At least one Harvard University student wants the school to examine all faculty for plagiarism to disarm what she calls a plagiarism “witch hunt” launched by conservative activists.
Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo and various conservative journalists found instances of plagiarism in roughly half of the seventeen scholarly works published by former Harvard President Claudine Gay, who resigned from the elite school amid the allegations, as well as controversy over her response to campus antisemitism. The probes have also revealed plagiarism in the work of Harvard Chief Diversity Officer Sherri Charleston.
Maya Bodnick, an opinion columnist for the Harvard Crimson, wrote that the conservatives have started a “plagiarism witch hunt” against Harvard faculty, especially black females who “study race.” She asserted that Harvard administrators should “take back control” of the narrative Rufo has established by conducting a “broad plagiarism review of the entire faculty.”
“We can’t let outsiders control the plagiarism narrative. Harvard and other universities must stay ahead of the game, surfacing instances of plagiarism and addressing them before malicious actors can hurt the university’s credibility,” she wrote. “If there is a widespread plagiarism crisis, then universities like Harvard must expose and address it, rather than letting a conservative witch hunt create the false impression that only black women plagiarize.”
Rufo later challenged Bodnick on whether the “impression” that black women in academia disproportionately plagiarize is actually “false.” He also asked whether the effort is a “witch hunt” if they actually manage to find “witchcraft,” in this instance “plagiarism.”
The activist said he has indeed asked for his sources to review the work of white and Asian scholars. He remarked that “thus far the verified plagiarism cases have been predominantly from black women,” although he clarified that the investigations are not a systematic study.” He suggested that critical race theory fields may very well “have higher rates of plagiarism, particularly in specified demographics, given that these fields are heavily populated by affirmative action policies and have lower scholarly standards than more rigorous disciplines.”
Gay drew additional criticism for claiming in a statement released about her resignation that she has been subject to “personal attacks and threats fueled by racial animus.” The political science scholar, whose six-month tenure marks the shortest of any other leader in the four-century history of the elite school, will return to work as a member of Harvard faculty.
