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The Gay Affair: Harvard, Plagiarism, and the Death of Academic Integrity Paperback – January 2, 2025


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Claudine Gay's resignation on January 2, 2024, as Harvard University's first Black president, after only six months on the job, sent shock waves across the world. However, it did not shock anyone closely following her situation. Gay stepped down less than a month after giving disastrous testimony in Congress about her university's laissez-faire approach to protecting Jews on campus from rising expressions of antisemitism that followed Hamas's terrorist attacks on Israel. A double whammy occurred when it was reported that Gay had committed serial plagiarism involving her 1997 PhD dissertation completed while a student at Harvard and in other published works.

Among those whose work Gay pilfered was Dr. Carol Swain, author of the ground-breaking 1993 book Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress. In The Gay Affair, Dr. Swain offers a candid, compelling narrative about Gay, Harvard, academic plagiarism, and how she (Swain) was rebuffed and threatened financially when she attempted to seek a legal remedy from Harvard officials. For an insider's look into the world of elite institutional academia and how corners often get cut, Swain's The Gay Affair is a no-nonsense must-read.

The Gay Affair is the 13th book Dr. Carol M. Swain has either authored or co-authored. In addition to Black Faces, Black Interests, her other notable works include The New White Nationalism in America, Be The People, Black Eye for America, and The Adversity of Diversity. Dr. Swain is a retired university professor who was tenured at Vanderbilt and Princeton Universities. She resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Book Life Review:

"Swain (author of The Adversity of Diversity, among other titles) takes aim at academic plagiarism at elite universities by telling the story of Harvard President Claudine Gay's resignation in early 2024-and Swain's personal history with the accusations of plagiarism facing Gay. As Swain frames it, Gay, Harvard's first Black president, rose through the ranks of academia with a label of "brilliant" that protected her work from scrutiny. Swain targets Harvard's commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (the topic of Swain's outraged previous book) initiatives as essential to Gay's success. She also charges, with detailed line-by-line comparisons, Gay with having incorporated into her 1997 dissertation, without credit, language and ideas from Swain's book Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress, winner of the 1994 Woodrow Wilson prize for the year's best book on government, politics, or international affairs.

The Gay Affair blends Swain's presentation of her case with polemic elements-she argues that Gay is both "a victim and a beneficiary of a system that picks and chooses winners and losers"-plus consideration of untested areas of copyright law, a diagnosis of "plagiaritis" in academia and its causes, and the unfairness of students being held to a higher standard than professors). As in other recent books, Swain-a professor of law and political science who retired from Vanderbilt amid clashes over DEI initiatives and other topics with progressive students and administrators-offers both academic rigor and a spirit of pained aggrievement, but this time with a lighter touch: The Gay Affair is in many ways a victory lap."

About the Author

Born into abject poverty in rural southwest Virginia, Dr. Carol Swain, a high school dropout, went on to earn five degrees. Holding a Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.S.L. from Yale, she also earned early tenure at Princeton and full professorship at Vanderbilt where she was professor of political science and a professor of law. Today she is a sought-after cable news contributor and guest expert, a best-selling author, and a prominent national speaker.In addition to having three Presidential appointments, Carol is a former Distinguished Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies with the Texas Public Policy Foundation who has also served on the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the 1776 Commission. An award-winning political scientist, cited three times by the U.S. Supreme Court, she has authored or edited 13 published books including the bestseller, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House and the timely The Adversity of Diversity: How the Supreme Court's Decision to Remove Race from College Admissions Will Doom Diversity Programs, and Countercultural Living: What Jesus Has to Say About Life, Marriage, Race, Gender, and Materialism.Ms. Swain is an expert on critical race theory, American politics, and race relations with television appearances that include BBC Radio and TV, CSPAN, ABC's Headline News, CNN, Fox News, Newsmax and more.In addition, she has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Epoch Times, the Financial Times, and USA Today.She is the founder and CEO of Carol Swain Enterprises, REAL Unity Training Solutions, Your Life Story for Descendants, and her non-profit, Be The People.Carol is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She resides in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Carol M. Swain
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Carol M. Swain PhD: Born into abject poverty in rural southwest Virginia, Dr. Carol Swain, a high school dropout, went on to earn five degrees. Holding a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.S.L. from Yale, she also earned early tenure at Princeton and full professorship at Vanderbilt where she was professor of political science and a professor of law. Today she is a sought-after cable news contributor, a best-selling author, a prominent national speaker, and an entrepreneur.

In addition to having three Presidential appointments, Dr. Swain is a former Distinguished Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies with the Texas Public Policy Foundation who has also served on the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the 1776 Commission. Currently, she is a Senior Fellow with the Institute for Faith and Culture.

An award-winning political scientist, cited three times by the U.S. Supreme Court, she has authored or edited 12 published books including the bestseller, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House, Countercultural Living: What Jesus Has to Say About Life, Marriage, Race, Gender, and Materialism and the Adversity of Diversity: How the Supreme Court’s Decision to Remove Race from College Admissions Criteria will Doom Diversity Programs

Dr. Swain is an expert on civil rights laws, critical race theory, American politics, evangelicalism, and race relations. Her television appearances include BBC Radio and TV, CSPAN, ABC’s Headline News, CBS, CNN, Fox News, Newsmax and more.

In addition, she has published opinion pieces in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Epoch Times, the Financial Times, and USA Today.

She is the founder and CEO of Carol Swain Enterprises, REAL Unity Training Solutions, Your Life Story for Descendants, and her non-profit, Be the People.

Dr. Swain is a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She resides in Nashville, Tennessee.