work without consent. He has belittled me during these times of vulnerability, and lessened my lived experiences, telling me how I should have handled myself in those moments within my stories, while simultaneously telling … Continue reading An account from C.T., an undergraduate student (senior) at Wayne State →

Account from Michael Cross, publisher, poet, and professor

As a Ph.D. candidate at SUNY Buffalo, I had the displeasure of interacting with Barrett Watten many times during his interview visit for the David Gray Chair. His toxicity was immediately apparent, and his behavior towards graduate students immediately set off warning signals. He was especially aggressive toward female graduate students, going so far as … Continue reading Account from Michael Cross, publisher, poet, and professor →

Account from a poet and professor at an institution other than Wayne State

This first email that Watten ever sent me was “Fuck you, you little twit.” I hadn't even met him yet. This was back in the late 90s. I was still in my 20s, he was quite established then. He was upset about something I had written on the {Buffalo} poetics listserv, which was really quite … Continue reading Account from a poet and professor at an institution other than Wayne State →

Account from Marjorie Perloff, poetry scholar and Humanities Professor at Stanford University

I first met Barret Watten in 1985 or so when I wrote my piece called "Language Poetry in the 80s." Shortly thereafter I met Watten and Ron Silliman; we had coffee in Berkeley. At that point Watten was not yet belligerent. Soon, however, I witnessed his abusiveness first hand, namely at one of the conferences … Continue reading Account from Marjorie Perloff, poetry scholar and Humanities Professor at Stanford University →

An account from a PhD student at Wayne

In the summer 2016 directed study mentioned above, after a class meeting, the other student and I went out for a beer. On the walk back to the parking lot, we ran into Dr. Watten on the street. He berated us in an aggressive, raised voice for excluding him, stating that he put a lot of time and energy into the directed study and was “disappointed” in both of us. I was very uncomfortable and felt he was out of line in both tone and substance. [Click heading to read more]

An account from Tracy Neumann, associate professor of history at Wayne State

In January 2017, Barrett and I had an email exchange that I now recognize reflects patterns described in other testimonies on this site: he tried to use a graduate student to mediate between us, he took no responsibility for his violent outburst and instead acted as though it was a mishap for which no one was at fault, and he entreated me to tell others that I bore no ill will toward him.
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Account from Bryan McCann, former assistant professor at Wayne State, current associate professor, LSU Dept. of Communication Studies

But my primary motivation for contributing to the powerful work on display here is to confirm that everything other people have shared from personal experience resonates strongly with Watten’s reputation. By the time I arrived at Wayne, his verbal attack against his colleague Kathryne Lindberg was still very much a topic of conversation. One longtime member of the faculty shared with me that he and many of our colleagues believed Watten's treatment of Lindberg contributed to her suicide. I also learned from another colleague that Watten had taken to bragging that, after Lindberg’s suicide, all his major adversaries in the department had either left or were dead.
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Account from Richard Grusin, Former Wayne State Department of English Chair, Professor at University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

"I am extremely troubled, as I presume you must be as well, by the fact that in just over a year of your tenure as interim chair, Barrett Watten has engaged in three instances of verbal and emotional violence against women in the department--a staff member, a graduate student, and a full professor, the last of which you witnessed yourself. These incidents have created a hostile atmosphere in the department, particularly but not exclusively for untenured female faculty."
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An account from Molli Spalter, current Wayne State PhD student

I want to reiterate that because of these interactions with Barrett, particularly when he approached me outside State Hall, I am afraid to be alone on the 9th floor, worried that I may encounter him and be subjected to physical and emotional intimidation and abuse. I take the stairs from the 10th floor to the 8th floor before getting on the elevator so I will not be stuck in an elevator with him. Of note, I am not alone in these behaviors. Other female graduate students avoid being around Barrett at all costs. Recently, Barrett showed up at a WEGO Final Friday event and female graduate students left because they were uncomfortable sharing a social space with him.
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Account from Isaac Pickell, current Wayne State PhD student

Molli Spalte and I have both filed official complaints detailing Barrett Watten’s years-long method of abuse, including harassment, bullying, intimidation, and trying to sow distrust and animus into our relationship. While I am not yet comfortable detailing this publicly, know that we are being targeted by a serial abuser for sharing the open secret of his abusive behavior. Barrett is using the institution’s deference to authority against us; the only strength we have is in numbers.
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Account from Marie Buck, graduate of the Wayne State PhD program

I am posting this here in hopes that 1) all of Barrett's disciplinary charges against current students are dropped; given his history of abusive behavior toward students, he is trustworthy and 2) that Barrett is not allowed contact with graduate or undergraduate students in the future and 3) that Barrett is not invited into poetry spaces in the future. It should be noted that in addition to the people who have given specific stories here, almost everyone I have ever come into contact with in the poetry community has expressed wariness around Barrett because of his reputation for belligerent and physically intimidating behavior . . .
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An account from Tara Forbes, graduate of the Wayne State PhD program

"I have been informed that Barrett then confronted the male faculty member's partner, who is a woman faculty member (not from English), about her partner's behaviour. This is approximately when I entered the hallway of the Student Center (outside the teach-in room) and saw Barrett shouting at the woman faculty member, including telling her to keep her husband in line, and that her husband only approached him because he was jealous of Barrett being "an intellectual male presence" in the woman faculty member's life."
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