One month after a plagiarism scandal toppled Harvard University’s first Black president, another high-ranking school official faces allegations that she also copied academic works without citing sources or giving proper credit.
Sherri Ann Charleston, Harvard’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, allegedly copied extensive portions of a scholarly essay authored by her husband and claimed credit for it without proper citation in her own academic paper, according to a complaint filed with the Ivy League college on Monday.
The complaint, which was filed anonymously, cites 40 instances of plagiarism in Charleston’s published body of work, while a parallel investigation by the Washington Free Beacon alleges plagiarism in her 2009 Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the University of Michigan.
Charleston, who is Black, is accused of quoting or paraphrasing several authors without proper attribution, while scholars who reviewed the complaint suggest the offenses might likely warrant an investigation into plagiarism and potential data fraud.
The devastating claims might also constitute academic fraud, however it remained to be seen whether Charleston would face the same fate of former Harvard President Claudine Gay, who resigned Jan. 2 amid similar circumstances, abruptly ending a turbulent six-month term.
In the weeks since Gay’s ouster, the university has faced increasing pressure to abandon diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and to clarify academic policies that didn’t appear to apply to Gay as the college faced a public relations nightmare but never sought to discipline its newly placed leader for academic misconduct.
The new claims targeting Charleston also put the university back in the hot seat regarding the credibility of its research associates and the ideological stance of its diversity administrators, many of whom fall under Charleston’s extensive purview.
Most notably among the charges, Charleston’s…
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