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Proceedings Start Against 'Sokal Squared' Hoax Professor
By Katherine Mangan January 07, 2019
Portland State University has started disciplinary proceedings against Peter
Boghossian, an assistant professor of philosophy who co-authored a series of
bogus research papers that parody what the authors dismiss as "grievance
studies."
The Oregon university's institutional review board concluded that
Boghossian's participation in the elaborate hoax had violated Portland
State's ethical guidelines, according to documents Boghossian posted online.
The university is considering a further charge that he had falsified data,
the documents indicate.
Last month Portland State's vice president for research and graduate
studies, Mark R. McLellan, ordered Boghossian to undergo training on
human-subjects research as a condition for getting further studies approved.
In addition, McLellan said he had referred the matter to the president and
provost because Boghossian's behavior "raises ethical issues of concern."
Boghossian and his supporters have gone on the offensive with an online
press kit that links to emails from Portland State administrators. It also
includes a video filmed by a documentary filmmaker that shows Boghossian
reading an email that asks him to appear before the institutional review
board in October. In the video, Boghossian discusses the implications of
potentially being found responsible for professional misconduct. He's
speaking with his co-authors, Helen Pluckrose, a self-described "exile from
the humanities" who studies medieval religious writings about women, and
James A. Lindsay, an author and mathematician.
"I think that they will do everything and anything in their power to get me
out," Boghossian says, "and I think this is the first shot in that."
"Criticism and open debate are the lifeblood of academia; they are what
differentiate universities from organs of dogma and propaganda."
Portland State officials said they could not discuss the details of the case
because it involves a personnel matter, but they did not dispute the
authenticity of the documents posted online.
The three authors, who describe themselves as leftists, spent 10 months
writing 20 hoax papers they submitted to reputable journals in gender, race,
sexuality, and related fields. Seven were accepted, four were published
online, and three were in the process of being published when questions
raised in October by a skeptical Wall Street Journal editorial writer forced
them to halt their project.
One of their papers, about canine rape culture in dog parks in Portland,
Ore., was initially recognized for excellence by the journal Gender, Place,
and Culture, the authors reported.
The hoax was dubbed "Sokal Squared," after a similar stunt pulled in 1996 by
Alan Sokal, then a physicist at New York University.
After their ruse was revealed, the three authors described their project in
an October article in the webzine Areo, which Pluckrose edits. Their goal,
they wrote, was to "to study, understand, and expose the reality of
grievance studies, which is corrupting academic research." They contend that
scholarship that tends to social grievances now dominates some fields, where
students and others are bullied into adhering to scholars' worldviews, while
lax publishing standards allow the publication of clearly ludicrous articles
if the topic is politically fashionable.
Since Boghossian was the only one of the trio working for a university, he
had the most to lose. In October, McLellan wrote to Boghossian, telling him
the university had decided to open an investigation into possible research
misconduct, according to the posted documents. "The specific
research-misconduct allegation I am asking the [institutional review]
committee to review is that you may have intentionally either falsified or
fabricated research data," McLellan wrote.
McLellan told Boghossian to turn over all research materials related to an
article titled "Expression of Concern: Human Reactions to Rape Culture and
Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks in Portland, Oregon." The article
was published in Gender, Place, and Culture, which later retracted it after
the author's identity couldn't be verified.
McLellan asked Boghossian to reveal any evidence that he had received
approval from the university's institutional review board for research
involving both human and animal behavior.
In November the investigating committee reported that the dog-park article
contained knowingly fabricated data and thus constituted research
misconduct. The review board also determined that the hoax project met the
definition for human-subjects research because it involved interacting with
journal editors and reviewers. Any research involving human subjects (even
duped journal editors, apparently) needs IRB approval first, according to
university policy.
"Your efforts to conduct human-subjects research at PSU without a submitted
nor approved protocol is a clear violation of the policies of your
employer," McLellan wrote in an email to Boghossian.
The decision to move ahead with disciplinary action came after a group of
faculty members published a letter in the student newspaper decrying the
hoax as "lies peddled to journals, masquerading as articles." These "lies"
are designed "not to critique, educate, or inspire change in flawed
systems," they wrote, "but rather to humiliate entire fields while the
authors gin up publicity for themselves without having made any scholarly
contributions whatsoever." Such behavior, they wrote, hurts the reputations
of the university as well as honest scholars who work there. "Worse yet, it
jeopardizes the students' reputations, as their degrees in the process may
become devalued."
Related Content
'Sokal Squared': Is Huge Publishing Hoax 'Hilarious and Delightful' or an
Ugly Example of Dishonesty and Bad Faith?
In a statement on Monday, McLellan said the university had finished its
investigation and communicated its findings to Boghossian, but he added that
the matter was supposed to be kept confidential.
"Research involving human subjects requires approval of PSU's Institutional
Review Board (IRB)," he wrote. That 15-member peer-review board ensures
compliance with federal policy for the protection of human subjects.
Meanwhile, within the first 24 hours of news leaking about the proceedings
against him, more than 100 scholars had written letters defending
Boghossian, according to his media site, which posted some of them.
Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology at Harvard University, was among
the high-profile scholars who defended him. "Criticism and open debate are
the lifeblood of academia; they are what differentiate universities from
organs of dogma and propaganda," Pinker wrote. "If scholars feel they have
been subject to unfair criticism, they should explain why they think the
critic is wrong. It should be beneath them to try to punish and silence
him."
Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, author, and professor emeritus
at the University of Oxford, had this to say: "If the members of your
committee of inquiry object to the very idea of satire as a form of creative
expression, they should come out honestly and say so. But to pretend that
this is a matter of publishing false data is so obviously ridiculous that
one cannot help suspecting an ulterior motive."
Sokal, who is now at University College London, wrote that Boghossian's hoax
had served the public interest and that the university would become a
"laughingstock" in academe as well as the public sphere if it insisted that
duping editors constituted research on human subjects.
One of Boghossian's co-author, Lindsay, urged him in the video they posted
to emphasize that the project amounted to an audit of certain sectors of
academic research. "People inside the system aren't allowed to question the
system? What kind of Orwellian stuff is that?" Lindsay asked.
Meanwhile, debate between those who view the hoax as a public service and
those who condemn it as fraud continues on Twitter.
This isn't the first time Portland State has investigated a scholar who
produced controversial work. Last year Bruce Gilley, a professor of
political science, created an uproar by writing an article that defended
colonialism.
A university spokesman confirmed that Portland State's diversity office had
opened an investigation into Gilley but denied it was politically motivated
or focused on the article.
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and
job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter
@KatherineMangan, or email her at [email protected].
Questions or concerns about this article? Email us or submit a letter to the
editor.