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Troll_Bait
Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Location: [T]eaching experience doesn't matter much. -Lee Young-chan (pictured)
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 Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:00 pm Post subject: Professor caught with fake degrees & she's KOREAN! |
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| Art luminary forged her academic credentials |
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2877949
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Shin Jeong-ah, a well known art history professor at Dongguk University, is one of the country�s better known art curators and experts.
A rising star in her field, Shin, 35, was about to add another title to her impressive resume on July 4 when she was named the artistic co-director of the 2008 Gwangju Biennale, Korea�s biggest arts event.
The official announcement was slated for Monday.
Only one problem. Shin has just been caught falsifying her academic records, including her claim to hold a doctorate from Yale University and two degrees from the University of Kansas.
Lee Sang-il, Dongguk�s dean of academic affairs, held a press conference yesterday on campus, �Yale University notified us that Shin has never registered with the school, let alone received a doctoral degree.�
The University of Kansas told Yonhap yesterday that Shin attended the school from 1992 to 1996, but did not graduate.
The university will take stern measures against Shin�s fraud, Lee said. It will also try to prevent the same thing from happening again.
Shin is not only a professor but she also oversees one of the county�s best known museums. As chief curator of the Sungkok Art Museum in central Seoul, Shin has hosted several major exhibitions, including a John Burningham 40th anniversary exhibition last year and a current show by American photographer William Wegman.
She would be the youngest art director of the Gwangju Biennale, if her appointment goes through.
The Gwangju event organizers, however, plan to hold a press conference today to revoke their initial decision.
Shin, who has been in Paris since suspicion over her background surfaced last week, plans to return to Korea on Friday, according to a source close to her.
The suspicion over her academic credentials surfaced when an official at Dongguk University told Yonhap the school had received a tip that Shin forged her academic records and submitted a fake doctoral dissertation when she applied to become a professor in 2005.
She claimed to have received a Ph.D. from Yale in 2005 and bachelor�s and master�s degrees from the University of Kansas before that.
The school said it belatedly found out that her dissertation about French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is almost identical to a previously published work by someone else.
Jang Jin-sung, a Seoul National University professor who graduated from the Department of Art History at Yale in 2004, told reporters Monday that Shin did not go to Yale.
Shin has denied the allegations.
�If I lied about my academic records, it would have been checked when the university was deciding to hire me,� she told the JoongAng Ilbo Monday from Paris.
According to Dongguk�s Lee, the school did not verify Shin�s bachelor�s and master�s degrees when she was hired. He said the school received a positive response at the time from Yale, but he did not elaborate on what that meant.
Around 700,000 people visited the 2006 Gwangju Biennale.
By Moon Gwang-lip Staff Writer/ Kwon Ho JoongAng Ilbo |
While I see this as a positive step in the right direction, I have some thoughts:
-- She was caught because she's very prominent. If she had had a lower profile, she could have easily slipped under the radar.
-- She's a woman. In this male-dominated, old-boys'-network society, how many male professors do you think will be caught and punished?
-- I'm pretty sure that only Korean professors will be investigated*, while teachers and instructors will be left alone. However, all foreigners, from "professors" down to hogwon serfs, are under the microscope.
* On the off-chance that academic credentials come under scrutiny, which I think is doubtful.
(Edited because of a silly mistake.)
Last edited by Troll_Bait on Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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genezorm
Joined: 01 Jul 2007
Location: Mokpo
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:01 pm Post subject: |
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| i think she probably lived in a western country.....that's why she was influenced to use a fake degree |
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Scotticus
Joined: 18 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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| I love how she said she had a degree from Yale and nobody thought, "hey, maybe we should check on this." I can understand if you falsify some degree from a random state school... but an Ivy League? How stupid is she? |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:09 pm Post subject: |
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I loved this comment from her:
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Shin has denied the allegations.
�If I lied about my academic records, it would have been checked when the university was deciding to hire me,� she told the JoongAng Ilbo Monday from Paris. |
So, because she provided a fake degree and got hired, the simple fact of her getting hired legitimates her lies? Wow. Just wow.
| genezorm wrote: |
| think she probably lived in a western country.....that's why she was influenced to use a fake degree |
That's right, it's obviously the fault of anybody but Korea or Koreans that a Korean pulled a scam in Korea. 
Dream on, pal, dream on. |
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in_seoul_2003
Joined: 24 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:32 pm Post subject: |
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I think they are all victims---victims of their obsessions with name-brand schools.
