Former Penn president Liz Magill speaks to a student at New Student Orientation on Aug. 31, 2022.
Credit: Jesse ZhangNine months after resigning, former Penn President Liz Magill is taking on research positions at Harvard University and the London School of Economics.
Magill is a fall 2024 visiting senior fellow at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession and will be a visiting professor at the London School of Economics through 2027, according to her updated CV. A source close to the former Penn president told The Daily Pennsylvanian that Magill will not be teaching, and both opportunities are temporary, unpaid, and research focused.
Requests for comment were left with Magill and a University spokesperson. While she is not teaching any classes at Penn this semester, Magill is still a tenured professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, a position she has held since 2022.
The Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession is a research center focused on studying and understanding the legal profession and the delivery of legal services. The center aims to analyze the changing landscape of law practice, legal education, and the role of lawyers in society, according to its website.
The Center on the Legal Profession and LSE did not respond to the DP’s requests for comment.
Penn named Magill the University’s ninth president in January 2022, coming to Penn from the University of Virginia, where she served as provost and executive vice president. She resigned in December 2023 after significant pushback from community members, major donors, and politicians related to her handling of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival and campus tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Donors who led the campaign against Magill included 1984 Wharton graduate and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, who began publicly criticizing Magill and halted donations to the University in October 2023 after she allowed the Palestine Writes Literature Festival to proceed on Penn’s campus in September 2023. The donors cited a lack of “satisfactory measures to address antisemitism at the University” as they retaliated against the University.
The pushback increased after the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, culminating in a congressional hearing in December 2023 where Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) asked Magill if a call for the genocide of Jewish people would violate Penn’s policies or code of conduct. Her response, which described the decision as “context dependent,” sparked national criticism and ultimately led her to her resignation on Dec. 9, 2023.
After resigning, Magill stepped down from several board positions based in Philadelphia, including her roles on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, according to her CV. However, she continues to serve on the Board of Trustees for the National Constitution Center, a position she has held since 2023.
The NCC is a Philadelphia-based institution dedicated to public education and debate on the United States Constitution. The center did not respond to the DP’s request for comment.
Interim Penn President Larry Jameson, appointed after Magill’s resignation, is serving as Penn’s president through the 2026 academic year or until a replacement is found. Penn’s Board of Trustees has not yet announced the search committee for Magill’s permanent replacement.
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