A Witch Hunt Is Targeting Black Harvard Faculty

A group of powerful conservatives have started a plagiarism witch hunt. Their targets? Black, female faculty, many of whom study race.

Right-wing activists have levied new plagiarism accusations on a monthly basis. In Dec., conservative activist Christopher F. Rufo and Christopher Brunet reported on accusations against former Harvard University President Claudine Gay. Then, in Jan., the conservative Washington Free Beacon covered a complaint filed against Sherri A. Charleston, Harvard’s Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer. In Feb., anonymous bad actors accused Harvard Extension School administrator Shirley R. Greene of plagiarism. And finally in March, Rufo reported on allegations against Harvard assistant professor of Sociology Christina J. Cross.

Conservatives have emphasized that all four of the accused are Black women.

“Let’s not ignore the pattern,” Rufo wrote on X. “This is the fourth black female CRT/DEI scholar to be accused of plagiarism at Harvard.”

Others have pounced on these allegations, arguing that they provide evidence these women were diversity hires in the first place. U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) took to X and argued that Gay “got her job not through merit, but because she checked a box.”

These racially-motivated allegations aren’t just directed at Harvard faculty. Recently, Alade S. McKen, the Chief DEI Officer at Columbia’s medical center, and LaVar J. Charleston, the Chief Diversity Officer at the University Wisconsin-Madison, have also been accused of plagiarism. Both are Black.

Clearly, the right has an agenda: crafting a narrative that Black academics, particularly women and those who study race, disproportionately plagiarize.

But plagiarism has nothing to do with race, gender, or identity — rather, it’s a broad problem in academia. Since 2000, many professors from different backgrounds (including many white faculty members) who study a variety of fields have been accused of plagiarism. (The list is long: Robert L. Caslen, Blandina Cárdenas, Vanessa Ryan ’97, Erick C. Jones, Neri Oxman, Kathryn J. Edin, Edward J. Wegman, Susannah R. Dickinson, and so on.)

Frankly, it’s very troubling that the Harvard administration has let Rufo and his allies dominate the plagiarism conversation. The University has stuck its head in the sand, ignoring the gigantic bullseye on the backs of Black female faculty. It’s time to take back control.

The critical first step? Harvard should conduct a broad plagiarism review of the entire faculty. I believe that this review will at last set the story straight and reveal that plagiarism is an issue for many academics across demographics and disciplines — it’s not just a Black, female, DEI issue.

Modern software programs, such as iThenticate and Copyleaks (which is powered by artificial intelligence), make this review more feasible than ever. And although we might not be capable of finding all instances of plagiarism across faculty scholarship, Harvard could set filters to pick out the most egregious and easily verifiable instances of misconduct.

That said, the review would still be a substantial undertaking. Plagiarism detection software isn’t completely reliable, so humans would need to evaluate any identified issues.

“Vetting every publication from every academic over their career at a huge university like Harvard would take thousands of hours,” said Chris Caren, CEO of Turnitin, the company that runs iThenticate. And plagiarism researcher Debora Weber-Wulff estimated it would take five to six people working for two to three years to rigorously review the scholarship of all MIT professors.

But I suspect that these estimates are high — as large language models get more advanced, computation time and costs will cheapen.

Furthermore, plagiarism reviews are worth the resources — not just for Harvard, but for higher education institutions everywhere that can afford them. Rufo and hedge fund manager Bill A. Ackman ’88 have posted on X about supporting external plagiarism reviews of faculty at elite universities across the country, so it’s only a matter of time before more allegations surface.

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.

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.

Maya A. Bodnick is a Government concentrator in Mather House. Her column, “Forging Harvard’s Future,” appears bi-weekly on Tuesdays.