Kimberley Curtis

Kimberley "Kim" Curtis is a political scientist who was a long-term visiting professor at Duke University and is currently a professor at Northern Arizona University. She is the author of a 1999 book Our Sense of the Real: Aesthetic Experience and Arendtian Politics. Curtis, who is known for her progressive political views, made headlines with her role in the Duke lacrosse-team rape scandal of 2006-7.

Post-9/11 commentary
Speaking of the post-9/11 American university, Curtis has said that “There is an emotional tyranny at play here” and complained that “Tyranny thrives where there are no dissenting voices.” She went on to say that she believed that universities were places that should support independent thinking.

In 2002, Curtis was one of a handful of Duke professors who sponsored “Iraq and Us”, which encouraged faculty to devote a period of time during their classes to address a possible invasion of Iraq.

Duke lacrosse team rape scandal
Curtis was a member of the Group of 88, a group of 88 professors who signed an advertisement which appeared in the university newspaper, in connection with the Duke lacrosse case. The letter implied that the charges against the lacrosse team members were true. In addition, a member of the lacrosse team, filed a lawsuit against Duke, claiming that Curtis had given him a failing grade because of his membership on the team. While the students' grade was changed by the university, the case was settled out of court and neither Curtis nor the university admitted blame.

Publications

 * Our Sense of the Real: Aesthetic Experience and Arendtian Politics (1999)