Carol Swain, one of the most prominent conservative black scholars in the nation whose ideas appear to have been lifted and riffed on by Harvard University\u2019s Claudine Gay without credit, has sent a letter to the institution\u2019s leaders demanding answers and \u201cremedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Jan. 3 letter is addressed to Harvard Corporation fellows, who oversee the school, and states Swain\u2019s 1993 book \u201cBlack Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress\u201d was the \u201csubject of plagiarism, use without citation, and unlawful copying\u201d by Gay.<\/p>\n
Gay resigned<\/a> as president of Harvard University on Tuesday amid nearly 50 accusations of plagiarism as well as criticisms over her apathy toward extreme campus antisemitism. She will remain<\/a> a professor at the Ivy League institution, earning $900,000 annually.<\/p>\n The legal letter calls Swain\u2019s book \u201ca seminal work on Black representation in Congress\u201d and notes it has been cited in two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.<\/p>\n \u201cAccordingly, Dr. Swain is entitled to certain rights and remedies arising from the prohibited use of its content,\u201d stated the letter<\/a>, penned by her attorneys. \u201cThrough its acts, omissions, and public statements surrounding the use of Dr. Swain\u2019s work, the Harvard Corporation is now invested in this matter and its subsequent outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n Swain<\/a>, a former Vanderbilt University law and political science professor, told The College Fix<\/em> she has been incredibly frustrated to learn of the plagiarism, and called Gay a \u201cserial plagiarizer.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPart of my complaint with her is not just the two places in which she lifted language,\u201d Swain said in a Wednesday afternoon telephone interview. \u201cIt has to do with her trying to refute what I was saying, but not really citing the work and engaging the work in the way that scholars do.\u201d<\/p>\n Gay, in an op-ed<\/a> in The New York Times<\/em> on Wednesday, denied all plagiarism allegations.<\/p>\n \u201cMy critics found instances in my academic writings where some material duplicated other scholars\u2019 language, without proper attribution,\u201d she wrote, adding she requested a few corrections for some of the claims.<\/p>\n \u201cI have never misrepresented my research findings, nor have I ever claimed credit for the research of others,\u201d Gay wrote. \u201cMoreover, the citation errors should not obscure a fundamental truth: I proudly stand by my work and its impact on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n Swain told The Fix<\/em> that not only did Gay lift her ideas without credit — Gay worked to refute Swain\u2019s arguments without proper credit.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is not a problem with you challenging someone else’s work or affirming it or expanding it — but you need to engage the work and cite it,\u201d Swain said.<\/p>\n In a Dec. 17 Wall Street Journal<\/em> op-ed<\/a>, Swain argued Gay\u2019s \u201cscholarship on black congressional representation, electoral districting and descriptive representation builds on terrain where I plowed the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen scholars aren\u2019t cited adequately or their work is ignored, it harms them because academic stature is determined by how often other researchers cite your work,\u201d Swain\u2019s op-ed stated.<\/p>\n \u201cMs. Gay had no problem riding on the coattails of people whose work she used without proper attribution. Many of those whose work she pilfered aren\u2019t as incensed as I am. They are elites who have benefited from a system that protects its own.\u201d<\/p>\n While Swain is now an outspoken Christian conservative, at the time she wrote \u201cBlack Faces, Black Interests\u201d in the mid-1990s she said she was a Democrat just trying to produce good scholarship.<\/p>\n She told The Fix<\/em> she worked incredibly hard to get where she is today and will not allow the plagiarism to go unchallenged because it could set a horrible new standard.<\/p>\n “I’ve had people tell me because I am black and she is black I should let it go,” Swain said. “<\/span>If Harvard gets away with redefining plagiarism and establishing a lower standard for black scholars — or any scholar — that is not good for education in America.”<\/span><\/p>\n “It will not only impact every college and university but K-12 education. It takes us down a further path that most of us are trying to figure out a way to get out of,” she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Harvard Corporation’s investigation into Gay\u2019s scholarship dismissed the lifted concepts and wording as \u201cinadequate citation\u201d that did not rise to the level of academic misconduct, the New York Post<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several leading progressive black scholars have blamed racism<\/a> for Gay’s downfall.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are acting like liberal Democrat politicians,\u201d Swain told The Fix<\/em>. \u201cThey are taking stances that seem to be political, that blame conservatives, and there is so much wrong with that picture.”<\/p>\n \u201cThe people that are questioning her are people trying to fight for academic integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n