It makes her look bad but it makes her employers look worse. The work she did was good enough to make her "one of the better known experts and curators". Which means that:
1. You don't really need an IVY league diploma to do well
2. The idea that someone has an ivy league diploma is so enthralling that it makes their otherwise mediocre work look amazing.
Either way, she's made a mockery of THEIR sysytem.
If she's doing a good job, let her keep her job.
There was a thread not long ago about how Korea failing made the poster feel satisfied. I think I'm having one of those moments. |
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jdog2050
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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| genezorm wrote: |
| i think she probably lived in a western country.....that's why she was influenced to use a fake degree |
I think she's going to start wandering around Hongdae, flirting with Korean girls and getting donuts with them. |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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The suspicion over her academic credentials surfaced when an official at Dongguk University told Yonhap the school had received a tip that Shin forged her academic records and submitted a fake doctoral dissertation when she applied to become a professor in 2005.
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a TIP??? A FUCKING TIP????
Maybe they got the tip from a "google" source.
| Quote: |
| The school said it belatedly found out that her dissertation about French poet Guillaume Apollinaire is almost identical to a previously published work by someone else. |
Call me a fool but aren't most/all dissertations published? And if they are published, one has to wonder how a university doesn't, uhm, know that.
| Quote: |
| According to Dongguk�s Lee, the school did not verify Shin�s bachelor�s and master�s degrees when she was hired. He said the school received a positive response at the time from Yale, but he did not elaborate on what that meant. |
Yes, and why would he? If she had never registered OR graduated from Yale, certainly he couldn't elaborate on what he meant.
yeeeesh |
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JZer
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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Well, it just shows how much of a joke that Korean universities are. They don't even bother to check whether their professors graduated or not.
How often does Dangguk University hire an art professor? Is the administration there so lazy that they cannot bother to make a five minute phone call to Yale at 10PM at night? |
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normalcyispasse
Joined: 27 Oct 2006
Location: Yeosu until the end of February WOOOOOOOO
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:29 pm Post subject: |
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Wait, from the University of Kansas? My alma mater? That's not exactly a massively reputable art school.
I wonder if she actually ever attended KU. I used to be a nude model for the art school; I wonder if she's seen me naked. Hmm. |
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Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:34 pm Post subject: |
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| She's not in kansas anymore. |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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In a somewhat related story that broke less than two months ago:
Massive Corruption Scandal Rocks Korea's Art Community
A police investigation has revealed that many winners of the Grand Art Exhibition of Korea, the country's largest art contest, were chosen through bribery and corruption.
The shocking investigation involves 36 officials with the Korea Fine Arts Association (KFA), the country's leading arts organization, 20 art professor judges, and other influential organizations and individuals...
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705170012.html
The original article I read in (I think) the Korea Times was a lot more elaborate than the one linked to. I vaguely recall that it also mentioned fake degrees and artists submitting works and winning awards for works that were actually done by professional artists commisioned to do them ... |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Compunction Junction
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
Massive Corruption Scandal Rocks Korea's Art Community
A police investigation has revealed that many winners of the Grand Art Exhibition of Korea, the country's largest art contest, were chosen through bribery and corruption.
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It is absolutely insane that this type of thing is still called a "scandal" in korea. |
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mateomiguel
Joined: 16 May 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 7:51 pm Post subject: |
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| She should just say that its performance art, and that it comments on the metatextual meaning behind the relative significance of blah blah blah whatever and then she'll be a GENIUS! |
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in_seoul_2003
Joined: 24 Nov 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:35 pm Post subject: |
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| mateomiguel wrote: |
| She should just say that its performance art, and that it comments on the metatextual meaning behind the relative significance of blah blah blah whatever and then she'll be a GENIUS! |
Exactly!
She could title it:
"Das Ding/Art and Academia: An Intertextuality, or, how the significance of art is not the thing-in-itself but conditioned through the lenses of other social institutions."
A performance exhibition (2005-2007) by Shin Jeong-ah |
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philipjames
Joined: 03 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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Personally I have zero sympathy for anyone caught with a fake degree. And that goes double for foreigners teaching in Korea. They make us look bad. And those of us who have degrees, including graduate degrees, made significant sacrifices and went into significant debt to attain our degrees. We put in the time and paid with our sweat and blood. The more people caught with fake degrees the better. If I knew that a colleague was here on a bogus degree I'd turn him in in a moment.
As for Koreans. I remember at my university in Canada a Korean PHD had his doctorate taken back after they found that a whole chapter of his thesis had been lifted word for word from a lengthy article in a scholarly journal.  |
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