Education

Harvard’s ‘Diversity’ Chief Accused Of Over 40 Instances Of Plagiarism

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Harvard University’s chief diversity and inclusion officer allegedly plagiarized some of her academic works, according to a complaint filed Monday with the university.

The complaint alleged that Sherri Charleston plagiarized 40 passages throughout her works, including in her 2009 dissertation and her single peer-reviewed paper, The Washington Free Beacon first reported. Charleston allegedly did not properly cite almost a dozen scholars when quoting or paraphrasing in her dissertation, and she is accused of re-using a portion of a 2012 study published by her husband, LaVar Charleston, in the peer-reviewed article, which was coauthored by LaVar, according to the complaint.

LaVar Charleston is the deputy vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to his webpage.

“The 2014 paper appears to be entirely counterfeit,” Peter Wood, head of the National Association of Scholars, told the Beacon. “This is research fraud pure and simple.”

The peer-reviewed article, which was also co-authored with now-dean of Michigan State University’s College of Education Jerlando Jackson, uses the same methodology, description and findings as a 2012 study by her husband, according to the complaint.

Sherri Charleston began her role as the chief diversity and inclusion officer in August 2020 and she is described as “one of the nation’s leading experts in diversity,” according to Harvard’s website. Her work involves “translating diversity and inclusion research into practice for students, staff, researchers, postdoctoral fellows and faculty of color.”

Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned on Jan. 2 following a slew of plagiarism allegations and her refusal to say whether calls for genocide violated the university’s code of conduct during a Dec. 5 congressional hearing.

Gay submitted corrections to some of her scholarly work on Dec. 15 involving “quotation marks and citations” and later requested three additional corrections. The Harvard Corporation, the school’s highest governing board, did not make any public statements about the allegations until Dec. 12, despite being made aware of them in late October.

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce is currently investigating whether Harvard looked “the other way” from Gay’s alleged plagiarism.

Harvard and the Office for Equity, Diversion, Inclusion and Belonging did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.