Outsider academics asked descendants for consent while Harvard did not

Evidence

Meredith’s point—to use the images without consent and/or approval from the family—was a violation of the Belmont Report and it continued to strip Renty and Delia of their humanity. She was among a growing number of writers and academics who had reached out to me to ask my permission to use the images and discuss my case. It made me wonder, why did Meredith and those other academics see the value in reaching out to me, whereas Harvard did not? — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 1020

Categorization

• QUESTION: The asymmetry between how individual academics and the university treated consent is a genuinely live question about institutional incentive structures worth chasing.