Designer and Architect Neri Oxman Accused of Plagiarism – Hyperallergic

American-Israeli designer, artist, and academic Neri Oxman allegedly plagiarized passages from Wikipedia, academic papers, and other scholarly sources in more than two dozen instances, including her doctoral dissertation, according to reports from Business Insider published on Thursday and Friday last week. The articles came out in short succession after the resignation of Harvard President Claudine Gay following national backlash against accusations of plagiarism against her led in part by Oxmans billionaire husband Bill Ackman.

In its first report, Business Insider found four instances in which Oxman allegedly violated the universitys academic integrity guidelines by omitting quotation marks around passages she had lifted from scholarly sources for her doctoral dissertation. The next day, the media outlet reported an additional 28 cases of plagiarism committed by Oxman, who allegedly copied material from Wikipedia, peer-reviewed academic papers, websites, and a textbook without attribution.

A former tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oxman is known as the founding director of MITs Mediated Matter a research group focusing on the field of material ecology or the crossover of computer engineering and biological design in order to strengthen the relationship between human-made and natural structures and environments. In 2020 and 2022, Oxmans work was the subject of solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, respectively.

Last Thursday, January 4, Oxman published a statement on X apologizing for the plagiarism, writing that she is committed to reviewing the missed citations and is requesting that MIT make any necessary corrections. She also used the post to promote her new New York City-based design company, Oxman. Oxman and MIT have not yet responded to Hyperallergics requests for comment.

Ackman, her spouse, also commented on the plagiarism accusations, decrying what he viewed as a lack of due process by Business Insider in posts on X, though he did not raise factual issues with the stories. The high-profile hedge fund managers comments quickly garnered scrutiny from users who pointed out his recent campaign to expel Gay from her position as Harvards president, as well as university leaders Sally Kornbluth of MIT and Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, in response to the congressional hearings on reported antisemitism at university campuses. After Gays resignation, Ackman further criticized the news that Gay would remain a highly paid faculty member on account of her serious plagiarism issues.

Responding to Ackmans criticism, a spokesperson forBusiness Insiders owner Axel Springer stated toSemaforthat although the reports on Oxmans alleged plagiarism have not been contested, the news outlet will review the processes around these stories to ensure that [its] standards as well as journalistic values have been upheld.

In recent years, Oxman and the institutions supporting her work have also been the subject of criticism for her acceptance of donations from convicted pedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Over two decades, Epstein gave $800,000 to the universitys MediaLab, including a gift of $125,000 to Oxmans lab in October 2015.

As part of my job at the Media Lab, I give presentations to sponsors and potential donors typically several times a week, Oxman said in a past statement, adding that she only met Epstein once along with other MIT faculty members during one of these presentations.

From Epsteins gifts to the Media Lab, my group received $125,000 with MITs requirement that it be kept confidential so as to not enhance his reputation by association with MIT, and with the understanding that he would not be considered a sponsor of our groups research or have any involvement in how the funds were spent. I regret having received funds from Epstein, and deeply apologize to my students for their inadvertent involvement in this mess, Oxman said.

At the time of the donation, Epstein was a registered sex offender and had previously served a 13-month sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Two years later, Oxman complied with instructions from MediaLabs then-director Joi Ito to send Epstein a marble sculpture along with a pair of gloves as a sign of appreciation for his donations, the Boston Globe reported in 2019. In another case of Ackman entangling himself in his Oxmans affairs, the billionaire reportedly raised concerns with Ito in an effort to keep Epsteins donations to Oxmans lab out of the public eye.

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Designer and Architect Neri Oxman Accused of Plagiarism - Hyperallergic