Leftist academics circle the wagons after another Harvard race obsessive is called out for plagiarism



Another race obsessive on the faculty at Harvard University was outed as a likely plagiarist last week.

Rather than acknowledge that assistant sociology professor Christina Cross may have wrongfully passed off the work of others as her own or that Harvard might be intellectually bankrupt, Cross' colleagues have cried racism and circled the wagons.

Quick background

Cross, an assistant professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate of the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, is the latest race obsessive at Harvard University exposed as a potential plagiarist.

Claudine Gay resigned her post in disgrace on Jan. 2 after nearly 50 plagiarism complaints were filed against her, implicating nearly half of her published works along with her doctoral thesis.

Later that same month, affirmative action expert Sherri Ann Charleston, the university's chief DEI officer, was slapped with a complaint identifying 40 examples of alleged plagiarism in two of her academic works.

In February, Harvard Extension School administrator Shirley R. Greene was accused of 42 instances of plagiarism in her 2008 University of Michigan dissertation.

Blaze News previously reported that a complaint was filed this month with Harvard's office of research integrity against Cross, claiming her work contains multiple instances of plagiarism, including "verbatim plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, uncited paraphrasing, and uncited quotations from other sources."

Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo detailed the complaint for City Journal, noting Cross has been accused of appropriating "an entire paragraph nearly verbatim from a paper by Stacey Bosick and Paula Fomby — the latter of whom was her dissertation adviser — without citing the source or placing verbatim language in quotations" in her 2019 dissertation.

Cross also allegedly plagiarized another full paragraph from Bosick and Fomby elsewhere in the paper as well as the ideas of others without attribution.

'Professors for plagiarism!'

Fomby, who served on Cross' dissertation committee, along with dozens of sociologists from various academic institutions, released a statement Thursday, expressing deep concern "about this false allegation of research miscondudct [sic]."

"It's not simply that Dr. Cross's writings do not constitute plagiarism," continued the statement. "Rather, her description of a large public dataset in this standardized way is simply good research practice - helping to ensure replicability and transparency."

The Manhattan Institute fellow replied, "Professors for plagiarism!"

@pamela_herd Professors for plagiarism!
— (@)

On Monday, Harvard's Department of Sociology similarly released a statement defending Cross.

"We are deeply disturbed by the false allegations of plagiarism made against our colleague Christina Cross. The allegations are absurd," said the statement. "The claim that may sound most serious involves a description of a widely used dataset, in which Dr. Cross describes its features in the terms used by the people who assembled it – in the most accurate terms possible."

The sociology department suggested further that Cross' race may have been a motivating factor behind the complaint.

"We find these bogus claims to be particularly troubling in the context of a series of attacks on Black women in academia with the clear subtext that they have no place in our universities," continued the statement. "We are fortunate to have [Cross] on our faculty, and she has our full and unalloyed support."

The department appears to have embraced the desperate line of defense appealed to on exit by Claudine Gay and by other leftists since, namely that the effort to combat plagiarism is "fueled by racial animus."

Blaze News previously noted that Heba Gowayed, a leftist associate professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College, similarly suggested that Cross' scholarship had been reviewed "solely because she's Black."

Gowayed added, "It's KKK level s**t."

Georgetown University professor Don Moynihan claimed that the scrutinies of Cross and other academics by Rufo and others "are examples of backlash, of a post George Floyd Politics."

Marcy Carlson, a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, defended Cross and amplified Moynihan's attempt at narrative curation, writing, "Describing a well-known national public data set in similar words to another paper is not plagiarism!"

Rufo responded, "They are openly defending the violation of their own written policies."

University of Wisconsin professor argues that lifting entire passages verbatim from another paper \u201cis not plagiarism.\u201d They are openly defending the violation of their own written policies.
— (@)

The Journal of Marriage and Family, an academic journal published by the National Council of Family Relations, also leaned into the racial framing of the plagiarism complaint against Cross, tweeting, "We condemn the contemptible attacks aimed at undermining and threatening scholars focused on race and racism, in particular Black women academics. We support and stand with our valued colleague Dr. Cross."

Cross happens to be a member of the journal's editorial board.

Rufo was ready with another pointed response: "Academic journal openly defends plagiarism, arguing that exposing academic misconduct by 'Black women' is equivalent to 'threatening scholars focused on race.' They have replaced integrity with intersectionality. The standards are gone."

Rufo also refuted the racism suggestion, tweeting, "For the record, I have asked my source to also search the academic work of white scholars in grievance departments at Harvard and, thus far, they have not turned up plagiarism."

"This is not a large-scale study, but it's certainly plausible that lower academic standards for 'diversity and inclusion' hires could be correlated with a disparity in plagiarism and other forms of academic incompetence. This is, in one way, definitional to DEI hiring," added Rufo.

While the DEI critic went scorched-earth on those so-called scholars bending over backward to defend possible plagiarism, Cross thanked them.

Cross tweeted Monday, "Thank you, Dear Ones, for your relentless support. Moments like this show you how deeply loved and cared for you are...I'm going to keep doing what I do & do the best work I can do for the families whose stories, all too often, go untold."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Leftist professor 'shaking with rage' because her race-obsessive peer at Harvard was outed as possible plagiarist



Yet another race obsessive on faculty at Harvard University has been exposed for alleged plagiarism. While scholars might take satisfaction that grifters are being outed, this latest revelation concerning assistant sociology professor Christina Cross has left one leftist professor "actually shaking with rage."

