Junot Diaz cleared to return to teaching at MIT

Pulitzer prize-winning author and creative writing professor Junot Diaz has been cleared to teach at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this autumn following harassment claims and an investigation into the author's conduct.

Diaz last month resigned as chairman of the Pulitzer Prize and pulled out of a writers' festival in Sydney over allegations of sexually inappropriate behaviour. Author Zinzi Clemmons claimed in a tweet that Diaz "cornered" and "forcibly kissed" her when she was a 26-year-old grad student.

An inquiry involving MIT’s dean for the school of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences was launched but yielded no information, the Guardian reported.

"To date, MIT has not found or received information that would lead us to take any action to restrict Prof Diaz in his role as an MIT faculty member, and we expect him to teach next academic year, as scheduled," Kimberly Allen, director of media relations, said in a statement.

Junot Diaz has yet to respond for comment, but his agent is said to be "pleased with the outcome". 

Oneworld last week postponed the publication of Diaz’ upcoming picture book, Islandborn, to October "to tie in" with a proposed visit by Diaz to the UK this autumn.