Posted on 02/14/2005 1:00:44 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado professor under fire for saying the victims of the 9-11 terrorist attacks were not innocent, is now under the microscope for the accuracy of his academic writings, including possibly plagiarizing material.
"If he is going to get fired, it is going to be for making up data, and that's one thing you can't get away with in the academic community," Thomas Brown, assistant professor of sociology at Lamar University in Texas, told the Denver Post.
Critics such as John LaVelle, a University of New Mexico law professor, say essays by Churchill contain passages "almost identical" to those of other authors, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
That allegation was actually made in a 1999 essay by LaVelle published in "Wicazo Sa Review," an American Indian studies journal.
In his paper, LaVelle compared sections of Churchill's work to parts of essays by other writers, showing the wording to be "substantially the same," reports the News.
LaVelle's criticism says Churchill invents or distorts facts, a claim repeated by other scholars.
"He just makes things up," Guenter Lewy, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts, told the News.
Lewy says Churchill's assertion that the U.S. Army intentionally spread smallpox among American Indians by distributing infected blankets in 1837 is false.
As an example of possible plagiarism, the News published two similar passages from Churchill and his ex-wife, M. Annette Jaimes, who later changed her name to Jaimes Guerrero.
Churchill: The Indian Citizenship Act greatly confused the circumstances even of many of the blooded and federally-certified Indians, and imposed legal obligations of citizenship upon them. As for the noncertified, mixed-blood people, their status was finally "clarified": they had been absorbed into the American mainstream at the stroke of the congressional pen. Despite the act having technically left certified Indians occupying the status of citizenship within their own indigenous nation as well as the U.S. (a "dual form" of citizenship so awkward as to be sublime), the juridicial door had been opened by which the weight of Indian obligations would begin to accrue more to the U.S. than to themselves.– "Struggle for the Land," a volume of essays by Ward Churchill published in 1993
Jaimes: The Indian Citizenship Act greatly confused the circumstances even of many of the blooded and federally certified Indians insofar as it was held to bear legal force, and to carry legal obligations, whether or not any given Indian or group of Indians wished to be a U.S. citizen. As for the host of non-certifed, mixed-blood people residing in the U.S., their status was finally "clarified": they had been definitionally absorbed into the American mainstream at the stroke of the congressional pen. And, despite the fact that the act technically left certified Indians occupying the status of citizenship in their own indigenous nation as well as in the U.S. (a "dual form" of citizenship so awkward as to be sublime), the juridicial door had been opened by which the weight of Indian obligations would begin to accrue to the U.S. than to themselves.
– An essay by M. Annette Jaimes included in the volume "The State of Native America" published in 1992
Churchill reportedly cited Jaimes in a footnote, but did not put the material in quotes, nor did he refer to the similarity of the wording.
Churchill used extensive footnotes in his work, said to stretch for many pages.
"He's impeccable on his sources and known for his empirical and archival-based methodologies," Arturo Aldama, a professor with Churchill in the CU ethnic-studies department told the Post. "Whether you agree with it or not, it's always been praised for academic rigor. He has 400 footnotes per chapter."
But LaVelle was critical of the content of the footnotes.
"By researching those copious endnotes, however, the discerning reader will discover that, notwithstanding all the provocative sound and fury rumbling through his essays, Churchill's analysis overall is sorely lacking in historical/factual veracity and scholarly integrity," LaVelle wrote.
Controversy erupted around Churchill last month, when one of his essays made it into the national spotlight.
Written shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, it describes the thousands of American victims who died in the World Trade Center inferno as "little Eichmanns" – a reference to notorious Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann – who were perpetuating America's "mighty engine of profit." They were destroyed, he added, thanks to the "gallant sacrifices" of "combat teams" that successfully targeted the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon.
Churchill resigned his position as head of the Colorado University ethnic studies program but kept his $96,000 per year teaching post. He has steadfastly refused to apologize for his comments.
He's also come under fire for claiming an American Indian heritage, training terrorists, and meeting with Libya's Moammar Gadhafi in the 1980s when the U.S. had banned travel there.
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WHY has Gov. Owens NOT called in the FBI to Investigate WHY
this University has Failed to check the credentials of those it hires. In 1980 Churchill filed a resume that should
have been checked. in 1994 real Indians protested to the University about Churchill and were suppressed. He has LIED about his supposed ancestry, and about his military service and training,and is a plagarist WHY has Nobody called the FBI to help the Regents do their job?
This guy has been getting by for years on one 'factoid' --that he is Big Chief Running Fraud.
bump!
Yikes he even put quotations in the exact same place. What are the odds of that happening???
Some of the links to Free Republic in this article do not work.
If you investigated the credentials of of the profs at any American university you'd have a blood bath. For starters, every "___________ Studies" program would be gutted.
"If you investigated the credentials of of the profs at any American university you'd have a blood bath. For starters, every "___________ Studies" program would be gutted."
SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD START!!! ;)
Fire him, if he dares to sue all this stuff will come out in court. This is classic cowardice by Academia.
Churchill's beginning to stink like a rotten fist out in the sun for several days. What's most interesting is how he was hired and given tenure. Owens ought to be seriously investigating the people who made such bad decisions. The scandal goes well beyond Churchill to the entire academic establsihment that hired him and tenured him.
Chruchill was one of two "Native Americans" interviewed for the position at CU. The real Native American who did not get the job may have a heck of a case.
AMEN to that!
It really chaps me that there is even such a thing as "____ studies."
When I got my degree, a guy from the Sociology department was also receiving his. He seemed like a nice enough chap. I can't recall his name, but he was obviously Indian - long hair, beads, the whole bit. His dissertation was about the special problems that Native Americans face. I do not know the extent to which his own Navajo heritage carried weight in that field, but subsequent experience convinces me that it must have been considerable. How bogus! Scholars are supposed to be objective, but in "____ studies," one's own personal experience as a member of the ___ group is usually if not always used as the final authority to silence inconvenient dissenters.
Churchill's case should underline the fact that when somebody with a Master's from an institution other than a major research university can be full professor in a field because "he are one," that the field is itself bogus. Churchill has obviously traded on his non-existent status as a Native American to succeed. Try doing that in a real field of academic endeavor.
I cannot imagine the rage that Native Americans are probably now feeling toward Professor Fraud Churchill. If so, I cannot blame them. They have been exploited too much.
So...sees honest hard-working Americans as Nazis...claims to be an Indian and isn't...and it turns out he's a plagarist. The hits just keep on coming.
Quite possibly what would be in th eBESt interest of the
Republic--I would think.Don't have much use for the College boys and girls who think that piece of paper
means they are better than others.
That is seriously okay for lefties. Remember from their standpoint, it was okay that CBS aired forged memos because the false documents showed what CBS claimed was the "truth".
I like your typo! ;D
I could put in 1,400 footnotes per chapter, but that wouldn't make me a rigorous scholar if I'm penning garbage.
That would definitely count as plagiarism in one of my classes. No question about it.
This is just one paragraph; I wonder how often and widely he does this sort of thing? If this is typical of what he does, then he's definitely toast.
this is a re-post.
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