Content warning: descriptions of physical and gender-based abuse.
In August 2022, University of Michigan alum Sophie Zhang filed a complaint to the Equity, Civil Rights, & Title IX Office (ECRT). She alleged that her father, Youxue Zhang, a professor in the University’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, abused her on the basis of her identity as a transgender woman.
In her complaint, Sophie described two instances in which Prof. Zhang engaged in abusive conduct toward her, with one occurrence on U-M property while Sophie was an undergraduate student. She argued that Prof. Zhang’s abuse constituted misconduct under U-M policy.
Sophie’s complaint was dismissed two days later by Elizabeth Seney, ECRT’s director of sexual and gender-based misconduct and Title IX coordinator, according to emails obtained by The Michigan Daily. Seney stated that ECRT would not investigate the matter further.
A year prior, Sophie spoke of the abuse she faced as a transgender woman in an interview with the MIT Technology Review. Prof. Zhang denied the allegations against him at the time. His name was not revealed in the article.
The article came out while Sophie was the subject of international media attention for exposing widespread usage of fake Facebook accounts by multiple countries’ governments in 2020.
In an interview with The Daily, Sophie alleged Prof. Zhang physically abused her when she was a child on the basis of her gender identity. She alleged that, in 2010, when...
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