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“UNLV English professor Mustapha Marrouchi was fired last month after a university review found he plagiarized the works of 18 people.”

Wow. High roller. Only in Las Vegas.

Background here.

Margaret Soltan, December 2, 2014 7:15PM
Posted in: plagiarism

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11 Responses to ““UNLV English professor Mustapha Marrouchi was fired last month after a university review found he plagiarized the works of 18 people.””

  1. JND Says:

    OK. I’m just going to admit it. I think the following phrase in the story makes it funnier: “professor of post-colonial literature.”

  2. Dave Stone Says:

    So I wonder who the one professor is at UNLV who voted against firing . . .

  3. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Dave: You read my mind. I would LOVE to read that dissenting opinion.

  4. Anonymous Says:

    According to the CHE, the lone dissenter argued that he “be suspended for a year and required to forfeit six years’ worth of pay increases, apologize to his victims, undergo ethics training, and submit to plagiarism-software analysis any scholarly work he intends to submit to publishers over the next three years.” So not much of a dissent.

    I’m amazed that the university relied on turnitin to identify all his plagiarizing. It’s official. No one reads anymore.

  5. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Anonymous: Thanks for that detail from CHE.

    I find the dissent astounding. This professor was a bigshot at UNLV, one of their stars. He is a man in his – I’d guess – fifties. So the dissenter proposes that after a one year paid (I presume) suspension he return to his very high-profile position, salary again intact, and while being one of the leaders of the humanities division, have everything he writes checked for plagiarism, and begin the same you shouldn’t plagiarize sessions freshmen take.

    Ladies and gentlemen, Mustapha Marrouchi! The best UNLV can do!

    (And by the way: He’s been plagiarizing for so long that many of his apologies would have to go to his victims’ estates.)

  6. Anon in LV Says:

    Those in disbelief over the “turnitin” element of this story: the press release doesn’t say anything about how he came to be investigated in the first place. People do read. Humans caught this, albeit with the aid of search engines. And if you’re thinking “how could anybody hire this guy?” — ask the other universities who hired him, especially the one who promoted him. That wasn’t UNLV. Or ask the myriad of respectable journals (peer-reviewed) who published his book, or SUNY Press, which published his book on Said, where he plagiarizes Said. Or Claremont Graduate Center, who has had him lecture as a visiting scholar (it’s on YouTube). Better yet, find an article of his, click on a purple passage and Google it. See how long it takes you to find his plagiarized source. In other words, if people are so dismayed about this news, about people not reading any more, try reading something he “wrote.” The “autobiographical” work is especially rich. Just FYI.

  7. Anon in LV Says:

    Correction: “published his WORK.”

  8. Anon in LV Says:

    Oh, and THEY found 18 people he’d plagiarized. I’d bet the full figure is closer to 60-100.

  9. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Anon in LV: I’m sure you’re right that the actual figure is much, much higher.

    I also found it interesting that the guy didn’t appear before the review board, didn’t make any effort to defend himself. The whole thing is absolutely damning – of him and of others.

  10. Adel Says:

    Mustapha Marrouchi was caught in the 90’s at the university of Manouba plagiarising. He got the sack and he went back to Canada. It is a damn shme that Mustapha has been plagiarising. he does not represent Tunisia although he he is Tunisian.By the way, I was his student in Tunisia at the university of Manouba.

  11. Margaret Soltan Says:

    Adel: Thanks for that comment. It’s totally amazing that his career lasted so long – and who knows? Maybe there’s yet another country that will allow him to continue …

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