Harvard president Claudine Gay accused of 40 plagiarism instances in new complaint

Harvard University President Claudine Gay has been accused of more than 40 additional accusations of plagiarising other people’s work. 

According to a 37-page document obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Gay, a political scientist, allegedly quoted or paraphrased authors without proper attribution in her academic works. 

The outlet reported that it independently verified the veracity of the accusations along with the identity of the author — a respected professor at another university reportedly said requesting anonymity.

“[I]t is impossible that your office has already reviewed the entirety of these materials, as many … have not been previously reported or submitted,” the complaint, which was filed with Harvard on Tuesday, reads.

Earlier this month, the plagiarism accusations against Gay surfaced when she was accused of lifting other scholars’ works in her 1997 doctoral thesis and that four papers published between 1993 and 2017 did not have proper attributions.

Carol Swain, a former political science professor at Vanderbilt University, said Gay copied sections of her 1993 book, “Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress,” as well as an article published in 1997 titled, “Women and Blacks in Congress: 1870-1996.” 

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She added in an essay for the Wall Street Journal: “Ms. 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’t as incensed as I am. They are elites who have benefited from a system that protects its own.”

In a statement to the Boston Globe, Gay has vehemently defended her academic rigor, saying: “I stand by the integrity of my scholarship. Throughout my career, I have worked to ensure my scholarship adheres to the highest academic standards.”