This university is more mine than Larry Summers’,” says J. Lorand Matory ’82, professor of anthropology and of African and African American studies. “I will not let Larry Summers determine that this will become a place where social Darwinism is the leading ideology or leading practice.”

Matory this semester emerged as one of University President Lawrence H. Summers’ most outspoken critics, filing the motion that led to the successful vote of no confidence in the president and becoming one of only three Harvard professors to call publicly for Summers’ resignation.

At heart, however, Matory is not a politician but a social anthropologist, couching his criticism of Summers in academic terms. Summers, Matory says, is trying to hijack Harvard and make it conform to personal beliefs that stress biological determinism.

Matory lists several of Summers’ controversial actions—ranging from the president’s public spat with Cornel R. West ’74 to his infamous January comments on women in science­—as examples of Summers’ “social Darwinist” tendencies.

“I do not think that this person has demonstrated the breadth of social awareness, the scholarly awareness, the capacity to consult and lead that is required of the president of what is certainly one of the leading universities in the world,” Matory says.

THE ANTHROPOLOGIST

Matory is 43 years old. Wearing a dark suit, a neon-blue backpack, and a bicycle helmet, he arrives in his spacious William James Hall office eager to share his collection of Afro-Atlantic sacred art.

The dolls, flags, and other artifacts filling Matory’s shelves represent some of the religions of Latin American and African peoples that the professor has spent his career studying.

In his first book, “Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion,” Matory posits ideas that challenge many of the popularly-held Western conceptions of gender. For instance, he shows that the Yoruba women of southwest Nigeria are simultaneously wives and husbands.

It was in Nigeria where Matory met his current wife, Bunmi Fatoye-Matory, with whom he has two children.

This year, Fatoye-Matory says, has been “a little hard” for the family. Her mother passed away in February and Matory’s sister died last month, all while Matory was becoming a central figure in one of the most public crises in Harvard’s history.

AN UNAPOLOGETIC CRITIC

More than 400 Harvard faculty members sat in dead silence as Matory stepped up to a microphone in the aisle between the Loeb Drama Center’s packed orchestra and gallery seats at the March 15 Faculty meeting.

“I hereby move that the Faculty vote, by secret ballot, on the following resolution,” Matory read in a deep, steady, and resolute voice while facing the University president and almost 500 colleagues, “The Faculty lacks confidence in the leadership of Lawrence H. Summers.”

Matory’s motion, which passed with 218 affirmative votes from the Faculty, became the climax of the crisis of confidence in the University’s leadership that dramatically unfolded this semester.