CW: This article contains explicit mentions of sexual assault and harassment.
A former USC student sued the university and David Kang, an international relations studies professor, alleging sexual assault, battery and negligence, in addition to retaliation in the form of receiving a failing grade on her Ph.D qualifying exam and the termination of her employment as a graduate research assistant.
Annenberg Media is not naming the woman who filed the lawsuit, but has confirmed her identity and has spoken with her lawyer. The student was identified by name in court documents reviewed by Annenberg Media.
In a lawsuit filed August 27, the student alleged the misconduct occurred while she was a graduate Ph.D student during the 2022-2023 academic year. USC challenged the student’s claims in November, and filed a motion to dismiss her initial causes of action outlined in the lawsuit.
A court hearing is scheduled for March 14 during which USC is slated to present their case against the allegations made against Kang and the university.
Kang was placed on non-disciplinary suspension by the university in Fall 2024. He served as the director of USC’s Korean Studies Institute and the Center for International Studies until 2018. The lawsuit stated Kang also served as the student’s graduate dissertation advisor and the chair of her Ph.D qualifying exam committee. The complaint stated that because of his position of power, Kang had “total control of [her] academic success, her employment and her future employment opportunities.”
Kang did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent to his USC email. His lawyer also had not responded to requests for comment. According to the lawsuit, the student and another female student initiated a Title IX query “as early as August/September 2023.” The second student has not come forward publicly and is not a party in the lawsuit.
Kang still appears on the list of Dornsife faculty, but was not listed as teaching any classes offered in the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 university schedule of classes.
USC officials would not confirm whether or not Kang has been suspended. In a statement to Annenberg Media, USC said it is reviewing the lawsuit in detail and takes such accusations seriously. As a policy, the university does not comment on Title IX matters when active.
Kang has continued to post on X about Korean politics since the allegations came out.
The lawsuit claimed the harassment began in November 2021 when Kang asked the student to have lunch on campus and continued weeks later when Kang allegedly emailed her stating that she had been added to his “very private, personal Facebook account that he only lets ‘close people’ have access to.” Annenberg Media has not reviewed this email.
Kang again asked her to lunch in Koreatown in February 2022, which the lawsuit states the student agreed to under the assumption that it was an advisory meeting for her Ph.D.
Shortly after, Kang offered the student employment as a research assistant at the Korean Studies Institute, where she was given a “monetary stipend, tuition remission and payment of health and dental fees/insurance premiums,” according to the lawsuit.
“USC’s offer letter made clear that the plaintiff’s future employment and academic success were inextricably intertwined and thus completely dependent upon Kang in stating her employment was ‘contingent’ on her satisfactory performance as a research assistant and good academic progress toward her degree,” stated the lawsuit, which does not include the text of the offer letter. Annenberg Media has not reviewed this letter.
The lawsuit named Kang as the chair of the student’s Ph.D qualifying exam committee and her Ph.D advisor. It further stated that in the fall of 2022, the student initially submitted a draft of her Ph.D substantive paper and Kang said he would pass the student’s paper. It then stated that Kang said it was also sufficient for her qualifying exam in May 2023.
The lawsuit stated Kang repeatedly made unwanted sexual advances on several of his female Ph.D students, including taking off his shirt in front of multiple female students and playing a movie for them where a teacher had an affair with their student.
The student also alleged that Kang engaged in targeted sexual harassment in the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters, including taking her sports bra out of her bag, addressing her as a “cutie” in an email, touching her hair and once slapping her backside with rolled-up papers. The lawsuit also states that Kang repeatedly messaged the student “late at night” and tried “to force her to accept a dinner date, repeatedly saying he would pick her up, pay for dinner, that he would be alone and without his children in the house, and they should ‘have fun’ together.”
When the student repeatedly declined Kang’s advances by saying she was “unwell,” according to the lawsuit, Kang continued texting her and said he was “beginning to take it personally.” The lawsuit describes this behavior as retaliation.
Further harassment allegedly took place while the student and Kang were in South Korea at the same time. The lawsuit states Kang treated her in “sexually stereotypical ways, including telling her that his children needed a mother and that Kang has trouble buying his daughter clothes or sanitary pads, and asking [the student] to take Kang’s daughter shopping for clothes when [she] was in Korea.”
The lawsuit also stated that after the student declined, Kang persisted in messaging her with similar requests, resulting in the student feeling like she had no choice but to “meet Kang and his children for lunch when she was in Korea.”
The lawsuit stated this was when the student said she realized she was being groomed by Kang and could no longer tolerate any harassment. It claimed that even though the student was fearful of Kang’s position of power over her academics and future career, she could not tolerate his sexual harassment any longer.
The student alleged in the lawsuit that she sent Kang an email calling out his behavior in March 2023, where she “downplayed the [severity of Kang’s] harassment, assault and discrimination – and in particular her descriptions of Kang’s sexual assaults – because she feared Kang’s retaliation in both her employment and as her Ph.D advisor.” Annenberg Media has not reviewed the email.
The lawsuit states Kang asked for “apologies if [he] made [her] at all uncomfortable” and agreed to “only be professional and at an arms length.” It further states that Kang called the entire situation a “misunderstanding” and said he was only being “friendly.” The lawsuit quoted Kang as saying they “still have things to discuss,” and that he asked about her paper and “plans for the future.”
On May 5, 2023, two months after the student confronted Kang over email, the lawsuit states Kang told the student for the first time “that [her] paper was not sufficient and needed more work.” The paper in question was the written portion of her Ph.D qualifying exam, preceding the oral portion of the exam. The suit claims the decision was made following a 5-minute meeting between Kang and the paper’s committee. It also claimed the committee called her written argument “thin” and did not let her proceed to the oral exam.
In July 2023, the lawsuit states Kang and the student spoke via Zoom, with Kang stating “their relationship had become ‘difficult to amend’ and that [she] should change her advisor unless she was ‘willing to amend’ their relationship.” The suit alleges Kang proceeded to try to force a sexual relationship onto the student during the meeting. It also claimed he told the student he had never previously been accused of sexual harassment.
The student filed the lawsuit in August 2024. Her attorney, Sharyl Garza, said in an interview with Annenberg Media in September that the student felt “completely betrayed by the university.”
“It is an absolutely devastating experience when your own school comes after you,” Garza said. “USC went after [their student] and she felt betrayed and abandoned. Suing was her last resort and she’s devastated thinking about the potential impacts this might have on her [future] employment opportunities.”
Aléa Motwane, Devon Lee, Matthew Royer and Madhri Yehiya also contributed to this article.
Editor’s Note: This story was initially published in August 2024 and has been updated with additional reporting and context.