Anthropologist accused of mishandling the remains of children killed in the MOVE bombing is no longer employed at Penn

Former curator and University of Pennsylvania anthropology professor Janet Monge no longer works at the Penn Museum, a museum spokesperson has confirmed to The Inquirer. Monge was accused of mishandling the remains of MOVE bombing victims in 2021 and Penn has since faced demands for her termination. The quiet separation comes after years of speculation about Monge’s employment status, and is the latest development in a multi-year saga that raised questions of institutional racism, accountability, and the role of human remains in anthropology.

The museum refused to comment on the circumstances and timing of Monge’s departure. She was still listed as the associate curator-in-charge and keeper of collections on the museum’s website in August but as of late October the museum confirmed that she was no longer employed. Monge did not respond to The Inquirer’s requests for comment.

The human remains at the center of Monge’s downfall date back to a horrific day in Philadelphia history. In 1985, the city’s police bombed a home in West Philadelphia where members of the Black liberation group MOVE lived, killing 11 people, including five children. Though survivors believed, for decades, that they had put their children to rest, they later learned that some remains were in the possession of Monge and her advisor, Alan Mann, held in storage at the Penn Museum.

The city’s medical examiner had given the forensic anthropologists the remains to identify the victims, but after claiming that they could not make any definitive identifications, Mann and Monge never returned the remains to MOVE relatives. The city officially identified the remains as 14-year-old Katricia “Tree” Dotson Africa, but Monge and Mann disagreed with that assessment.

Without the Africa family’s knowledge or consent, Monge and Mann kept these remains, part of a femur and a pelvic bone, and transported them between Penn and Princeton University for years. Monge used the remains as teaching aids for in-person classes, various videos, and in a Princeton online course called “Real Bones: Adventures in Forensic Anthropology” in 2019.

In April 2021, The Inquirer and Billy Penn broke the news that Monge and Mann had the remains of a MOVE bombing victim in the Penn Museum and used them in classes. The family demanded repatriation and reparations, as well as the termination of Monge as museum curator and university professor.

The news led to multiple investigations from Penn, Princeton, and the city of Philadelphia into the conduct of the anthropologists, the medical examiner, and the city. Penn’s report accused Monge and Mann of “extremely poor judgment and gross insensitivity.” Despite calls for Monge’s immediate removal, she remained a Penn employee.

There have also been questions about whether they had the remains of more than one victim: MOVE relatives and activists claim that Monge also possessed remains of 12-year-old Delisha Africa. In August 2023, they held a press conference at the Penn Museum, accusing Monge of lying to investigators about how many remains she possessed and demanding the return of Delisha Africa to her family. Penn told The Inquirer that they planned to investigate the claims and maintained that they returned all remains to the family in July 2021.

In May 2022, Monge sued Penn, The Inquirer, and various media outlets alleging defamation based on false accusations of racism. In her amended complaint from July 2023, she claimed that following the news coverage, she was demoted to “museum keeper,” received a pay cut, and was no longer allowed to teach. “This demotion [in August 2021] was affected by a salary cut of $65,000 per year for the following two years of her employment, upon which Penn would deem Dr. Monge as retired,” the lawsuit says. The timing of this agreement lines up with her departure in fall of this year, though the museum declined to confirm.

“We are unable to discuss personnel matters,” said the museum spokesperson.

The timing of Monge’s quiet exit also coincided with Penn’s announcement of a new human remains policy. The museum announced that it will no longer display “exposed” human remains, except in cases where they are wrapped or covered, such as mummies. It also included promises to expand its staff for the specific purpose of identifying and repatriating human remains in the collection as well as additional staff specializing in biological anthropology.

The museum has the human remains of more than 10,000 people amassed throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, including white supremacist Samuel Morton’s Cranial Collection, which contains an estimated 1,300 skulls stolen from around the world used to justify racist science. Some were displayed in a classroom for years until they were relocated in 2020. Penn apologized for its “unethical possession” of the collection in 2021 and plans to repatriate skulls of Black Philadelphians, enslaved Cubans, and others.

The museum has not replaced Monge’s position. The spokesperson said they are close to hiring for a new position of “faculty-curator in bioanthropology/ bioarchaeology.” That person, they said, will have “expertise in repatriation requests and the analysis of human remains.”

Critics are skeptical about these efforts, especially given what they say is a pattern of a lack of transparency. “They make a big deal out of the press release for the human remains policy at around that exact same time [that Monge left] and then they don’t even acknowledge that this happened,” said Lyra Monteiro, a professor of history, American studies, and African American studies at Rutgers University. Monteiro is also one of the organizers who has joined the MOVE family in demanding accountability from Penn. “Again, this refusal to be accountable, refusal to take responsibility because they enabled her for all these years.”

An earlier version of this article mentioned Monge will be replaced by a new faculty-curator in bioanthropology/ bioarchaeology. These two roles are separate.