Female professor and activist sues UNC for sex discrimination

CHAPEL HILL -- A female geography professor has sued officials at UNC-Chapel Hill, claiming gender discrimination and retaliation for raising concerns of sex and racial discrimination at the university.

The faculty member, Altha Cravey, filed a complaint this week in Middle District of U.S. District Court against the university and three administrators — Chancellor Carol Folt, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Kevin Guskiewicz and Geography Department Chair Michael Emch. She is seeking back wages and benefits, promotion, compensatory damages and attorney’s fees.

She claims she has been denied promotion to full professor while male professors with similar or lesser credentials and experience have been promoted. A university spokeswoman declined to comment on the lawsuit Friday.

Cravey is an associate professor of geography at UNC, where she has been on the faculty for 23 years. Her teaching includes courses on globalization, migration, trans-nationality, feminist geography, Latino studies and Latin American geography. She is also an activist and a frequent presence at student protests on campus, where she has been a critic of Folt, the UNC Board of Governors and UNC President Margaret Spellings.

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