{"id":1418,"date":"2025-02-06T06:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T06:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2025-02-06T16:28:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T16:28:26","slug":"magdalen-with-the-smoking-flame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1418","title":{"rendered":"Magdalen with the Smoking Flame"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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We have described in an earlier blog posting the sad yet inspiring case of Magdalen Connolly<\/a> The matter was extensively discussed in the Times Higher Educational Supplement<\/em> by Wyn Evans<\/a> and in the Daily Telegraph<\/em> by Poppy Wood<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Briefly, Magdalen Connolly introduced ground-breaking concepts related to a Judaeo-Arabic text, yet one of her mentors took credit for them without proper recognition. The most troubling aspect of this situation is that the infringement was committed by a mentor, someone whose role is to guide and support students. When an advisor steals a student\u2019s ideas, it directly contradicts the core mission of universities to foster and nurture future scholars. Sadly, such incidents are not rare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, Dr. Connolly lodged an official complaint with Cambridge University, expecting a prompt resolution that would satisfy both sides. However, she soon faced one of the more distressing aspects of that institution \u2014 the excessive delays in handling and concluding staff complaints by its Human Resources department. The investigation dragged on for <\/strong>four years.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime, Magdalen Connolly took Cambridge University to an Employment Tribunal. As plagiarism is not illegal, she sued under age discrimination legislation, alleging that younger researchers are particularly affected by the theft of ideas by senior academics. Distressingly, she lost. By then, she had health difficulties exacerbated by stress. She left academia for a less baneful environment. (The case was generously taken on a no win-no fee basis by her lawyer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very recently, the Daily Mail has covered the case as well, with a different slant. The Mail’s title is “Top Cambridge University academic is guilty of plagiarising work from her PhD student<\/a>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the article, her case is presented as a win. We are very glad that the newspaper chose that approach, because Magdalen’s courage and determination did indeed expose both the common plagiarism at Cambridge University and the name of her plagiariser — given in court as Dr Esther-Miriam Wagner<\/a>, now Director of the Woolf Institute<\/a> and Fellow of St Edmunds College.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior manager at Cambridge University was seen smirking about the Employment Tribunal win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are not so sure. The destruction of a young researcher is nothing much to brag about. The Employment Tribunal laid bare the lack of care shown by the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies<\/a> as well as the slowness and casual indifference of the Human Resources department<\/a>. It’s not that great for a University to be admitting in a public arena that one of its senior researchers stole from a student. You can win an Employment Tribunal yet still earn widespread revulsion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small wonder Cambridge University is tumbling down the rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have described in an earlier blog posting the sad yet inspiring case of Magdalen Connolly The matter was extensively discussed in the Times Higher Educational Supplement by Wyn Evans and in the Daily Telegraph by Poppy Wood last year. Briefly, Magdalen Connolly introduced ground-breaking concepts related to a Judaeo-Arabic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions\/1440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}