Neri Oxman, the wife of Bill Ackman, who accused Claudine Gay of plagiarism, has been accused of plagiarism in her dissertation amid the upheaval at Harvard University over Claudine Gay’s recent departure. Business Insider published the claims this afternoon.
Oxman has been a tenured professor at MIT since 2017, where she earned her PhD in 2010. Several parts in Oxman’s dissertation appear to be plagiarized, according to Business Insider, since they employ straight excerpts from sources without quotation marks.
According to reports, Oxman stole literature from 1998 by two Israeli professors, Steve Winer and H. Daniel Wagner, in her 2010 dissertation. Oxman’s dissertation also reportedly copied content from two distinct essays published in 1995 and 2006 by NYU historian Peder Anker. She is also accused of stealing content from a book written by German scientist Claus Mattheck in 1998.
According to Business Insider, Oxman plagiarized one paragraph from Mattheck without acknowledgment or quote. According to the requirements established in the MIT Handbook, those examples purportedly constitute plagiarism. Neri Oxman, in turn, replied to the charges on social media.
The claims are hilarious, given Oxman’s spouse, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who has taken a tough position against similar academic gaffes involving former Harvard University president Claudine Gay in recent weeks.
Following Claudine Gay’s congressional testimony on anti-Semitism at Harvard on December 5, 2023, conservative media commentators joined Ackman, a key Harvard benefactor, in calling for Gay’s resignation.
Right-wing journalists like Chris Brunet, Aaron Sibarium, and Christopher Rufo intensified the demands when they discovered evidence that Claudine Gay plagiarized sections of her PhD dissertation from 2010. The claims were utilized by Rufo and The Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium to incite hostility toward Harvard’s first Black president.
After it was published, AN amended the piece to reflect Neri Oxman’s social media response.