Quick background

Harvard University has been rocked in recent months by plagiarism scandals.

Claudine Gay resigned her post as Harvard's 30th president on Jan. 2 after nearly 50 complaints had been filed against her, implicating seven of her 17 published works, including her 1997 doctoral thesis. Despite disgracing the institution, Gay was able to remain on faculty.

Later that month, affirmative action expert Sherri Ann Charleston, the university's chief diversity and inclusion officer, was slapped with a complaint identifying 40 examples of alleged plagiarism in two of her academic works, including her 2009 dissertation.

A complaint submitted to the chair of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences' professional conduct committee in February accused Harvard Extension School administrator Shirley R. Greene of 42 instances of plagiarism — just in her 2008 University of Michigan dissertation.

Critically plagiarized race studies

The latest Harvard plagiarism scandal concerns Christina Cross, an assistant professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate of the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Cross — like Greene, a University of Michigan graduate — is apparently an up-and-comer in the field of critical race studies.

In addition to having an impactful article attributed to her in the New York Times, which downplayed the importance of the two-parent family, Cross has enjoyed support from the National Science Foundation.

Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo reported Tuesday that a new complaint has been filed with Harvard's office of research integrity, this time against Cross, claiming her work suffers multiple instances of plagiarism, including "verbatim plagiarism, mosaic plagiarism, uncited paraphrasing, and uncited quotations from other sources."

Rufo indicated Cross did not respond to his request for comment.

According to Rufo, Cross is accused of lifting "an entire paragraph nearly verbatim from a paper by Stacey Bosick and Paula Fomby — the latter of whom was her dissertation advisor — without citing the source or placing verbatim language in quotations" in her 2019 dissertation.

The most serious allegation in the complaint is that Cross lifted an entire paragraph nearly verbatim from a paper by Stacey Bosick and Paula Fomby\u2014the latter of whom was her dissertation advisor\u2014without citing the source or placing verbatim language in quotations.
— (@)

In addition to apparently appropriating this entire paragraph without attribution, Cross allegedly plagiarized another full paragraph from Bosick and Fomby later in the paper, making only slight alterations. The complaint indicates that again, Cross failed to place the copied content in quotation marks or properly cite the actual authors.

Elsewhere in the dissertation and another paper, Cross allegedly lifts work from a number of sources, with minor word substitutions, without placing the copied language in quotation marks or properly citing the authors.
— (@)

Rufo stressed that "Cross cannot plead unfamiliarity with the source: Fomby served on Cross's dissertation committee, making the offense even more egregious."

Throughout the paper, the prospective CRT star ostensibly passed off others' ideas and language as her own. In one instance, she allegedly lifted a passage from a paper coauthored by another academic who served on her dissertation committee, again without using direct quotations.

When allegedly adopting real scholars' language as her own, it appears Cross, who has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants, did not even bother to change their unique use of parenthetical notes or italics.

Rufo noted that Cross' apparent trouble expressing herself without adopting the language of others is not limited to her dissertation. The complaint suggests that Cross also plagiarized in a 2018 paper published in the journal Population Studies.

The Manhattan Institute fellow highlighted that Cross' alleged improprieties constitute plagiarism according to Harvard's own definition. The "Harvard Guide to Using Sources" states that "it is considered plagiarism to draw any idea or any language from someone else without adequately crediting that source in your paper."

According the university's latest student handbook, "Students who, for whatever reason, submit work either not their own or without clear attribution to its sources will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College."

The fact that Gay, Greene, and Charleston have not been ousted bodes well for Cross, as it appears faculty and staff are not held to the same standard as students.

Literally shaking

Heba Gowayed, an associate professor of sociology at CUNY Hunter College, was devastated to hear about her peer's possible bout of plagiarism — not that Cross had allegedly engaged in it but that she had been caught.

Gowayed, a race-obsessive critic of Israel who has advocated for abolishing border policing and the U.S. citizenship exam, tweeted Thursday, "So today I sat down to work, to write a talk. I then got a text from a friend that a colleague is being attacked purely & solely because she's Black by the same assholes who attacked Claudine Gay. And now it's an hour and a half later. These months have seen so much stolen time."

While evidently more concerned about stolen time than stolen ideas, Gowayed exhausted more time persevering on Cross' forthcoming fall from grace.

"I am actually shaking with rage," continued Gowayed. "I cannot stop obsessing over it. It's KKK level s**t. And I don't know what to do about it. I've never been more worried about what the near future has in store."

@victorerikray I am actually shaking with rage. I cannot stop obsessing over it. It's KKK level shit. And I don't know what to do about it. I've never been more worried about what the near future has in store.
— (@)

Gowayed was not the only academic left trembling by Cross' outing as a likely plagiarist.

Karen Benjamin Guzzo, professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote, "I'm just absolutely livid about this."

@kbguzzo @hebagowayed @victorerikray @donmoyn The name's Karen, huh?
— (@)

Guzzo added, "What a nightmare for her to have to go through."

Gowayed and Guzzo were both apparently fired up by Georgetown University professor Don Moynihan's Substack article alleging that exposés such as Rufo's "are examples of backlash, of a post George Floyd Politics" aimed at feeding "a culture of fear within research institutions."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!