a question of integrity

So, forgive the circumspect nature of this post, and its lack of links, but a bit of a personal attack has been posted online and sharkskin is totally reeling.   Basically, one of the journals with which I am affiliated received an email about a month ago from a young grad student who believed she had been plagiarized by an author in the magazine, and, now, after the issue had been handled internally (the attack found to be unfounded), the affronted grad student has launched a public and personal attack at all involved.

But, first to give a bit more background: Taking into consideration both the serious nature of the charge as well as the sometimes precarious position of grad students in the academy, I responded, with what I believed was a professional but compassionate email asking the grad student to send the specific materials, in English (as the website on which the allegedly plagiarized materials were published is mostly not in English), and assuring her that we would handle this objectively and promptly.  After much going over of both the allegedly plagiarized and allegedly plagiarizing articles, our editors determined, quite fairly, the grad student's claims to be baseless.  It seemed to be more a case of two people writing about the same performances, but from entirely different perspectives.

Time passes... everyone moves on, or so we thought.  But yesterday I found a frankly libelous post concerning this incident, in which the grad student publicly accuses the author and personally attacks the editors--in a not particularly professional or compassionate way.

What I find most upsetting about all of this is that I do, in fact, feel for this grad student.  Not that I believe she was plagiarized--not at all, in fact--but rather that she clearly feels slighted because of her position as a student.   However, in her post she excerpted parts of my email to her--choosing to excise any possible lines that reflect a generosity on my part, including the segment in which I identify myself as a grad student sensitive to her concern.  What I find most strange is that in her feminist attack on the mag's male editors, she reduces me, the one woman she had email contact with to just an academic cog in the machinery--and, without knowing anything of my ethnicity or nationality, refers to me, among others, as a 'dumb American.'  Yes, I am an American, and I am white, hyperaware of the fact that despite my liberal views, I partake of the same privileges as those who vote Republican and support the troops.  To conjure Richard Schechner, I am simultaneously "not" and "not not" that American.  That said, to assume nationality, to assume anything about someone with whom one has only had virtual correspondence, is a pretty big leap.  To have been implicated in all of this, if not accused myself, is very unsettling to me, but the whole situation does bring up a potentially productive question in the performance community.

Susan Sontag once wrote, "Whatever the artist does is in (usually unconscious) alignment with something else already done, producing a compulsion to be continually checking his situation, his own stance against those of his predecessors and contemporaries."  This is true not only for the artist, but for the writer as well--and for the writer, citation is the most formidable tool we have against this sort of accusation.  Yet, in a globalized and digitized culture, it is inevitable that writers will take on the same subject matter, and that their opinions and criticisms may recall someone else's--even if they've never read or even heard of the other.

The point of this post is to open up a conversation about not so much plagiarism but unconscious overlaps in the constant quest for the 'new.'  And, more so, to drop the proverbial bomb: Is there anything *new* anymore?

Sharkskin girl's advice for the day:  Include this little addendum to your email signature.  Really.

This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient.  Any review or distribution by others is strictly prohibited.  If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and delete all copies.

Comments

[sharkskin girl]

Dear Inspired,

I think she would be honored. Perhaps the following brief checklist on "When to Attack Someone for Plagiarizing My Work" will be helpful:

1) If someone has written about something you have already written about (regardless of whomever wrote it first)

2) Referring to 1, if what that someone has written is absolutely antithetical to, and in fact has nothing to do with, what you have written

3) Referring to 1 and 2, if that someone, in any article they've ever written, regardless of whether it concerns topics you've written about, refers to a theorist that you, in, again, any context, have also referred to (*even better if the theorist is a well-known and -read one, such as Foucault, Kant, etc.)

4) If you have a website on which to post your accusations (*this point is not dependent on points 1, 2, or 3).

Plagiaristically yours,
sharkskin

[ed. note: this rather flippant comment is not to lessen the significance of plagiarism or in fact to endorse it in any way. it is simply to make the commenter, i.e. sharkskin, feel witty.]

[Inspired]

Do you think she'd notice if I used her screeds as a starting point for the day I decide to accuse someone of plagiarism?

[sharkskin girl]

amused-
thanks for your post and clever sleuthing. i agree entirely re the impact on the accused scholar. the decision re how to handle the grad student's libelous posting is up to the scholar, though i somewhat suspect she will just let this fade away rather than antagonize a possibly unstable person. and who knows, perhaps this will result in a few more people reading the journal!
best,
sharkskin

[Amused]

After reading this woman's incoherent and mildly psychotic accusations, I think the one "new" thing about this situation is the online b.s. that someone will pull to get attention. Her arguments about where the so-called "plagiarism" occurs are laughable. Based on the excerpts of her own work that she provides, I can't imagine who can stand to read through one of her essays in its entirety, let alone plagiarize it.

The sad thing is that the other scholar's reputation is being impacted online. This ruckus won't hurt the TDR people involved, but it's the first hit that comes up on Google for the female academic. I advise TDR to locate the hosting service for that woman's website and ask them to pull the plug. Contacting her university about her libelous statements (if indeed she is affiliated with one) may not be a bad idea.

But surely these responses are the ones she seeks? Maybe ignoring her is better: anyone who reads her accusations will be able to see she is a nut.

[sharkskin girl]

sympathetic-
thanks so much for this thoughtful comment. and thanks for assuring that my online rep is untarnished! it is a difficult position for all involved, i think, and an important lesson. ironically enough i came across jonathan lethem's "the ecstasy of influence: a plagiarism" from feb 07 harper's shortly after all of this... which doesn't exactly lessen the vitriol of the grad student's attack, but does speak to the larger issue of the overlap of ideas and its significance to creativity.

and my birthday was completely unburdened and fabulously relaxing!

best,
sharkskin

[Sympathetic]

Sorry to hear about this accusation, Sharkskin. I tried to google your name and "dumb American," but found no results. The grad student's attack seems to have gone unnoticed in terms of online rankings.

It's true: no good deed goes unpunished. Sometimes you think you are helping someone out, but it turns out they have problems which might best be described as "psychological." In these cases, it is best to protect yourself and redirect the inquiry to higher authorities. (Of course you can rarely tell who's going to turn into an abusive creep until its too late).

In any case, happpy birthday!! Don;t let this incident gt you down.